Meagan Smith is a Team Coordinator for the CERC Program and the NGCI, supporting the day-to-day logistics as well as ongoing project initiatives. She holds a Bachelor of Arts in Professional Communication from Royal Roads University and has a background in training coordination and operational logistics. She has keen interests and enthusiasm for sustainability, creative collaboration and community support.
Tayebeh Malmir is a Research Team Assistant responsible for various crucial tasks within the research team. Her roles include preparing research materials, composing comprehensive reports, and assisting the team in organizing workshops and events. She holds a graduate degree in MASc from Concordia University with a background in environmental studies. Her deep concern for the planet has driven her career, and she is committed to playing a role in ensuring a sustainable future for the next generation. Her vision is a world where everyone can thrive without worrying about food, clean air, water, and other vital natural resources while preserving biodiversity.
Takeshi Fukushima is a Program Coordinator for the CERC Program, responsible for handling the administration of the teams’ operations and creating content for CERC’s communication platforms. A graduate from Concordia University with an undergraduate degree in Creative Writing and a minor in Professional Writing, he has previously done organizational and financial work for theatre companies such as ACT! Montreal and Autodidacts' Concordia Theatre, as well as music management companies such as Envision Management & Production.
Guillermo Gutierrez is the Software Architect responsible for the development of the CERC simulation platform. His main duty is to coordinate the efforts of the team to create an open software platform that could help researchers, stakeholders, and urban developers to create better cities for us to live. By integrating multiple knowledge areas into one easy-to-use but powerful platform, this platform will help researchers from all over the world focus on their respective topics. He also led the efforts to open the INSEL programing language to the open-source community so they can extend and benefit from this amazing technology.
Koa Wells is an IT Support for the CERC Team. He is currently a master's student in the Electrical and Computer Engineering department, where he is developing a device platform for automating DNA assembly as part of Concordia's SynBioApps Fellowship. His bachelor's is in Computer Engineering from the University of Alaska, Anchorage. Koa's background is in robotics and automation with a focus in microntroller programming and AI.
Rodrigo Gomes was the CERC Program Coordinator, responsible for the administration of CERC's operations - more specifically the program's financial, people and communications management. He also supported the CERC program's development by assisting with research proposal applications and helping team members to connect with external stakeholders. Rodrigo's background is in International Relations and Business Administration and he has work experience in the education, gaming and digital banking industries. His main interests include sustainable development, social justice and entrepreneurship.
Ali Ahmadi was an IT Administrator for the CERC Team. He completed his master's degree in Quality Systems Engineering at Concordia's Institute for Information Systems Engineering (CIISE) where he researched long term forecasting and analysis of transportation behaviours using AI. Ali has a bachelor's degree in Software Engineering from IAU. He was involved as one of the course designers for the CERC Lachine-Est Project. He has a solid background in computer networks and cybersecurity, with almost four and half years of experience as a security analyst in the National Iranian Oil Company.
Behnam Farsi Balouch was a Machine Learning Developer for the CERC Team. He received his bachelor's degree in Electrical Engineering from Ferdowsi University, Iran in 2019, and his master's degree from Concordia University's Institute for Information Systems Engineering (CIISE) in 2020. His research interests include machine learning, neural networks, load forecasting, occupancy modeling, and remaining useful life prediction.
Alexa Paikin was a Team Assistant for the CERC Team. Her role included conducting literature searches, assisting with content creation for CERC's communications platforms, and assisting with the administration of the teams' operations. She is an undergraduate student studying building engineering. With previous experience at an engineering consulting firm, she joined the team with the goal of exploring the world of academia. Her professional interests include sustainable architecture and design, urban planning, and marketing and business development.
Ujjwal Khanna was a Technical Project Manager for the CERC Team. His responsibilities included working amongst all research groups within the team, advising and managing multiple projects. Previously, he worked at Siemens Canada on the Digitalization Project, Industry 4.0. He holds a Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science & Engineering, a Master’s degree in Quality Systems Engineering with strong research focus on Machine Learning and IoT, and has filled in various roles such as Developer, Analyst, and Consultant in his professional career. He is a Certified Scrum Master and Project Management Professional.
© Concordia University