Alumni
Meet the team
Craig MacDonald
Craig MacDonald was one of first few trainees to join the CREATE IISC program. He holds an MSc. in Integrated Infrastructure Systems, and a BSc. in Civil Engineering with a minor in Moral & Political Philosophy. His primary interest is the intersection between climate-resilient infrastructure, disaster management, and emerging energy technologies. He has worked in Canada, Sri Lanka, and India on civil engineering and disaster management projects. Craig currently works with Associated Engineering's Strategic Advisory Services team helping small and large municipalities on climate mitigation and adaptation, asset management, transportation, and water & wastewater projects. In his spare time, he can either be found climbing or reading.
Kristen Forward
Kristen Forward graduate from the Master of Architecture program. She holds a Bachelor of Commerce degree from the University of Victoria and has worked as an insurance broker, project accountant, as well as provided support for wealth management. Her interests lie in the area of systematic interfacing between multiple design tools and designers. She has worked on projects related to developing infrastructural efficiencies by codifying architectural design tools.
Hayden Pattullo
Hayden Pattullo was graduate from Master of Architecture program. He holds a Bachelor of Communication and Mixed Media degree in Information Design from Mount Royal University, and has worked as a graphic designer, web designer, and photographer. His interests lie in the area of affect and experientially-driven architecture and design.
Ali Farhan
Degree: PhD
Supervisors: Lina Kattan and Richard Tay
Thesis: Autonomous vehicle safety prediction using System Dynamics: Network-Level Safety Prediction Models for Long-range Transportation Planning
Renan Oliveira Netto
Renan Oliveira Netto was an exchange doctoral student from Federal University of Santa Catarina, Brazil under the supervision from Laleh Behjat from CREATE-IISC program.
Hao Fu
Hao Fu was a doctoral exchange student from Hong Kong Polytechnic University primarily supervised from Dr. William Lam. During his tenure at CREATE-IISC, he worked in Dr. Lina Kattan’s group in Network Sensor Location Problems for Estimation of Origin-Destination Demands and Travel Times under Uncertainty.
Nouran Habib
Nouran Habib Completed her MSc in Civil Engineering in 2021 under the co-supervision from Drs. Lina Kattan and Osman Alp and she is an alumnus of CREATE IISC program. Her thesis was in the topic of ‘Dynamic infrastructure management under electric, connected and automated vehicles’.
Samadhi Gunasekara
Samadhi Gunasekara completed her one year Post Doctoral fellowship in CREATE-IISC program in November 2019. She worked with Dr Patrick Hettiaratchi in the area of Sustainable Landfill Technology – Optimum Biocell. She has obtained her PhD degree from University of Calgary and BSc from McGill University.
Jessie Siegle
Jessie Siegle was affiliated to CREATE-IISC program as a Graduate student during his MEDes program at SAPL at University of Calgary under the supervision of Josh Taron. He holds a Master of Architecture from the University of Calgary and a Bachelor of Fine Art from the Alberta University of the Arts. His interests lie in parametric design and integrating new ways of thinking throughout the design process.
Kim Tse
Kim Tse was a student in the Master of Architecture program and affiliated to CREATE-IISc program. He holds a degree in Architectural studies from the University of Toronto and has worked as a studio assistant for Pr. David Lieberman developing modular tea houses based on tatami mat proportions. His interests lie in the area of parametric design and fabrication.
Josh Taron
Gordon Skilling obtained MEDes degree from SAPL at University of Calgary under the supervision from Josh Taron in 2020.
Thesis: Modular Urbanism: Combining modular and multi-scalar design strategies in creating sustainable landscape architecture design and construction processes
Nicolas Hamel
Nicolas Hamel was a student in Master of Architecture program. He holds a degree in Mechanical and Manufacturing Engineering from the University of Calgary and has worked as a Mechanical designer. His interests lie in the area of modular design and how it can be a tool for recontextualizing existing infrastructures.
Daphne Tsang
MEDes – SAPL- UofC
Supervisor: Josh Taron
Thesis: Integrating Prefabricated Structural Design - Engineering Solution towards more Energy Efficient Buidings
Christine Cao
Christine Cao completed her MSc in Electrical & Computer Engineering, from University of Calgary. She was co supervised by Drs Laleh Behjat and Erin Gibbs, and her thesis was using applied machine learning to see how we can design a safer urban neighbourhood. Presently, she is a PhD student in Carnegie Mellon University.
Adam Weiss
Eyes High Post Doctoral Fellowship 2019-2020
Supervised by: Lina Kattan and Carey Williamson
Modelling Travellers Behavioral Responses and Adoption of ‘Mobility as a Service (MaaS)’
He is now an Assistant Professor in Carleton University.
Shrey Gupta
Shrey Gupta was a Mitacs Globalink Fellow worked in Spring/Summer 2019 under the supervision of Dr Lina Kattan in Connected Vehicle based Speed Harmonization at the university of Calgary in affiliated to CREATE-IISc program.
Armin Ershad
MSc in civil Engineering
Worked with Dr Rahil Khoshnazar
Thesis: Metakaolin based geopolymers - Sustainable Constuction Materials
Reza Ansari Esfe
I was a research assistant at University of Calgary with more than three years of academic and industry experience in Data Science and developing machine learning models. My research is focusing on smart-cities and next-generation Navigation System during accident using deep learning.
Tarun Arya
MSc in Sustainable Development
Supervision: Dr Patrick Hettiaratchi in affiliated to CREATE-IISC and Canadian Energy Research Institute
Graduated in 2020
Gyan Shrestha
Post doctoral Fellowship
With Kasun Hewage at UBC in affiliated to CREATE-IISC
Research Area: Risk assessment of hydrogen fuel systems
Merkebe Demissie
Merkebe Demissie is now an Assistant Professor in the Department of Civil Engineering at the University of Calgary. He was a Research Associate and a Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of Calgary under the CREATE-IISC program and now serving as an academic collaborator of the program.
Rachel Mclean
Rachel Mclean was a master’s student at the University of Calgary in affiliated with CREATE-IISC program. She completed her BSc in Computer Science with a concentration in computer graphics, graduating with distinction. In spring 2018, she received a Canadian NSERC Undergraduate Student Research Award, allowing her to participate in network research under Dr. Carey Williamson, who was her primary supervisor for her master’s research. Her Master’s thesis was in Measurements and Characterization of Ride Sharing Services.
Hassan Kamkar
Hassan Kamkar was a graduate student in the Schulich School of Engineering, studying sustainable transportation at UCalgary under the supervision of Saeid Saidi.
Jonathan Leary
Jonathan Leary joined CREATE-IISC’s Undergraduate Training program in 2020 and 2021 under the supervision of Dr. David Layzell. He was engaged in projects focused on the future of autonomous vehicles in Alberta and initiatives to establish a hydrogen economy in Alberta.
Jonathan has a diverse educational background, including a Bachelor of Science Honours in Chemistry at UCalgary, conducting research in chemotherapeutics. Then he transferred from the Faculty of Science to the Schulich School of Engineering.
Hamoun Jalilzadeh
Hamoun Jalilzadeh was a graduate student in Dr. Hettiaratchi’’s group in sustainable landfills.
Mostafa Salari
Mostafa Salari used to be Post Doctoral Research Associate in Civil Engineering at the University of Calgary. His research interests includes but not limited to:
-Discrete optimization modeling in decision making problems
-Application of Data analytics and machine learning in applied problems
Matt Walker
Matt Walker graduated with a Master of Environmental Design in fall 2021. He holds a Master of Architecture and a Bachelor of Arts Degree from the University of Calgary. During his time at UCalgary, Walker worked on design teams at Mercedes + Singh and the School of Architecture, Planning and Landscape’s (SAPL) Laboratory for Integrative Design, in also collaboration with CREATE-IISC. He specializes in the intersection of computational agency, geometry and materials, and is interested in how the combination of those can be used to improve material performance, environmental sustainability and digital tool thinking.
Melissa Erkmen
Melissa Erkmen is in her third year of studies at the University of Calgary, majoring in Civil Engineering and minoring in Energy and Environment. In the spring and summer of 2021, she was able to join Dr. Patrick Hettiaratchi’s research team as a summer student, to help design and build floating biofilters to be deployed at the Okotoks Eco-Centre site. Through this project, she was also able to analyze the efficiency of clean and green technologies related to methane biofiltration.
Alireza (Arad) Ershad
I am currently a third-year Civil Engineering BSc student at the Sharif University of Technology (SUT). I am interested in Intelligent Transportation Systems, Autonomous vehicles, Traffic Behavior, Machine Learning, Data Collection & Analysis. In Spring/Summer of 2021, I worked with Dr. Laleh Behjat on the summer ML program, insights on transportation planning and sustainable cities.
Smriti Chhattani
I am Smriti Chhattani, currently a Final Year Undergraduate student in the Department of Civil Engineering at the Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur, India. I did my Summer Research Internship through the MITACS Globalink Program under Prof. Laleh Behjat and Prof. Merkebe Demissie at the University of Calgary. My Research Project was the Development of Traffic Systems with regards to Sustainability and Social Justice using Advanced Data Analytics and Machine Learning tools.
Sandi Seneviratne
My name is Sandi Seneviratne. I am a third-year undergraduate student pursuing a bachelor’s degree in Environmental Science. During my summer research position at the University of Calgary in 2021, I conducted research for the Biocell Mining Project. My supervisor was Dr. Patrick Hettiaratchi. The opportunity was a huge stepping-stone towards achieving my goal of being part of the solution to society’s most prominent environmental challenges. I encourage you, too, to join the program!
Yihui Zhang
MSc in Civil Engineering
Supervisor: Jennifer He
Thesis: Urban stormwater management: Identification of effective bioretention amendments for reducing