SPEAKER
Mr Josef Hargrave
Director, Arup

With a background in Biology, Innovation Management, and Corporate Foresight, Josef has spent the last nine years working at the global design, engineering, and consulting firm Arup. As Arup’s Global Foresight Leader, he is responsible for the delivery of foresight services and projects globally.

Josef leads a multi-disciplinary team of designers and consultants that specialise in strategy, innovation, thought leadership, and vision making around the future of the built environment. Josef is a Board Member at the Museum of Architecture and a Futures Fellow at London Transport Museum. He leads several of Arup’s thought leadership programmes including Cities Alive and the Future of… series.

SPEAKER
Prof Michael Batty
Chairman, Centre for Advanced Spatial Analysis

Michael Batty CBE is Bartlett Professor of Planning at University College London. He has pioneered the digital science of cities over many years as in his recent books The New Science of Cities (2013), Inventing Future Cities (2018) and the edited book Urban Informatics (2021). He has been Professor of City Planning and Dean at the University of Cardiff and Director of the National Centre for Geographic Information and Analysis at the State University of New York at Buffalo. In 1995, he joined UCL to set up the Centre for Advanced Spatial Analysis (CASA). He is a Fellow of the British Academy (FBA) and the Royal Society (FRS).

SPEAKER
Dr Roman Carrasco
Assistant Head & Associate Professor, National University of Singapore

Roman Carrasco is Assistant Head and Associate Professor at the Department of Biological Sciences of NUS. Before joining NUS, Roman received his PhD from Imperial College London in 2010. Roman’s research focuses on human-nature interactions with the goal of identifying solutions that reconcile social and economic development with biodiversity. His recent work involved spatial modeling of supply and demand of ecosystem services in Singapore and the wellbeing benefits obtained from diverse nature experiences.

MODERATOR
Dr Limin Hee
Director, Centre for Liveable Cities, Singapore

Dr Limin Hee is Director of Research at Singapore’s Centre for Liveable Cities (CLC), a nexus and knowledge centre for liveable and sustainable cities, where she focuses on research strategies, content development and international collaborations.

Under Dr Hee’s leadership in research, the CLC has developed its signature Urban Systems Studies series. She is also the project lead for collaborative research projects, with international research institutes, organisations and agencies. She played similar leading research roles at the National University of Singapore School of Design and Environment, as well as at the Centre for Sustainable Asian Cities and the Asia Research Institute.

MODERATOR
Mr Huang Zhongwen
Director, Design & Planning Lab, Urban Redevelopment Authority, Singapore

Mr Huang Zhongwen heads URA’s Design & Planning Lab (DPLab),where he leads an inter-disciplinary team to spearhead URA’s efforts in catalysing the digitalisation of urban planning and design, incubate digital competencies, as well as foster innovations and partnerships.

A geographer by training from London School of Economics, with background in science and math, and passion for cities and technology, he joined URA in 2012 and was involved in the long-term plans and policies for transport, utilities and underground space. He pioneered efforts to build up futures capabilities and use of spatial analytics and modelling for more informed urban planning; as well as build-up Ops-Tech capabilities to enhance the planning process with scenario planning tools, the use of planning analytics and AI technologies.