This project aims to develop a novel transportation accessibility index that incorporates non-traditional infrastructure factors such as pavement condition. The project will investigate the relationship between pavement conditions and transportation accessibility using data-driven and user-centered approaches and integrate this into a transportation accessibility index. The selected intern will gain hands-on experience in transportation analysis, data collection, and interdisciplinary research collaboration.
Research area, student roles & skills
Research area: Dr. Abimbola Grace Oyeyi leads the Sustainable Transportation and Pavement (STAP) Lab at the University of Windsor. The STAP conducts research in sustainable, innovative pavement design and management. We aim to advance experimental and field evaluation methods to understand pavement materials, design resilient infrastructure, and develop economical, durable, and sustainable solutions. We focus on creating smart, self-sensing pavements for efficient management and evidence-based policy decisions.
Student roles: The selected intern will work on developing an index using information for surveys. First convert surveys to quantifiable data, then use the quantified data with other transportation accessibility approaches to develop a new one
Skills required: • Basic knowledge of transportation engineering or pavement engineering principles. • Familiarity with data collection, analysis, and interpretation. • Experience with Microsoft Excel and statistical or data analysis tools (e.g., SPSS, R, or Python) is an asset. • Strong written and verbal communication skills. • Ability to conduct literature reviews and summarize research findings. • Interest in accessibility, transportation equity, and sustainable infrastructure. • Ability to work independently and collaboratively within a research team. • Attention to detail and strong organizational skills. Knowledge of GIS is an added advantage
2. Applying network modeling to internal displacement in Somalia
This research project applies network science and computational modeling to analyze and predict internally displaced person (IDP) movements within Somalia. Somalia faces severe, overlapping humanitarian crises driven by protracted armed conflict and climate-induced disasters like droughts and floods, yet modeling these complex displacement dynamics remain a persistent challenge.
This project reframes displacement as a complex directed network beyond the current linear perspectives of quantitative migration research. In this framework, administrative districts serve as network nodes, while displaced population movements from origin to destination are mapped as weighted edges. By treating internal displacement as an interconnected system, we explore topological structure, migration corridors, and structural vulnerabilities of the network over time.
The intern will work with empirical mobility data, mainly from the UNHCR, to reconstruct these network flows. A core objective is to move beyond traditional assumptions that displaced individuals remain at their destinations indefinitely. Instead, the project will implement network models to simulate complex displacement behaviors with data-driven structures.
The project aims to uncover the hidden underlying mechanisms of internal displacment as well as how environmental and socio-political triggers drive mobility. Ultimately, this predictive network model will provide policymakers with a granular, data-driven tool to forecast future IDP arrivals, optimize resource distribution, and improve proactive disaster response in the Horn of Africa.
Research area, student roles & skills
Research area: I work on how human decision-making is shaped by both internal (e.g., cognition, social ties) and external factors (e.g., disasters, conflicts). I apply computational tools from complex systems approaches to fully understand decision-making processes, incorporating socio-environmental datasets.
Student roles: - Literature review - Computational coding - Result analysis - Manuscript writing (depending on the progress)
Skills required: - Any research experience in complex system modeling, network analysis & modeling, causal discovery, geospatial data analysis, machine learning - Strong interests in human-environmental interactions and proposed topics - Strong coding experience in MatLab, R, Python, etc. (multiple is favorable) - Past course works in systems thinking, modeling, network theory, mathematics, statistics
3. Archiving the Origins of Municipal Equity, Diversity, & Inclusion (EDI) Strategies
Supervisor: Tiffany Muller Myrdahl
University: Simon Fraser University (Burnaby campus)
Location: Burnaby, British Columbia
Start date: 2027-06-01 (flexible)
Disciplines: City/Regional Planning, Geography, History, Humanities, Law, Womens Studies, Public Policy and Administration, Political Science, Planning
This project supports the collection and processing of archival materials associated with the origins of equity, diversity, and inclusion strategies employed by Canadian municipalities. This application extends my 2024 project, "Tracing the Origins of Municipal Equity, Diversity, & Inclusion (EDI) Strategies". The focus in the 2027 project is the archival materials associated with the early (especially 1990s-2010s) municipal-facing activism, to support the development of a digital humanities archive.
In many cities, local activist groups and NGOs -often, women-focused organizations - have been at the centre of this "inclusive city" work, both assisting and pushing municipal governments to advance their work on equity. The archival materials associated with these efforts are disparately located in personal papers, municipal archives, and other special collections and archives. The goal in the 2027 project is to survey, collect, and centralize these files and materials, and identify materials that may still be missing by conducting interviews and sharing a draft of the digital archive's contents. One portion of this work will be to process outstanding archival resources, such as materials from Women in Cities International (2004-2020), for inclusion.
Research area, student roles & skills
Research area: I am a feminist geographer who focuses on urban social inclusion, especially as this relates to gender and sexuality. One area I examine is municipal policy: I have studied "welcoming and inclusive city" initiatives, the role of gender and sexuality in municipal planning and policy, and trans inclusion. I am also involved in a research team that is developing equity protocols for Healthy Cities-focused implementation science projects. I primarily conduct qualitative and community-engaged research. My network crosses academics, activists, and municipal planners/policymakers who are interested in equity in cities.
Student roles: All activities will be undertaken alongside supervisor and apportioned accordingly: a) Review existing project materials to become familiar with municipal-facing activism related to equity, inclusion, and women's safety. b) Create the metadata from the Women in Cities International archival materials to prepare them for inclusion in the digital archive. c) Review (with help of Special Collections) women's labour history collection for archival materials related to this work, and to identify relevant historical search terms. d) Undertake archival research in the City of Vancouver archives and other relevant archives to compile digital materials for inclusion in the digital humanities project. f) Support qualitative interviewing. g) Undertake initial coding of interviews.
Skills required: In terms of focus areas, the student should be: knowledgeable about and interested in women in cities, gender equity, intersectional and trans-inclusive analysis, and interested in policy and planning at the municipal scale. In terms of skills, the student should be: -comfortable reviewing academic literature, -comfortable reading and analyzing Council materials, policy documents and grey literature, -interested in undertaking online and in-person archival research to find and gather policy documents, -interested in creating and documenting the meta-data associated with archival materials in order to prepare them for an online database, -comfortable writing reports in English.
4. Demographic Variability among and between engagement of recent immigrants in Canadian Cities
Supervisor: Scott Bell
University: University of Saskatchewan (Saskatoon campus)
What is the nature of the changes taking place in Canadian cities. This involved demographic changes (growth, profile, etc.) and structural changes (new neighbourhoods, transit improvements. etc). Student will map a variety of data, exploring patterns of change, and developing testable hypotheses relating to the patterns observed. At all phases students will make maps, work with spatial data, describe and explain demographic patterns and relate them to other urban features. Maps will be produced to describe each city. These patterns will be used to generate testable questions related to demographic patterns and infrastructure projects in each city.
Research area, student roles & skills
Research area: With colleagues I am interested in how Canadian cities are changing and adapting in the face of rapid growth and expansion. This includes but is not limited to the impact of Transit improvements, the Housing Accelerator Fund, and other forces changing the nature of who lives in and is moving to Canadian urban centers. Most of my research currently involves Canadian Census data, detailed spatial units of analysis, and GIS (geographic information systems) and mapping.
Student roles: Data preparation, mapping, analysis. Coordinating data across types and software.
Skills required: Some geography. Computer skills. Cartography and GIS (ArcGIS, QGIS, etc.). Statistics coursework and experience.
5. Ethnic cultural tourism development and morphological transformation
Rapid population growth, urban-rural integrated development, and tourism industry have significantly transformed the landscape and morphology of traditional ethnic minority villages in remote regions in China. As cultural tourism progresses, the functionality and structures of traditional village properties have gradually transitioned to take advantage of profit-oriented opportunities and accommodate tourism-related demands. This study aims to examine the morphological transformation of traditional ethnic minority villages in environmental context, architectural function, and structural integrity, by the case of two Dong ethnic minority villages – Dali and Zhaoxing in the remote Guizhou Province. Both Dong villages are spatially organized into residential clusters and share common Dong culture, customs, and traditions. Zhaoxing Village possesses locational advantage, abundant resources, and started its tourism development earlier, while Dali Village is fraught with inaccessible location, less developed infrastructure, and lower capital investment. The rapid cultural tourism development has bolstered villagers’ household income and living conditions, but also caused issues regarding inequitable benefit distribution and conflicts among various stakeholders. By analyzing physical transitions from dwelling, cluster, to village levels over the past few decades, the findings will reveal significant homogeneity, distinct competitive advantages, and tourism-related challenges through the interpretation of spatial and morphological evolution in the two Dong ethnic minority villages.
Research area, student roles & skills
Research area: The project aims to explore the relationship between ethnic cultural tourism development and morphological transformation of affected ethnic villages. Based on the analyses, the project aims to expand further to conduct relevant spatial and quantitative analyses with specific reference to remote ethnic villages in China.
Student roles: The student is expect to conduct bibliometric analysis, spatial/morphological analysis, literature review, and modelling analysis. The tasks will be a combination of both qualitative and quantitative methods. Some training will be provided in the first few weeks. The student is expected to write and deliver analytical summaries and reports once every two to three weeks. These reports and summaries are the results of quantitative and qualitative research works. The student will have meetings with the professor once every two weeks. Tasks will be assigned by emails to ensure accurate records. When overseas research collaborator is involved, online meeting will replace in-person meeting. When the professor has academic travels, the meeting frequency will be adjusted to accommodate the travels.
Skills required: The student should have academic background in urban and regional planning, urban geography, tourism studies, or environmental studies. Chinese language skills are preferred but not required. The project welcomes applicants from outside mainland China and Hong Kong SAR.
6. Evaluating the Role of Urban Green Infrastructure as a Thermal Buffer in Cold Climates
Supervisor: Varuni Jayasooriya
University: University of Saskatchewan (Saskatoon campus)
This project will assess the effectiveness of urban green infrastructure (parks, green roofs, vegetated corridors) in moderating thermal extremes in Saskatoon’s cold urban setting. The student will utilize open-source satellite imagery to quantify vegetation cover and temperature differences, complemented by citizen science data on local biodiversity and plant health. During 12 weeks, the project will investigate how green spaces buffer temperature variations, analyze the correlation with factors such as snow cover persistence and urban morphological features, and examine the broader implications for urban ecosystem resilience. Such findings will help identify research gaps in urban thermal management in cold climates and inform strategies for sustainable urban design.
Research area, student roles & skills
Research area: I am an Assistant Professor at the School of Environment and Sustainability, University of Saskatchewan. I hold a Ph.D. in Environmental Engineering from Victoria University, Australia, and completed a postdoctoral fellowship at the University of Toronto, Canada. My research expertise lies in data-driven decision-making for sustainable urban planning, computational sustainability, urban climates, biometeorology, spatial data science, environmental geography, and green infrastructure. With over 10 years of experience in research, teaching, industry collaboration, and outreach, I possess a strong interdisciplinary background in urban sustainability.
Student roles: The student will: - Acquire and process open-source satellite imagery to derive vegetation and thermal profiles across Saskatoon. - Integrate citizen science data to assess local biodiversity and ecological health indicators. - Develop GIS-based models and Python scripts to analyze the thermal buffering effect of green infrastructure. - Compare thermal data from vegetated versus non-vegetated urban areas and assess the impact of snow cover and built environment factors. - Provide detailed spatial analyses that pinpoint where green infrastructure most effectively moderates extreme temperatures. - Generate comprehensive maps, graphs, and reports summarizing methodologies, results, and potential research gaps for future urban sustainability studies.
Skills required: Applicants should be proficient in remote sensing, GIS analysis, and Python scripting. A background in environmental management, urban planning, or ecological studies, with experience handling satellite and citizen science datasets, is desired.
7. Examining the relationship between individuals’ perceptions of their neighborhoods, urban form characteristics, and travel behavior.
Supervisor: Ehab Diab
University: University of Saskatchewan (Saskatoon campus)
One of the main challenges facing transit agencies is to offer an attractive service that draws a higher level of ridership. Traditionally, modelling the factors affecting transit ridership has been mainly focused on analyzing the transit quality and socioeconomic and urban form factors. This framework of analysis did not explicitly account for users’ preferences and perceptions of their living conditions and abilities. Therefore, this project focuses on understanding the relative impact of people's perception on travel behaviour. To achieve this goal, data from an online recent survey will be employed and analyzed. The used survey elicits information from transit users and non-users about their trip characteristics, satisfaction, and perception of transit service quality and other issues related to their quality of life and wellbeing, in addition to a number of socioeconomic factors. Results from the surveys will be combined with other spatial and socioeconomic datasets collected from Statistics Canada and other online portals. Using summary statistics, maps, and statistical models the relationship between people's perception and travel behaviour will be evaluated while controlling the effects of a set of influencing factors. The project provides planners and policymakers with important information that would help in guiding their future planning policies to achieve the critical goal of improving transit ridership.
Research area, student roles & skills
Research area: Urban and transport data analysis
Big data analytics
Public transit planning and operations
Urban planning
Urban design
Land use & transportation planning
Travel behaviour
Urban and transport data analysis
Student roles: Students are expected to begin in June or July. In the first month, they will focus on compiling the required databases, conducting a brief literature review to deepen their understanding of the topic, and organizing the implementation of the user survey. During the second month, students will begin generating descriptive statistics and preparing the data for analysis. In the third month, they will concentrate on finalizing the analysis and disseminating the project results, including delivering a presentation to the research team and relevant local stakeholders. I expect to meet with students regularly in the lab to discuss their progress and provide guidance. Students will work closely with me and other graduate students throughout all stages of the project. This hands-on approach will allow them to learn directly from the research team while ensuring the project is completed within the expected timeframe.
Skills required: Ideally, students should have a background in urban and transport planning, data analysis, and/or social survey design. Basic experience in collecting user surveys, analyzing urban data using descriptive statistics in Microsoft Excel and performing mapping in ArcGIS Pro is required. The project also involves the use of R and Python for various urban data analysis tasks. Familiarity with developing basic statistical models in SPSS or R is considered an asset but is not mandatory. In addition to technical skills, students should demonstrate strong interpersonal and communication abilities. The instructor will provide support and guidance to help students develop proficiency.
8. Global Aging Playfully
Supervisor: Maxwell Hartt
University: Queen's University (Kingston campus)
Location: Kingston, Ontario
Start date: 2027-06-01 (flexible)
Disciplines: City/Regional Planning, Planning, Geography, Health Studies, Public Health, Recreation, Tourism
The goal of the research project is to examine the extent and potential of urban whimsification to support the wayfinding, and ultimately, the health and wellbeing of older people. Urban whimsification can be broadly described as standard urban infrastructure that has been rethought and adapted with a bit of playful, joyful, whimsy. Examples include striped lamp posts, fire hydrants reimagined as unique characters, and colourful staircase designs. The project aims to identify urban infrastructure whimsy, analyze its effectiveness for wayfinding, and ultimately, build up an inventory of age-friendly whimsical designs. We will collect and analyze data from online sources, such as municipal plans, public space designs, as well as social media to identify interventions and determine how people feel about them. We will work with the Global Aging Playfully Society to produce designs, reports, and academic papers. Ultimately, we will gain a better understanding of the potential of playful age-friendly designs and impact real world age-friendly planning and design.
Research area, student roles & skills
Research area: The world’s population is aging rapidly. Unfortunately, aging is seen as a problem to be solved, not a shift to be celebrated. New ideas are needed to help build a stronger, healthier, happier, and more cohesive future. One way to support older adults and to create a truly age-friendly society is through one of human nature’s most universal behaviours: play. Play is incredibly well suited yet almost completely overlooked in supporting the health and wellbeing of older adults. The project works with the Global Aging Playfully Society to reimagine how we create age-friendly communities through a lens of play.
Student roles: The student will be involved in every stage of a research project from developing the research design to writing an academic article. The student will work very closely with the supervisor and a doctoral student to develop the research plan, execute the research, collect and analyze the data, and write up the findings. The team will meet regularly to ensure that everyone is on the same page. The student will have the opportunity to lead the data collection and be very involved in the design phase of the research. They will also have the opportunity to make a significant contribution to the writing as a co-author of an academic paper. The student will work with members of the Global Aging Playfully Society virtually and, physically, they will be working in the Population and Place Research Lab at Queen's University alongside graduate students and visiting scholars.
Skills required: The most important quality a successful student will possess is curiosity. I am looking for hard-working, curious, and excited young researchers to join my team. Students should have an interest in urban planning, design, and age-friendly community planning. Skill-wise, students need to be able to think critically, work as a team, and push for innovative ideas. Experience in either urban design and/or social media analysis would be an asset. Both are not necessary. Most important is hard work, commitment, and curiosity.
The goal of the research project is to gain a better understanding of what governments and private businesses are doing to reverse depopulation at all spatial scales. How are city governments trying to grow their populations? States? Continents? Examining economic, pro-natal, and immigration policy, we will critically analyze the policy landscape of population degrowth and regrowth. We will collect and analyze documents from governments and media sources from around the globe. We will produce maps, descriptive statistics, and case study reports. Ultimately, we will gain a better understanding of the processes of shrinking and aging and how they impact the lives of individual citizens and groups.
Research area, student roles & skills
Research area: Cities around the world are rapidly changing. The people living in them are aging. And their overall populations are starting to decline. Almost every city is experiencing aging. Soon, the majority of cities will be shrinking. As a society, we are not prepared. We have come to expect cities to be young, and we expect them to grow. We need to develop a better understanding of how cities can continue to function, and hopefully prosper, in an age of population loss. My research lab focuses on the geography and planning implications of shrinking and aging cities.
Student roles: The student will be involved in every stage of a research project from developing the research design to writing an academic article. The student will work very closely with the supervisor and a doctoral student to develop the research plan, execute the research, collect and analyze the data, and write up the findings. The team will meet regularly to ensure that everyone is on the same page. The student will have the opportunity to lead the data collection and be very involved in the analysis. They will also have the opportunity to make a significant contribution to the writing as a co-author of an academic paper. The student will work in the Population and Place Research Lab at Queen's University alongside graduate students and visiting scholars.
Skills required: The most important quality a successful student will possess is curiosity. I am looking for hard-working, curious, and excited young researchers to join my team. Students should have an interest in urban geography, urban planning, and demographic change. An interest and/or background in aging studies or social gerontology would be a benefit. Skill-wise, students need to be able to think critically, work as a team, and push for innovative ideas. Experience in either quantitative, qualitative, or spatial analysis (GIS) would be an asset. All three are not necessary. Most important is hard work, commitment, and curiosity.
10. Predicting the energy performance and energy use of urban buildings in Vancouver
Supervisor: Haibo Feng
University: University of British Columbia (Vancouver campus)
In Canada, the emission of building sector accounts for 12% of national emission, and those emissions are polluted form heating needs. Governments are taking action to improve the energy efficiency of buildings for supporting indigenous, rural and remote indigenous communities, including to develop model building code towards “net zero energy ready” and improve building energy efficiency and performance. Meanwhile, the Vancouver city, Canada is investing in climate-resilience buildings and infrastructure, such as the application of renewable. On this basis, students will be aiming at:
1. Apply geospatial techniques to quantitively predict future urban building energy systems considering different GHGs emission
2. Develop regionalized techno-economic 3D based Life Cycle Assessment for green buildings with the application of "net zero energy" technologies.
The research will involve interdisciplinary collaborations both on and off campus. Research outcomes will transparently publish to support sustainable action taking. This innovative and applied research will help to improve our communities, region and world.
Research area, student roles & skills
Research area: Dr. Feng’s research area is in green building, building information modeling, life cycle assessment and building energy performance. He has extensive industrial and research experience on promoting sustainable building construction with the integration of advanced building systems and renewable energy supports. He is particularly interested in using mass timber products to promote zero-carbon timber frame buildings.
Student roles: Students will participate urban building data processing, 3D city model generation, energy simulation and climate model analysis.
Skills required: Students with backgrounds in environmental science and engineering, remote sensing, data science, statistics, and programming are encouraged to apply. Applicants should be familiar with writing peer-review articles in English. Applicants who are familiar with ESRI GIS products would be considerable assets.
11. SAGA: Translanguaging and Sustainability
Supervisor: Meg Holden
University: Simon Fraser University (Burnaby campus)
Location: Burnaby, British Columbia
Start date: 2027-05-10 (flexible)
Disciplines: City/Regional Planning, Geography, Humanities, Human Ecology, International Studies, Language Studies, Public Policy and Administration, Sociology
In summer 2027, SAGA will host workshops and events in the Vancouver area associated with the Canadian Social Sciences and Humanities Congress (at SFU campus), as well as community-based events in sustainability and green and climate transitions work. These research activities will highlight our comparative international research on the languages of green transitions in our comparator set of cities and pursue further engagement and green city repair activities. The research and research creation events will be documented, will include survey and solicitation of experiences from researchers and community members, and will result in scholarly and community-facing publications. These will contribute to a larger public series of events planned for the final year of SAGA project activities in 2028.
Research area, student roles & skills
Research area: The SAGA research project (2023-28) is an international, interdisciplinary research project based at the SFU Centre for Sustainable Development with research collaborators in Finland, Denmark, France and in Indigenous communities in BC. The interdisciplinary research seeks to understand the role of different languages and language competencies in attaining sustainable development goals in cities. We work across critical social sciences, urban planning and landscape studies, decolonial studies, and interpretation and translation studies. We conduct qualitative, engaged and place-based research activities to consider how to advance understanding of the importance of bi- and multilingualism as a critical urban cultural competency.
Student roles: There is room in this dynamic project to discuss and negotiate roles that meet the research aspirations of the student. The envisioned role for the student is to assist in all preparations for a SAGA team workshop in Vancouver in summer 2027, including logistics, organizational, and agenda-setting preparations, communications with participants, preparation of background research, coordination of those attending including soliciting their feedback on different aspects of meeting preparation via online surveys and other creative means. The student will assist in the conduct of field-based engagement workshops involving diverse groups of experts and community members and will demonstrate lessons about language choice and the impacts of this on sustainability transitions. The student will participate in international research team meetings and collaborative activities. Literature review, qualitative and creative analysis and writing for public. More advanced students may be given the opportunity to lead their own sustainability terminology study.
Skills required: The student should be familiar with and interested in developing a constructivist understanding of urban and sustainability research, should be interested in values-based planning and sustainability studies in contemporary cities, and should bring skills in qualitative, interdisciplinary and applied, co-constructed research using diverse data types. Skills in communication with diverse groups, preparation and organization of research and knowledge mobilization materials in written, graphic, and digital formats, are relevant. Skills in literature review, academic writing, and preparation of workshop and conference materials and hosting are also important. Bi- or multilingualism and understanding of cultural differences are crucial.
12. Understanding Island Resilience
Supervisor: Stephanie Shaw
University: University of Prince Edward Island (Charlottetown campus)
Location: Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island
Start date: 2027-05-10 (flexible)
Disciplines: City/Regional Planning, Design, Engg-Environmental, Engineering, Environmental Studies, Planning, Anthropology, Earth Science, Ecology, Engg-Systems and Technology, International Studies, Maritime Studies
This project will investigate what it means for Islands to be resilient to the environmental, social, and economic challenges that are currently being experienced and will be amplified with changes to climate. As a result, this project will be structured to perform literature reviews, consolidate information, and provide critical thinking and analysis of collected data. Specific focus could cover a variety of topics such as food, water, cyber, health, infrastructure, energy, economic, or other forms of resilience challenges. The project requires the student to be comfortable reading and learning information with the goal of generating a framework at the end of the project. As a result, there is a significant amount of independent learning and work that the student will do during the internship and the student must be strong in English communication skills.
Research area, student roles & skills
Research area: My research area is "Sustainable Systems" for "Wicked" problems facing the globe today. Sustainable systems are unique in that they integrates multiple facets of sustainability analysis under a single project to provide a more holistic understanding of a particular system. Wicked problems are complex challenges that involve a variety of socio-technical factors and therefore require a broader perspective in order to fully understand the problem and innovate creative solutions.
Student roles: The intern would be part of a larger research team but will have an individual project to be completed during the internship and so the work is very individual in nature. Additionally, there will be a significant amount of reading, compiling data, synthesizing of information, and then generating written work, and so this must be of interest to the student. The intern must take initiative and be willing to work independently. There must be a willingness to "try" independently first and then actively seek feedback, willingness to respond to and incorporate feedback, and then to try again. The student will be asked to create a project schedule and then will 'project manage' their project during their intership to follow the dates and deliverables that had been agreed upon between the intern and supervisor.
Skills required: The intern must have an interest in Islands and ways of enhancing their sustainability into the future. The intern must have strong communication skills, this is essential, as well as competence in performing literature reviews, critical thinking and analysis, synthesis of information, and an interest in abstracting knowledge to thinking about a larger system. Knowledge of systems mapping and analysis would be an asset.