AUM2022: Understanding common challenges
Hybrid Symposium on Applied Urban Modelling (AUM), Cambridge, 29 June – 1 July 2022
Call for contributions
How time flies but covid persists, around the globe. The war in Ukraine, snarled supply chains, labour shortages, falling real wages and a warming climate have thrown up an unprecedented barrage of challenges. Against a backdrop of geopolitical fissures, cities and city regions now find themselves at the brunt of pushing the challenges back.
In this AUM year, we would much like to welcome all to Cambridge for a lively symposium. Indeed, many colleagues have already responded to our earlier email and confirmed that they will be here in person. However, for a myriad of reasons, mostly forces majeures, colleagues from several world regions are finding it hard to travel to Cambridge but can readily join online. We are therefore setting up AUM2022 as the first hybrid symposium of the AUM series to engage both the in-situ and online delegates in a new plenary format, together with a live-streaming feed for social media and a webpage archive for further reading as well as session recordings.
We sense that there is an increasing realisation that many if not most challenges are common to the cities and city regions worldwide. This starts with global climate change and degradation of the natural habitats, but now extends to shared concerns of demographic shifts, energy transitions, productivity slowdowns, the rise of tech and AI, just to name a few. We hope that the global stormy outlook will motivate the entire applied urban modelling community to re-examine all the fundamental drivers for change in the coming decades, and to develop a mutually supportive agenda for effective action in the world’s cities and city regions.
Because of the need for depth to address the topics and for hybrid interaction, our idea is to have a slightly smaller number of papers than usual, with each having a 30-minute presentation time and a further 30-minute Q&A.
To ensure this new, hybrid symposium works well with well fitted sessions, we invite all prospective speakers to send their initial paper ideas to the lead convenor (yj242@cam.ac.uk) as soon as they are able and by 31 May 2022, with an indication whether they would present in person or online. We will then nominate a dedicated convenor to discuss the ideas, which will then be reviewed by the Scientific Committee. We would appreciate your comments on the hybrid format, etc. For further details of the symposium, please see next page. We look forward to hearing from you.
AUM Scientific Committee: Michael Batty, Marcial Echenique, Michael Wegener
AUM2022 Convenors: Ying Jin, Jamil Nur, Li Wan, Steve Denman
AUM2022: Further details
The symposium
AUM2022 is the ninth in a planned series of symposia on applied urban simulation models that offer insights into urban change and support the realisation of imaginative and practical urban initiatives. Since the launch of the AUM series in 2011, the symposia have attracted delegates from diverse disciplines, universities, professional institutions, government agencies, international organisations and civic groups in an expanding list of developed and developing countries. The series is hosted by Martin Centre for Architectural and Urban Studies, University of Cambridge.
The symposium has a stable, three-day format with simple, plenary sessions, together with ample time for off-session discussion and networking, which provide opportunities to develop an in-depth understanding of the state of the art across a wide range of different model types and styles, and to learn from good practice.
For the hybrid symposium this year, the timing of the sessions will take advantage of the location of the UK in the world’s time zones: while delegates from most countries can join online the core sessions during each day, the design of the sessions will take into account of special interests and needs from particular time zones. We may also add an exceptionally early or late session to suit specific topics, speakers and audience – if the prospective delegates have such interests or needs please discuss with us in good time. The sessions including the Q&As will be recorded for viewing on the AUM webpage.
Expected audience and dissemination
Because of its direct policy relevance we expect a wide audience. For this reason, the authors are encouraged to report their theories, methods and findings in a non-specialist language.
The Symposium papers are expected to be at the leading edge of research and modelling and in the usual way they will be disseminated by the authors afterwards through journals with a rigorous refereeing process. Key city region case studies are likely to be disseminated in conjunction with city region or local authority partners through online publication and social media to feed into the policy debate in a direct and accessible manner.
The outputs of the symposium will be uploaded on the AUM2022 website subject to the authors’ permission.
Authors
We wish to engage with a wide group of authors, including leading scholars, policy analysts, decision-makers, practitioners, post-docs and senior PhD students close to completing their dissertations. Those working at the sharp-end of applied urban modelling and its use in policy, investment or regulatory decision-making are particularly welcome. We particularly look forward to hearing from authors from the developing countries in Asia, Latin America and Africa, as well as the developed countries. We will continue with the inclusion of high quality presentations from PhD candidates and young postdocs, along with those from world leading theorists, model developers, users and practitioners.
The symposium is open to all model types and styles. It welcomes particularly papers that assess tangible pathways towards achieving practical solutions. We also welcome papers that report innovations in related disciplines.
In line with the tradition of AUM, we also welcome papers that represent innovation in model theories, designs, methods, apps and other niche tools, application case studies etc that are not directly related to the specific themes of each symposium.
Confirmation of presentation for logistical purposes
Those authors who wish to confirm acceptance decisions early (e.g. for arranging travel funding and logistics) are welcome to email in their proposals earlier than the deadline, and we will do our best to confirm the decisions to enable them to complete the logistics.
Symposium Venue
AUM2022 will be held in the Crausaz Wordsworth Building in the grounds of Robinson College, Cambridge. The venue offers a fabulous meeting and socialising space for symposia of this size. For details see http://www.robinson.cam.ac.uk/conferences/meet/crausaz-wordsworth-building.
Registration fees and possible financial assistance
AUM2022 requires a registration fee (see table below) which covers at cost of symposium organisation, refreshments, conference reception on 29 June, lunches on all three days, and conference dinner on 30 June.
Conference Registration Fees | Full Rate | Concessions * |
In person all three days 29-30 June and 1 July including reception on 29 June, lunches on all three days and conference dinner on 30 June | £ 280 | £ 200 |
In person day rate (per day) | £ 110 | £ 85 |
conference dinner only – for spouses, day rate holders on 30 June and other guests | £ 50 | |
Online registration | £ 25 |
* please contact symposium convenors (sd560@cam.ac.uk) for eligibility under the funding rules.
Note that the hybrid AUM2022 will require a paid online pass at £25 for the registration. This is in line with our previous online events, and is found effective to prevent and to minimise no-shows. If for some reason if you are unable to pay the fee, but would still be committed to coming to AUM2020, please contact the convenors (yj242@cam.ac.uk).
The symposium registration webpage has just been launched:
Participants are expected to pay for their own travel to and from Cambridge and accommodation in Cambridge. This arrangement is dictated by the symposium funding structure. Excellent ensuite accommodation has been block booked
(1) within Robinson College (for 28-30 June): see https://kinetic.robinson.cam.ac.uk/KxBnB/Default.aspx (with promotion code 44936)
(2) at the nearby Selwyn College (for 30 June to 2 July and potentially other dates): see https://www.universityrooms.com/en-GB/eventcode?ec=AUMSEL22&vid=selwyncollegecambridge (with code AUMSEL22)
(3) also the Moller Institute can offer accommodation within walking distance for a wider range of dates and at slightly higher price: pls email reception.moller@chu.cam.ac.uk with reference number KX45981.
The delegates can now follow the links and book directly. As far as we understand all offer easy cancellation arrangements post covid, but it is advisable to confirm this at the time of booking.
Because of the tightness of accommodation in Cambridge in the summer, we would encourage delegates to book early. If any delegates would have issues booking early, please contact us and we would be happy to assist as far as we can.
We have a modest fund to assist those authors who do not have funding for symposium registration, travel or accommodation. Those who would require financial assistance or have other queries please contact Steve Denman (sd560@cam.ac.uk).