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Li Yin, an urban planner who applies the tools of technology and spatial modeling to understand the interplay of human activity and urban space, has been promoted to full professor in UB’s Department of Urban and Regional Planning. The elevation to the highest academic rank possible recognizes sustained excellence and impact in research, teaching, and service at an international level.

Now more than ever, designing for resilience requires architects to interpret and act upon expanding domains of data that track everything from building energy use, to greenhouse gas emissions, to clean energy production.   

Research shows that the way we design neighborhood streets—and the materials that we use in public spaces—undermine efforts to combat the effects of climatic shifts in urban neighborhoods. While government officials largely recognize the need for change, practical barriers, such as logistical challenges and funding constraints, often prevent the implementation of solutions that could cool neighborhoods and strengthen long-term resilience.

This year’s Best Final Project in the Master of Urban Planning program is a set of recommendations that could help the Town of Cheektowaga and other municipalities across New York State address rising demand for high-capacity Battery Energy Storage Systems, a central but increasingly controversial component of local and state climate action planning for renewable energy storage and grid stabilization.

On the first day of the Next-Gen Architect graduate studio, Randy Fernando, adjunct instructor in the Department of Architecture, posed a question for the students: “What do you think AI will impact in architectural practice?” The general consensus was that it would make their work more efficient, speeding up production and improving outcomes. Over the course of the semester, that assumption would be rigorously put to the test.

After more than a decade working in food systems planning, Molly Riordan had developed deep knowledge and expertise in her field—but her work had surfaced questions that no one had the answers to. 

A staggering four generations of Lillian Radel’s (a double-degree student in Environmental Design and Environmental Studies) family have attended the University at Buffalo. It began with her great-grandfather, followed by her grandfather—a member of the second-ever graduating class of UB’s nurse anesthesia program—then her dad, as well as several siblings. However, among all those fellow Bulls, she stands alone as the first in her family to receive the SUNY Chancellor’s Award for Student Excellence.

Budding social entrepreneur and recent BAED graduate Tendaji Ya'Ukuu has been recognized for a culminating undergraduate studio project that they will now help implement as co-founder of East Side Stewards, a community redevelopment organization for Buffalo’s East Side.

Urban planning PhD candidate Ambreen Rehman-Veal has been awarded a UB Baldy Center Research Grant to advance her dissertation research on affordable housing policy in Lahore, Pakistan.