Meagan Smith is a Team Coordinator for the CERC Program and the Next-Generation Cities Institute, supporting the day-to-day logistics as well as ongoing project initiatives. She holds a Bachelor of Arts in Professional Communication from Royal Roads University and has a background in training coordination and operational logistics. She has keen interests and enthusiasm for sustainability, creative collaboration and community support.
Takeshi Fukushima is the Program Coordinator for the CERC Program, responsible for handling the administration of the teams’ operations. A graduate from Concordia University with an undergraduate degree in Creative Writing and a minor in Professional Writing, he has previously done organizational and financial work for organizations such as Autodidacts’ Concordia Theatre and Envision Management & Production, has been a French-English translator for CANN Forecast, and has been a community archivist with the Japanese-Canadian Cultural Centre of Montreal.
Ahmed Hegy is a Software Developer, leveraging over five years of experience in building web and desktop applications. His expertise spans designing and implementing scalable, high-performance systems, reflecting a commitment to crafting optimal technical solutions. Ahmed excels in utilizing modern tools and methodologies, including Agile practices, cloud technologies like AWS, and programming languages such as Python, Javescript and C#. His focus on clean code principles, rigorous testing, and best practices delivers solutions that drive organizational success. Passionate about knowledge-sharing and mentorship, Ahmed also guides young learners in software development to foster a new generation of tech enthusiasts.
Connor Brackley is a software developer on the CERC Team, working on both the front-end and back-end of NGCI's software. With a background in building engineering, he brings a combination of technical skills and industry knowledge to the team. Connor holds a Master of Applied Science from Carleton University and has over five years of experience developing user-friendly tools for managing and controlling buildings.
Gabriel C. Ullmann is a research support professional for the CERC Team. He completed his Master's degree in Software Engineering at Concordia University, where he studied the architecture of open-source game engines such as Unreal, CryEngine and Godot. His research and professional interests also include Software Architecture Recovery, Video Game Development, Web Development and Artificial Intelligence.
Guillermo Gutierrez Morote is the Software Architect responsible for the development of the CERC simulation platform. His main duty is to coordinate the efforts of the team to create an open software platform that could help researchers, stakeholders, and urban developers to create better cities for us to live. By integrating multiple knowledge areas into one easy-to-use but powerful platform, this platform will help researchers from all over the world focus on their respective topics. He also led the efforts to open the INSEL programing language to the open-source community so they can extend and benefit from this amazing technology.
Jiarui (Ray) Li is a Software Developer for the CERC Team. He graduated from Concordia with a degree in Computer Science specializing in computer games programming. He now works as the lead developer of the CITYPlayer project - a gamified urban simulation and feedback collection tool under CERC's TOOLS4CITIES software collection. Ray plays a major role in designing all CITYPlayer prototypes, organizing software architectures, and implementing both feature and system code. He also runs sprint task allocation for the internship students and offers them technical support in the development process.
Koa Wells is the Lead Software Developer for the Tools4Cities CityLayers project. He leads the technical direction, managing project development in an Agile environment and designing solutions using Python, JavaScript, and React. He optimizes the development lifecycle with CI/CD pipelines and prioritizes clean, scalable code and thorough documentation. Beyond software development, Koa plays a key role in shaping the IT strategy of the CERC and Next-Generation Cities Institute. Collaborating closely with IT Support Technician Sura Hanna, he fulfills a System Administrator role, managing, maintaining, and securing Linux servers that host all web-based services for the CERC. As a technical leader, Koa promotes a culture of learning, focusing on bridging software and research while ensuring sustainability through quality standards and best practices.
Sanam Dabirian is a Research Project Associate and urban energy modeling expert. Her passion lies in transforming cities into sustainable, intelligent, and resilient ecosystems. Through CERC and the Next-Generation Cities Institute, the teams mission is to redefine how cities operate—integrating digital twins, occupant-centric energy modeling, and deep retrofitting strategies to accelerate the transition toward net-zero urban environments. Through this work, the team is not just analyzing buildings—they're reshaping the future of cities, ensuring efficiency, adaptability, and a human-centered approach. By leveraging advanced simulations, machine learning, and collaborative research, they are pioneering the next generation of sustainable urban solutions that will leave a lasting impact for generations to come.
Sura Hanna is an IT Support Professional with a bachelor's degree in Computer Science and seven years of experience working in the field. While pursuing a Master's of Applied Science with the CERC, she’s still the first point of contact for IT issues and projects within the Next-Generation Cities Institute as well as for the CERC team, helping both in-person and remote teams with everything from setting up workstations to managing IT inventories and streamlining support procedures. With a focus on clear communication and practical solutions, Sura does her best to make IT work as it should.
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