Member spotligh - Keagan Rankin:
I am a PhD candidate at University of Toronto Engineering. My current research (supervised by Shoshanna Saxe and Daniel Posen) investigates how we can sustainably satisfy demands for housing and infrastructure systems in the future. I am determining the amount of materials we need, how demand for materials effects our energy systems, and how we can meet material demands without overstepping climate limits.
Keagan's main research/work interest areas:
- Stochastic simulation of infrastructure.
- Material and energy requirements of housing.
- Energy system optimization modelling.
- Best practices for data science and machine learning in industrial ecology.
Keagan's favorite cities and why:
- Fredericton, Canada: it's my home and safe place.
- Cambridge, UK: it's a hub of brilliant people and never-ending lore.
- Haarlem, Netherlands: it's a shining example of a livable city.
Recent publications:
Our recent paper uses new stochastic modelling techniques to determine how Canadian cities could meet their ambitious housing goals within embodied carbon limits. We show how existing neighbourhoods can be used as proxies for what might be built in the future: https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.est.4c02070
