Next week is the annual Symposium on Simulation for Architecture and Urban Design (SimAUD, pronounced Sim-Odd). This conference was started a decade ago by my former manager Azam Khan, along with Gabriel Wainer and Ramtin Attar. I’ve only had the pleasure of attending one SimAUD event – the 2018 edition was held in the Netherlands at TUDelft – but I was hoping/planning to attend this year’s in Vienna: a paper submitted by Rhys Goldstein – with Simon Breslav , myself and Azam as co-presenters – was accepted for the conference.
Here’s a quick photo from a dinner we had in Delft (originally posted in this previous post from this blog):
(Left to right: Gabriel Wainer, Ruslana Steininger, Hali Larsen, Danil Nagy, Ramtin Attar, Lorenzo Villaggi, Jelmer Frank Wijnia and myself.)
For better or worse SimAUD 2020 has (of course) been moved to a virtual conference.
On the one hand, it’s a bit of a shame as the SimAUDers I’ve met have all been anything but AUD (haha): they’re a very nice group of passionate, interesting people, and a lot of fun to hang out with. On the other hand, there’s a great opportunity in the fact this year’s event is being held online: for the modest fee of $50 USD (or $20 for registered Bachelors/Masters students) you can attend next week’s sessions virtually, a bargain considering the information and networking opportunities you’ll receive. It’s a great – and low risk – way to experience SimAUD and see whether it’s something you’d choose to attend in person, assuming they at some point switch back to being held physically.
From my side, I’m co-presenting the paper with Rhys, but that’s now done. Here’s the video, which has already been posted alongside other paper presentations on the SimAUD 2020 site:
I’ve also been asked to chair the Generative Design session for Europe/Asia, which will be held on Tuesday May 26th at 7am UTC/9am CEST. This is a bit of an experiment, all round: this is the first time I’ll chair a session such as this, whether physically or virtually. So far I’ve just seen the paper titles – posted with their videos – and I’ll be starting to work through the ones assigned to my slot over the coming days.
The format is going to be interesting: as all the sessions are pre-recorded and viewable via YouTube, it makes no sense to just have attendees join to watch them together. The assumption will be that people will watch the various recordings and then attend the session for a chance to interact with the presenters who join (some will join Europe/Asia, others will join Europe/America). In some ways not so different from attending a panel such as this one from SimAUD 2018:
Each session chair will create a summary of the various papers – based on questions asked during their session – and present this during a “Papers Panel” with two of the event’s keynote presenters. Mine will be on Wednesday 27th at 8am UTC/10am CEST.
So, don’t delay – register today! The bad news is that you’ve missed the window for Early Bird pricing, the good news is that the Regular and Late pricing is (exceptionally for this year) exactly the same as for Early Birds. ;-)
Included in the low price is the opportunity to attend a pre-event workshop on Monday at 11am UTC/1pm CEST, some of which look really interesting. (I haven’t yet signed up, but am most tempted by the Topologic session… if I can make the scheduling work, I may still try to join it.)
One closing comment: I should probably point out that – as a virtual event – meals are not included in this year’s registration fee. Assuming that’s acceptable, see you online next week!
