ACSP Seattle 2024: UF URP Recap

Faculty and students from the University of Florida’s Department of Urban and Regional Planning traveled to Seattle in November for the Association of Collegiate Schools of Planning’s (ACSP) Annual Conference, where educators, researchers, and students come together to network and share the latest research from the field of planning. URP faculty and students shared their latest research findings and hosted multiple presentations and seminars throughout the conference focused on topics like AI, urban development, and more. URP was a sponsor of the conference, showing its commitment to supporting our professional organization, while amplifying  the department’s impact in the discipline. 

Thursday Recap:

• Professor Zhong-Ren Peng presented his current research in “The Pathway of Urban Planning AI: From Planning Support to Plan-Making”, which aims to address several unanswered questions regarding the potential impacts of AI on urban and regional planning research and practice, as well as the issues involved and the appropriate responses and plans. The team’s goal is to create a typology of urban planning AI to categorize and outline the progression of AI in urban planning, from AI-assisted planning to AI-autonomous planning. 

• Ivy Hu, as a Co-Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Planning Education and Research (JPER), hosted the journal’s editorial board meeting and a roundtable with the editor of another journal.

URP Chair Ivy Hu presents at the ACSP 2024 Conference

• URP held a career information session, where attendees learned more about the new tenure-track Assistant Professor position.

• Dr. Emre Tepe shared his research findings in “Assessing the Impacts of Incorporating a Spatial Term in Random Forests”, where he found that failing to account for spatial autocorrelation in data can lead to unreliable and overly optimistic estimates.

Friday Recap:

• Dr. Tepe hosted a discussion on modeling urban dynamics, covering topics from pedestrian flow prediction to the use of NASA nighttime light data to estimate power restoration rates. 

• Ivy Hu, as the Chair of the Committee on the Academy, sponsored and served as a panelist on a roundtable session of “The ‘Value’ of the Planning Discipline in the Higher Education Ecosystem.” This session engages in a conversation with administrators (i.e., Provost, Dean, and Chairs) on broad issues related to the value that planning programs bring to universities’ core mission and the other fundamental missions of higher education in society. She also joined the ACSP-AESOP joint meeting on behalf of the ACSP President.
  
  
• Kaifa Lu, Ph.D., led the presentation “Impact of Micromobility System Sizes on Usage Patterns: Planning Insights” alongside Co-Authors Khalid Aljuhani, Ph.D., Yanghe Liu, Ph.D., and Zhong-Ren Peng, Professor. This research offers valuable guidance for designing and planning shared micromobility facilities in order to enhance user efficiency and satisfaction with shared micromobility systems.

• Dr. Kathryn Frank held a session on Environment and Health, where research was shared on a variety of topics from urban spatial patterns and air pollution to assessment of coastal vulnerability.

• Professor Ruth Steiner held a session on equitable EV charging, discussing the transition process to electric vehicles, public EV charger allocation, and more.

• URP hosted an alumni reception with six other universities, including the Georgia Institute of Technology, the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, the University of Miami, the University of Minnesota, the University of North Carolina, and The Ohio State University.

Additional Highlights:

• A hot topic at this year’s conference was AI-driven Urban Planning, which enables planners to analyze large data sets in record time while opening the door to increased citizen participation and transparent action.
  
  Professor Zhong-Ren Peng initiated the creation of an Urban Planning AI Task Force, which was approved by the ACSP Governing Board.