Welcome to Team 11’s Blog Post #1

We cannot WAIT to start our project! 
Tijana Sljivic, Richard Wu, Tyler Dickens, Shawn He, York Liao and Mona Dahir

HELLO and WELCOME to Team 11’s journey in helping increase the sanitation along the streets of Vancouver and making it the greenest city in the world! We are all very excited by the opportunity to combine our growing interest of sustainability with City Studio in providing developmental solutions for Vancouver’s waste disposal plan and contributing to future guidelines of bin placement. Our goal is to further develop the guideline for placement of new litter receptacles by reviewing relevant audit material of existing litter receptacles and thinking outside of the box for new ideas. Along with the help of our mentor Zaid, we are looking forward to strengthening our individual assets and learning from one another during this experience.

Organization Background:

The project we were assigned to involves multiple organizations but the two primary ones are City Studio and the City of Vancouver. In the aim of implementing the Greenest City 2020 Action Plan, the City of Vancouver established a multi-institutional collaboration between the city and post-secondary institutions in developing projects and research targeting urban sustainability. CityStudio is an organization that connects students with the  City of Vancouver to implement these projects and research. Over the years, they have built a network of partnering courses at 6 universities in which students collaborate, design and research interdisciplinary urban sustainability projects. With these projects students are given the opportunities to become leaders, create designs and more importantly, gain skills and experience in making their home the greenest city in the world.

Beneficiaries:

Through this project we hope to improve the well-being of the general public, as well as to ease the work load of Sanitary Engineers. By having an outside look at the current sanitary system, we hope to have a positive impact by contributing new ideas and adding to the existing protocol. We hope to find ways to improve the efficiency of the system, which will benefit the pedestrian traffic in the area, as well as shop owners and sanitary workers.

Group Members:

 Shawn M He:

Hi, I am Shawn. I am currently in my second year pursuing a Bachelor’s Degree in Civil Engineering at UBC. I am interested in engineering, cinematography and architecture, especially architectural spatialization and its impacts on users. I am excited to get hands on this project, and to explore optimizations in forging a more sustainable city.

 Mona Dahir:

Hello, I am Mona Dahir. I am also a second year Civil Engineering student. I am excited to be involved in a project that will help make my home a more sustainable place to live in. I enjoy biking, playing soccer, and being a food coniessuer. An interesting fact about me is that I am a first degree black belt in Taekwondo.

Tijana Sljivic:

Hello, my name is Tijana but many people like to call me TJ for short. I am currently in my second year of Civil Engineering at UBC and hope to one day pursue a Master’s Degree in Architecture with emphasis on structural analysis. I am very excited to start working with City Studio as well as my group members and mentor Zaid because I know together we will make a great team in providing the city exceptional solutions in regards to increasing the efficiency of litter disposal and improving street sanitation.

Richard Wu:

Hi, my name is Richard and I am in my second year at UBC in civil engineering. I am interested in focusing my studies in either structural or transportation engineering in later years. I am very excited to get started with this community project, it is different from the usual lectures and homework; I think it is a nice breath of fresh air. I look forward to working with my group, our mentor and the City of Vancouver.

York Liao:

Hello, my name is York and I am currently in my second year at University of British Columbia in civil engineering. I am hoping to pursue in the field of construction management and structural design.  I would be privileged to work with CityStudio and contributed to the greenest city 2020 action plan; I am also excited to work with my group and our mentor in planning a more vibrant and sustainable Vancouver city.  Outside of that, I am a very outgoing person; I enjoy playing jazz and concert music, as well as enjoy playing various sports such as badminton and basketball.

Tyler Dickens:

 Hi, my name is Tyler and I am very excited to be working with City Studio on this project! City Studio has some great iniitatives, and I hope to be able to contribute to this one. I am a second year civil engineering student at UBC, and I have a huge interest in the field. It is exciting for me to be apart of a project with real world applications, and I hope to help City Studio work towards Vancouver’s goal of greenest city in the world by 2020. I am eager to start working on this project and see where it leads to.