International Student Leads Urban Planning in Canada
Jiarui Li, a Chinese foreign student studying at Concordia University in Montreal, intended to study video game creation; he had no idea that he would also become immersed in the field of urban planning.
In the past year, Li has been working on an intriguing new project at Concordia's Next-Generation Cities Institute while also creating virtual buildings, roads, and green areas with a focus on sustainability (NGCI).
The project CityPlayer makes urban planning interactive and approachable by incorporating features of video game playing, or gamification.
My Perfect Neighborhood, a prototype game that enables players to achieve the optimum balance between a living and sustainable environment, was developed with Li serving as the chief programmer.
Chris Gibbs, senior adviser at NGCI, hired Li, 22, who earned a bachelor's degree in computer science in August, to work on the game. Gibbs also oversees the platform for gamified urban simulation at the institute.
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The platform is partially supported by a $120,000, three-year relationship with Behaviour Interactive, the largest independent video game developer in Canada, as well as Ursula Eicker's Canada Excellence Research Chair in Smart, Sustainable and Resilient Communities and Cities.
He claims that creating My Perfect Neighbourhood, which is set in a digital recreation of Montreal's Ville-Marie neighborhood, allowed him to hone his skills in creating expansive systems with Unity, a programme widely used in the video-game business.
He acquired the capacity to simplify complex information for its sustainability component.
Concordia greatly believes in Li's practical experience.
The institution recently made a commitment to provide every new undergraduate student with at least one opportunity for experiential learning.
Without a surprise it is expected that by 2025, there will be at least two.
The vice-provost of Partnerships and Experiential Learning at Concordia, Nadia Bhuiyan, asserts that the more we can provide, the more equipped our students will be after graduation.
The dedication expands on Concordia's numerous possibilities for students to learn via experience.
They include everything from fieldwork abroad to internships with business partners to on-campus pursuits like the capstone project for the engineering program's final year and exhibits and performances in the faculty of fine arts.
In order to ensure that there are opportunities for experiential learning in some of the fundamental courses that students are expected to complete, the university has now institutionalized that.
Undoubtedly, beyond the chance to apply theory, hands-on learning offers a number of advantages.
According to research, it increases one's capacity for critical thought and knowledge retention, according to Bhuiyan.
Because they've really used the theory they've studied in a practical scenario to grasp it, students will retain knowledge for longer, especially in complicated situations.
Additionally, internships aid in the development of so-called "soft skills," such as teamwork and communication, which are actually "hard skills," according to Bhuiyan: "These are the abilities, beyond just the technical ones, that our industry partners say they are equally interested in."
Bhuiyan's job at Concordia includes pursuing alliances with business, the state, and local communities to offer students chances for experiential learning.
However, employers are also approaching the institution more frequently. In recent years, "there has been a lot of interest in working with us, in part due to the labor scarcity," she claims.
The federal government is one among those trying to figure out how to give kids internship opportunities. She says, "They want [students] to realize that there are fantastic chances] in the public sector."
As the lead programmer on My Perfect Neighbourhood, where he was in charge of a group of three other interns, Li had the opportunity to put the soft skills Bhuiyan mentions to use.
Li's primary objective is to land a position in the field, and his involvement with the CityPlayer initiative will be a huge plus.
Beyond that, it has helped him grasp how seriously and practically gamification can be applied.
In the end, the game he helped build will help municipalities find sustainable practices to reduce their carbon footprint.
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