COLLEGE STATION, Texas (KRHD) — Students and faculty at Texas A&M University's College of Architecture are using innovative research and technology to address real-world community needs, from artificial intelligence applications to autonomous vehicle planning for rural areas.
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Inside Rudder Auditorium, Texas A&M's College of Architecture showcased ongoing research that is helping shape the future of our communities.
"We shape the environment and the environment shapes us. So, anywhere from interior to the city to the transportation and the larger community level," said Chanam Lee, executive associate dean of the Texas A&M College of Architecture.
In an evolving world, architecture evolves with it.
Lee emphasized the importance of incorporating modern solutions into community planning.
"I think that's one of the themes of bringing the latest technology and tools to guide our decision making to be more sustainable, healthy and safer," Lee said.
Visionaries from Texas A&M's College of Architecture came together Thursday to showcase real-world impacts of their work.
"We want to be sure that we showcase the full range of teaching and research and community engagement that we do so you get to see the really strong hands-on nature of our discipline," Lee said.
The research includes technology like artificial intelligence, which is drawing the attention of doctoral student Farshad Askari.
"We can actually customize that with context related information regarding energy or sustainability and any other task and we can use these tools actually for designers to get more knowledge about their specific projects," said Askari, a second-year PhD student in the College of Architecture.
15 ABC also caught up with second-year master's student Carrie Conton, who is researching the potential of public transportation through self-driving vehicles in rural areas.
"One of the things that autonomous vehicles can do, with a pilot — I cannot emphasize that enough — is that it can prevent some of those misses and accidents that happen, can prevent some of those very preventable deaths that happen when it comes to driving on these really bad roads," said Conton, who is pursuing a master's degree in urban planning.
Conton tells 15 ABC that natural disasters also play a role in research considerations.
"We want to be able to get those people out safely and quickly, so would it even make sense to plan to have autonomous vehicles in these flood plain areas? Or how do we change up the service when it comes to hazards?" Conton said.
These are all questions being asked as our communities develop and face new challenges.
"Community engagement is very, very important. We design places for people," Lee said.
Conton also gave 15 ABC her perspective on development, saying as much as we would like to have new and innovative things, we must be able to manage current infrastructure that is failing us now.
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