Tom Kvan

Professor Tom Kvan is the founding Director of AURIN, a national digital infrastructure to support urban research, and Professor of Architecture. Tom has many years of experience in senior leadership roles in three universities inMelbourne, Sydney and Hong Kong. Before taking up an academic career, Tom was in design practice in Africa, Europe, Hong Kong and the USA. Internationally recognised for his pioneering work in design, digital environments and design management, he has published over 200 papers in academic, professional and popular channels.

Knowing what you are talking about: The role of data in design
As data becomes increasingly available, a new realm of design activity becomes possible. National spatial infrastructures are being implemented across the world and open up new ways to approach the design and implementation of smart and liveable cities. This presentation tells how data has been used in Australia to deliver research insights to the urban condition and to underpin the development of urban policy, development guidelines and service deliveries. Founded in 2010, AURIN is a national spatial data infrastructure formed for broad research and policy making purposes with over 10,000 users accessing a growing volume of data currently at 4,000 data sets.