About Darren Ockert

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So far Darren Ockert has created 9 blog entries.
11 05, 2019

Professor Spiegelhalter Leads Collaboration Workshop at Prestigious Keio University, Japan

2019-06-17T14:03:50+00:00May 11th, 2019|Categories: CRUNCH Miami Press|

Two EU Belmont Forum/SUGI projects shake hands at Keio University in Tokyo, Japan for a collaboration workshop to share research information and discuss progress in their respective projects. FIU’s Professor Thomas Spiegelhalter who leads the Miami CRUNCH research team together with FIU graduate researchers Darren Ockert & Monica Dragalina, and graduate student Amaila Tomey met with Keio University’s M-NEX research team led by Professor Wanglin Yan and included PH.D and Masters students from across Asia. Keio University features the work of honorary jukuin and Pritzker Architecture Prize-winning architect Fumihiko Maki. Maki was also instrumental in the launch of Shonan Fujisawa Campus (SFC), not only in the design of individual school buildings but also in the grand design of the campus itself. CRUNCH (Carbon Resilient Urban Nexus Choices) consists of over 19 project partners in the UK, Poland, Netherlands, USA, and Taiwan addressing all three sectors of the food, water, [...]

25 03, 2019

Floating Houses – Arkup Leads The Way With Sustainable Floating Homes In Miami

2019-03-25T21:19:45+00:00March 25th, 2019|Categories: Case Studies|

The CRUNCH Miami research team and a group of graduate architectuire students from FIU's School of Architecture toured the first floating house from Arkup and met with co-founder Nicolas Derouin on Star Island in Miami Beach. The sustainable floating house produces its own energy and harvests its own water. This first built example of the Arkup concept features a luxury home for a single family. However, Nicolas has plans to repurpose the modular house to be multi-family and imagines the house as part of floating communities. The structure and anchoring system are designed to resist high winds and hurricane force winds (up to 156 mph | 250 km/h – Category 4.) The vessel can be completely lifted out of the water to safe guard from storm surge. Hurricanes are predictable storm events allowing enough time for owners to sail to a safe harbor or a protected area. [...]

22 02, 2019

BMW and Daimler invest €1bn in new car venture

2019-02-25T01:39:22+00:00February 22nd, 2019|Categories: Transportation|

The BMW Group and Daimler AG are pooling their mobility services to create a new global player providing sustainable urban mobility for customers. The two companies are investing more than €1 billion in total to develop and more closely intermesh their offerings for car-sharing, ride-hailing, parking, charging and multimodal transport. The cooperation comprises five joint ventures: REACH NOW for multimodal services, CHARGE NOW for charging, FREE NOW for taxi ride-hailing, PARK NOW for parking and SHARE NOW for car-sharing. “Our mobility services have developed a strong customer base and we are now taking the next strategic step. We are pooling the strength and expertise of 14 successful brands and investing more than €1 billion to establish a new player in the fast-growing market for urban mobility,” said Dieter Zetsche, Chairman of the Board of Management of Daimler AG and Head of Mercedes-Benz Cars. “By creating an intelligent network of [...]

12 02, 2019

The Tiny Swiss Company That Thinks It Can Help Stop Climate Change

2019-02-25T14:06:58+00:00February 12th, 2019|Categories: Carbon Neutral, Climate, Technology|Tags: , |

Read about how a small Swiss company called Climeworks is working on commercial products to remove carbon dioxide from the atomosphere.  Climeworks captures CO2 from air with the world’s first commercial carbon removal technology. Their direct air capture plants remove CO2 from the atmosphere to supply to customers to unlock a negative emissions future. Climeworks was founded by engineers Christoph Gebald and Jan Wurzbacher, who decided to build a company together on the day they met at university in 2003. Direct air capture is a disruptive approach for mitigating the increasing CO2 concentration in the atmosphere. Industrialising direct air capture technology in turn requires disruptive engineering approaches. New York Times Magazine's Jon Gertner writes about the company in this week's magazine. Read about Climeworks in the New York Times Visit Climeworks Website

5 01, 2019

As Seas Continue To Rise New Jersey Buys Residents Out Of Flood Zones

2019-02-25T14:13:51+00:00January 5th, 2019|Categories: Climate|Tags: , , , , , |

Sea levels will rise between one and four feet by the end of the century. That’s according to the National Climate Assessment released in 2018. That rise — along with damage caused by an increased number of storms and hurricanes — could be catastrophic for people living in flood prone areas — nearly 41 million Americans, by one estimate. In New Jersey – close to 700,000 people live in a flood zone. Now the stateis  involved in trying to move some of those people out of harm’s way with a state-run program called “Blue Acres”. Hundreds of thousands of New Jersey residents live in flood zones that can become inundated with storm water. But the state is trying to move some of them out of harm's way in one of the biggest home buyout programs in the nation. PBS NewsHour Weekend's Ivette Feliciano reports. This story is part of PBS's [...]

1 01, 2019

Miami’s First Rules On Sea Level Rise Target Raised Structures

2019-02-25T14:29:06+00:00January 1st, 2019|Categories: Climate|Tags: , , , , |

The City of Miami is pursuing changes to the Miami 21 zoning code to address sea level rise, and the proposed legislation is gaining support. City officials’ first attempt at new rules with climate change and sustainability in mind include a proposal to allow new construction and redevelopment to raise habitable structures out of the flood plain with added “freeboard,” up to 5 feet above the Base Flood Elevation. “This is our first foray into resilience in the zoning code,” said Ryan Shedd, who works in the planning department for the city. He was detailing the legislation to the Miami River Commission’s Urban Infill and Greenways Subcommittee at a meeting Dec. 12. Story by John Charles Robbins on Miami Today Read More On Miami Today News

11 10, 2018

Professor Thomas Spiegelhalter Presented at CRUNCH Workshop in Poland

2019-03-11T15:19:34+00:00October 11th, 2018|Categories: CRUNCH Miami Press|

Department of Architecture Professor Thomas Spiegelhalter, CO-Director of the Structures and Environmental Technologies Lab (SET) presented his initial collaborative research findings at the E.U. Belmont CRUNCH – Climate Resilient Urban Nexus Choices workshop conference in Gdansk, Poland. Spiegelhalter has been awarded along with a team of international researchers, a total award amount of 1.9 million dollars for their CRUNCH Climate Resilient Urban Nexus Choices in February, 2018. The research project was selected from a pool of 79 projects as part of the joint call ‘Sustainable Urbanization Global Initiative’ (SUGI), organized by Urban Intelligent Europe JPI, EU Horizon 2020 and the Belmont Forum with support from the European Commission. The three-year CRUNCH project consists of strategically selected 19 university/industry/business partners from 6 countries (UK, The Netherlands, Sweden, Poland, USA, Taipei/China); The only 2 non-EU countries USA and Taipei, China, are partly led by Spiegelhalter whereas all CRUNCH members are working closely together [...]

24 04, 2018

Portsmouth-led Project CRUNCH has successful kick-off

2019-03-12T14:46:12+00:00April 24th, 2018|Categories: CRUNCH Miami Press|

The University of Portsmouth, Faculty of Creative and Cultural Industries is pleased to share the successful kick-off of the CRUNCH project. An international project, led by the University of Portsmouth’s Cluster for Sustainable Cities, with a funding value of 1.6 million euros, has successfully been kicked-off in a two-day event. 25 senior researchers from six countries came together to commence the important work in an intensive research workshop in Southend-on- Sea on 23rd April, and in London on 24th April. The “CRUNCH: Climate Resilient Urban Nexus CHoices: operationalising the Food-Water- Energy Nexus” project will help scientists, small and large businesses, cities, non-governmental organisations and local stakeholders, to work together and develop integrated, cross-cutting approaches to food, water and energy management in cities. A NEXUS is a focal point that bundles a series of connections and links, such as a system of urban infrastructure. CRUNCH will help cities to solve the increasing challenges of food, water and energy management at the urban scale and strengthen liveability. The project has an [...]

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