Faces
Giovanni Maccani
Barcelona
Giovanni is currently a Senior Researcher at Ideas for Change. Giovanni has been Assistant Professor/Lecturer in Management Information Systems at the School of Business, National University of Ireland Maynooth (NUIM). Giovanni has achieved a bachelor’s and a master’s degree in Engineering, both at the Polytechnic University of Milan. He earned a PhD in Information Systems at NUIM in 2016. This programme was funded by IRC and Intel Corporation. His research domains cover the concept of Smart Cities, Urban IT Governance, Design Science, Citizen Science, and Open Government Data.
Website
Lucía Paz Errandonea
Barcelona
Lucía is a Civic Engagement Consultant and Researcher at Ideas for Change. She is a political scientist specialised in participatory design and management of city and community projects. She holds master degrees in “New Trends and Innovation Process in Communication” (UJI, Spain) and “Smart Communities, Design and Management” (UNITN, Italy). At Ideas For Change, she currently coordinates different European projects in the field of citizen science and environmental health such as D-Noses, WeCount and CitieS-Health, managing communication and participation strategies.
Website
Local Champion: Xavier Marin Gimeno
Barcelona
After moving to a 1st-floor apartment down a narrow street with significant traffic in the Gràcia neighbourhood (Barcelona), I realised the necessity to show to fellow neighbours and pedestrians the health impacts vehicles are producing in the vicinity. I started a citizen science project where air and noise pollution data is gathered and published live (thanks to the Smartcitizen sensor, another EC's H2020 funded project) and results are shared and commented through social networks. However, the project lacked actual proof that noise & air pollution could be attributed to internal combustion engine vehicles. Hence, WeCount looked like the perfect keystone to complete the project.
Xavier Marin Gimeno is a 36-year old Civil Engineer living in Barcelona and one of WeCount's local champions.
Margarida Sardo
Bristol
Dr Margarida Sardo is a Senior Research Fellow in Science Communication and develops creative engagement and communication projects in collaboration with other researchers and academics. Within WeCount, Margarida leads on Monitoring and Evaluation. In her spare time, Margarida enjoys growing vegetables, reading and practising aerial hoop.
Website
Laura Fogg-Rogers
Bristol
I am really excited to be working on this project and I can’t wait to see how communities use this innovative data. The Telraam technology puts traffic data into the hands of the people, and now the power lies with our citizen scientists!
Laura is a Senior Lecturer in Science and Engineering Education and Communication in the Department of Engineering Design and Mathematics at UWE Bristol. Laura is an experienced communicator and social psychology researcher; she leads the Inspire work for the initiative for Digital Engineering Technology and Innovation, manages the Curiosity Connections network and previously ran the communications and evaluation for the ClairCity project. She is the Ethics lead for the Evaluation work in WeCount.
Website
Cláudia Ribeiro
Brussels
She is working on all communication, dissemination, and exploitation activities of WeCount, ensuring that its added value reaches the highest number of citizens and policy-makers possible. Her work at POLIS Network mostly focuses on the implementation of EU funded projects in the field of urban mobility. With a background in Political Science, she is an EU and Sustainable Urban Mobility Enthusiast, interested in surrealism, both in art and politics.
Website
Isobel Duxfield
Brussels
Isobel is Communications Assistant at POLIS Network. She is responsible for writing those website articles which keep you all informed about webinars, pilot projects, and recent developments in the world of citizen science.
Website
Balázs Németh
Brussels
Balázs joined POLIS in January 2019 as a Project Officer, and is involved in several EU projects. Balázs has a broad background in sustainable mobility and urban planning, in general. He completed a Master of Engineering Sustainable Cities degree in Copenhagen. Balázs makes sure that WeCount reaches you.
Website
Sophie Laggan
Cardiff
Sophie is supporting the evaluation of WeCount, in addition to supporting the Cardiff case study. She has a background in environmental science and sustainable development and professional experience in writing, digital communications, marketing and public engagement. She is also a yoga teacher and aims to live a life that minimises harm to people and nature.
Website
Enda Hayes
Cardiff
Enda is a Professor of Air Quality & Carbon Management at the University of the West of England, Bristol. Most of my research evolves around the urban environment, in particular, how people’s day-to-day activities, practices and behaviours generate air pollution. In the WeCount project, I am responsible for the Cardiff case study, lead the UWE team and coordinate with local community groups to maximise the impact of the project in their neighbourhood.
Website
Eva Elliot
Cardiff
I am a long-time champion of citizen involvement in the development of the policies, services and strategies that shape peoples’ lives. In my own street, we have been frustrated by the speed of traffic in what is supposed to be a 20 miles per hour zone. An accident waiting to happen? I am delighted to be involved in a project which allows me to be a producer of local data, a co-assessor of the evidence and a co-designer of a city-wide strategy to make our city more liveable for everyone.
Eva Elliott is a 60-year-old honorary research fellow at Cardiff University School of Social Sciences. She is one of WeCount's local champions.
Mark Barrett
Cardiff
As a teacher who has cycled to work most my working life, I am very aware of the impact traffic is having on the lives of young people and the wider community. The ever-increasing number of cars on our streets, and the disregard, bordering on recklessness, that some of their drivers display towards pedestrians and cyclists has created an environment where cars have come to dominate our city to the detriment of our community. When my concerns fell on the deaf ears of local politicians WeCount helped me channel my concerns into meaningful action. I look forward to seeing where the data takes us.
Mark Barrett (58) lives near the centre of Cardiff, working as a teacher at a local primary school. Mark is one of WeCount's local champions
Francesco Pilla
Dublin
Francesco's work lies at the intersection between cities and technologies. His goal is to build better cities through technology, innovation and citizen participation. He focuses on giving a voice to local communities using technology so they can build an argument to tackle local issues with data. He is very passionate about bringing climate action and environmental activism in education. In specific, he is showing children in primary and secondary schools how they could have an active role in making our cities and communities more sustainable.
Website
Anna Molter
Dublin
Anna's research is about how the environment affects our health. A lot of her work has focused on the effects of air pollution on children’s health, but she is interested in a wide range of environmental issues, including both urban and rural problems. She likes to use tools such as apps and story maps to communicate her findings with the public and to engage them in scientific research.
Website
Daniel Tubridy
Dublin
Daniel's research focuses on the politics of the environment including who benefits or is disadvantaged by environmental policies and projects. He has done research on sustainable urban regeneration and its impact on issues such as housing inequality and gentrification. He is interested in lots of social and environmental justice issues related to the management of hazards such as flooding and air pollution, housing inequality and climate justice.
Website
Anne Bedos
Dublin
I live and work by Dublin's most congested crossroads - the air quality is very poor here, and it is difficult to cross the road. Because there is no official measure of air pollution or traffic where we are, the WeCount project offers us an opportunity to get hard data and push for change.
Anne runs the bicycle shop Rothar by Doyles' corner, one of Dublin's traffic black spots. She has a background in political science and social studies, and is passionate about environmental justice, and wants to combat traffic and noise pollution, which impact poorer communities the most, like Dublin's inner city. She also runs the project Beyond The Junction, which aims to create a network of residents in different areas of the city to combat climate change.
Kris Vanherle
Leuven
Kris is the technical coordinator of the WeCount & Telraam project, aligning the technology development road map (website, sensor, analytics,…) and deployment projects.
Website
Péter Pápics
Leuven
Péter is a data scientist with a PhD in Astrophysics (KU Leuven, Belgium) working at Transport and Mobility Leuven. As a member of the original Telraam project, he has written a large part of the scripts that run on the Raspberry Pi units, and also developed significant code for the API and the server. But beyond scripting, he likes to play with the data and play around with interesting data visualisation methods the most.
Website
Griet De Ceuster
Leuven
Griet De Ceuster is managing director of Transport & Mobility Leuven. She and her team take the lead in the WeCount project. Griet makes sure that all partners have the same goal and work together as a team.
Website
Veerle Vranckx
Leuven
Veerle Vranckx is the administrative project coordinator of Transport & Mobility Leuven. She is taking care of the administrative and practical project management, while her colleague Kris focuses on the technical part.
Website
Carl Van Poyer
Leuven
Carl is a DevOps engineer for the Telraam backend. He also provides second line Telraam helpdesk support.
Website
Wouter Florizoone
Leuven
Wouter Florizoone is responsible for coordination and contract management with cities and municipalities (public affairs). He makes the bridge between the complexity of data, technology and interpretation by citizens and local authorities.
Website
Willem Himpe
Leuven
Willem Himpe is a civil engineer, specialised in traffic. He obtained a PhD degree in designing algorithms for evaluating transportation networks. Willem is involved in WeCount as a software developer working on the design, development, maintenance and testing of the backend architecture.
Website
Elke Franchois
Leuven
Elke was the kickstarter of Telraam in 2018 and is constantly looking for ways to make real scientists of the citizens involved in this citizen science project.
Website
Dave Driesmans
Leuven
Dave Driesmans is responsible for the development, user interfaces and dashboards of the Telraam web applications.
Website
Anja Bagon
Ljubljana
Anja Bagon graduated from the Faculty of Architecture in June 2020. She works as a researcher on the WeCount project where her role is to recruit and provide support for new participants, establishing project network as well as taking care of local social media. She is passionate about architecture, travelling and immersing herself in new cultures.
Jon Šinkovec
Ljubljana
Jon Šinkovec is a graduated architect. He works as a researcher on the WeCount project. His role in the project is to attract and recruit new participants, as well as providing support to the established project network. Besides his research work at the Faculty of Architecture, he is busy
with raising two sons, playing water polo and various hobbies, such as cooking and enjoying nature on a bike.
Lučka Ažman
Ljubljana
Lučka Ažman Momirski is the former head of the department of Technology, Management and Computer Design at the University of Ljubljana, holding the position of professor of urban design. Since 2012, she leads the subjects of Development of Urbanism and Strategic Spatial Planning. She served as vice dean of science and research at the faculty from 2005 to 2007, has been a visiting assistant professor at the TU Graz, and a visiting professor at the University of Zagreb and at TU Delft. She participated in a number of projects dealing with the specificities of traffic flows in urban systems.
Tomaž Berčič
Ljubljana
Tomaž Berčič was born in Ljubljana and is assistant for architecture and urbanism at the Faculty of Architecture at the University of Ljubljana. He works on professional and scientific research and development in the field of architecture and urbanism. His role in the project is to support the established project network. He is involved in the upbringing of three daughters, the completion of my doctoral thesis and various hobbies.
Peter Sovinc
Ljubljana
Peter Sovinc holds a Bachelor's degree in Architecture from the University of Ljubljana. He moved to New York, where he worked in several design offices. He then completed a Masters degree at Architectural Association School of Architecture in London. He is specialised in data management and data representation using parametric programs. He is currently a part-time researcher at WeCount project.
Luka Mali
Ljubljana
The initial experience was very good as the installation of the Telraam device is really straight forward. The magic of this device is the machine vision algorithm, that works impressively. You can monitor the data from the first day and when you dive deeper into the data, you can find fascinating insights into what is happening on your home street. Involving citizens in smart city digital solutions, as well as traffic counting, is a must. By enabling citizens to participate in technical solutions like Telraam, brings besides a greater number of locations also broader public awareness of the used technologies and the values they bring to the city and its citizens.
Luka Mali is a 39-year old University Lecturer and Senior Researcher (ICT & IoT) living in Novo mesto, Slovenia. He is one of WeCount's local champions.