In May 2025, members of the S⨁CUBE-UCT project team traveled to West Lafayette, Indiana, in the US, to present their AfricaSETi-aligned research at the CIB World Building Congress (WBC 2025) hosted at Purdue University. This global conference brought together over 400 delegates from universities, research institutions, and industry bodies across the built environment sector. Four papers focused on sustainable development (SD), educational reform, and technological innovation (TI) in the built environment (BE) were presented.
Key achievements included:
- Prof. Kathy Michell re-elected to the CIB Board.
- Uche Ordor co-opted into the W070 Facilities Management group and Council on Open Building.
- Networking with over 400 international researchers, including partners from NTNU, Salford University, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, and Emerald Publishing.
The S⨁CUBE team formed new partnerships and grew their academic and professional ties with institutions and experts including Dr. Stephen Kendal and John Dale of the Council on Open Building; Prof. Sarel Lavy of Texas A&M University; Prof. Nora Johanne Klungseth and Prof. Carmel Lindkvist of NTNU (Norway); A/Prof. Fan Zhang of the University of Southern Mississippi; Dr. Amos Darko of the University of Washington; Prof. Geoffrey Shen of the Hong Kong Polytechnic University; Dr. Z. Torica of Capital Technology University (USA); as well as representatives from Emerald Publishing and Taylor & Francis for future publication collaborations, and George Takahashi of Purdue’s Envision Center for potential digital research and visualisation projects.
“The relevance of our African research was affirmed on a global stage. It was an energising experience that fed directly back into our classroom practice.” – Prof. Kathy Michell
