PhD candidate Elvia Willyono receives Student Poster Award

Public Administration PhD candidate Elvia Willyono received the Student Poster Competition Award at Clean Energy BC’s Generate 2026 conference in Vancouver for her research exploring how visualization tools can support community conversations about future energy systems.

 

The poster shared work from the Accelerating Community Energy Transformation (ACET) Cumberland District Energy Project, which explores the potential for using warm water from abandoned, flooded coal mines to heat and cool buildings in the Village of Cumberland, British Columbia. The project investigates opportunities for regenerative development that increase affordability while supporting housing, food, and energy resilience. As part of the project, Elvia has contributed to the development of realistic landscape visualizations that help communicate potential energy scenarios and support discussion around future energy planning.

 

The poster focused on how visual approaches can make complex energy and land-use concepts more accessible to diverse audiences. Rather than depicting a single future outcome, the visualizations explore different scenarios and support conversations about how energy infrastructure may interact with local landscapes, community priorities, and long-term planning goals.

 

This work also connects to Elvia’s broader PhD research on using visual approaches to support collaborative land-use planning and community engagement.

 

This work was supported by the ACET, the School of Public Administration, and the Coastal Climate Solutions Leaders (CCSL) program. The project was supported by the guidance of ACET Community Planning Lead Dr. Zachary Gould and Elvia’s supervisors, Dr. Tamara Krawchenko and Dr. Robert Newell.