The Department of Systems Design Engineering (SYDE) is pleased to welcome the first cohort of Cornfield Sustainable Systems Design PhD Fellows. The Fellows address multi-scale, interconnected, highly complex, and dynamic socio-technical systems with a special focus on energy, climate action and system resilience.
Shene Abdalla
Supervisor: Dr. Maryia Markhvida, Assistant Professor
Immersive analytics for climate-resistant and sustainable systems design
Shene’s research focuses on the sustainable design of energy and socio‑technical systems under climate‑driven disruption. She will use 360‑degree street‑view imagery and a generative AI model to create city‑wide immersive walkthroughs that show what a community might look like after a future climate event. By linking system‑level climate risk modelling with human response and local decision‑making, her work aims to help stakeholders better understand climate risk and adaptation pathways.
Alexa Bootherstone
Supervisor: Dr. Jessie Ma, Assistant Professor, Ontario Research Chair in Future Energy Systems
Deep electrification with distributed energy resources
Alexa’s research focuses on supporting Canada’s transition to net‑zero emissions by addressing the challenges of deep electrification and the growing strain on existing power systems. Her work will investigate how distributed energy resources, such as renewable energy, electric vehicles, and energy storage, can be coordinated through advanced communication networks to support grid management and reduce the need for costly infrastructure expansion. By modelling the technical, economic, and social feasibility of these systems, she aims to develop cost‑effective planning software that improves grid stability while ensuring affordable and sustainable energy for all.
Charlotte Hamilton
Supervisor: Dr. Rodrigo Costa, Assistant Professor
Designing resilient systems for climate adaptation
Charlotte’s research focuses on climate change adaptation and disaster resilience in complex socio‑technical systems, where technical decisions interact with human behaviour, governance structures, and long‑term uncertainty. Her work will examine how gaps between current preparedness and future climate risk emerge across infrastructure, policy, and communities, and how these gaps can be reduced through interventions that are both effective and equitable. Using computational modelling, simulation, and uncertainty‑aware analysis, she aims to develop decision‑support tools that help communities anticipate cascading risks and design more resilient systems over time.
Yusreen Shah
Supervisor: Dr. Rodrigo Costa, Assistant Professor
Modelling continuous climate risk and resilience in Canada
Yusreen’s research focuses on understanding how climate change is transforming disaster risk in Canada from isolated events into a continuous, compounding “disaster continuum.” She will develop agent‑based models of Canadian Census subdivisions to simulate thousands of possible futures, examining how repeated hazards such as floods and wildfires affect housing markets, population movement, and communities differently across socioeconomic groups. Her work aims to support a shift from event‑based recovery to long‑term, equitable adaptation strategies that ensure no community is left behind in a changing climate.