This week, we welcome colleagues from Sunway University, Malaysia, to BJTU Weihai for a five-day research visit focused on developing our collaboration through the Making Urban Ecologies Legible research project.

Bringing together researchers from Sunway University, BJTU Weihai, and Lancaster University, the visit will explore shared interests in urban ecology, biodiversity, environmental sensing, data visualisation, and interdisciplinary research.

The programme includes research presentations, workshops, visits to the BJTU Weihai Living Lab and Nanhai wetlands, and discussions exploring opportunities for comparative research across sites in China and Malaysia. Together, we aim to develop new collaborative research activities, funding proposals, and publications.

Public Event: Research Presentations & Exchange

As part of the visit, we are hosting an research presentations and exchange session on Tuesday 20 October, introducing the project and the research interests of colleagues from both institutions.

All are welcome!

Date: Tuesday 20 October 2026
Time: 14:00–16:00
Location: Campus Hotel, Conference Room 2-211, BJTU Weihai

Further details can be found in the event poster below.

15–17 July 2026 | Sunway University, Malaysia

In July 2026, Dr Rupert Griffiths presented A Patterned City at the Future Cities Conference 2026 (FCC26), hosted by Sunway University, Malaysia, and organised by the Future Cities Research Institute (FCRI), a joint initiative of Sunway University and Lancaster University.

The conference brought together international researchers and practitioners to explore the future of urban environments through four interconnected themes: Digital Cities, Sustainable Cities, Healthy Cities and Resilient Cities. Under the overarching theme From Living Lab to Urban Impact, the event focused on interdisciplinary research, urban innovation and the translation of research into practice.

Rupert’s presentation, “A Patterned City: Making Urban Ecologies Legible Through Qualitative Methodological Approaches to Environmental Sensing,” explored how environmental sensing and qualitative approaches might be brought together to develop alternative ways of understanding and representing urban environments.

The presentation forms part of our ongoing Making Urban Ecologies Legible research project, which investigates how sensing technologies, environmental data, and creative practice can help make the complex ecological processes and temporalities of urban landscapes more perceptible, challenging predominantly human-centered understandings of cities.

The conference also provided a further opportunity to develop connections with colleagues at Sunway University and explore opportunities for future collaborative research between Malaysia, China and the UK.

We were also delighted that the paper, “A Patterned City: Making Urban Ecologies Legible Through Qualitative Methodological Approaches to Environmental Sensing,” received the Best Paper Award at the conference.

The recognition provides a welcome endorsement of our interdisciplinary approach to environmental sensing and urban ecology, and the potential for bringing qualitative, creative and technological methods together to develop new ways of understanding urban environments.

Conference: Future Cities Conference 2026 – Sunway University

Presentation: 15 July 2026, 15:45–16:00 (online session, VR4)

We will be introducing A Patterned City and participating in a workshop with colleagues from three of Lancaster University’s campus locations later today.