Patrick+Sunter

=Patrick Sunter= **Home page**: http://www.abp.unimelb.edu.au/gamut/
 * Your Country: Australia**[[image:cirn/Adelaide-YantiPresentation-outside.jpg align="right"]]
 * Affiliation: Australasian Center for the Governance and Management of Urban Transportation (GAMUT), Faculty of Architecture, Building and Planning (ABP), University of Melbourne**
 * Contact:** p.sunter_AT_pgrad.unimelb.edu.au

My long-term research goal is investigating and developing the potential for advanced information technology to be utilised as part of addressing society’s complex social challenges.

This is built upon a foundation of a Software Engineering undergraduate degree, and then a decade working in the Scientific Computing field, primarily at the Victorian Partnership for Advanced Computing (VPAC). During this time I developed in-depth skills in developing and leading projects in research fields reliant on scientific computing capabilities, such as Geophysics, Bioinformatics, and Materials Science. Further, I participated as part of a VPAC group that aimed to innovate in the process of utilising Computational software in research:- in particular, via developing Open Source software frameworks with the aim of raising the productivity and effectiveness of entire research communities, rather than just individual researchers.

In 2008, I decided to change focus and pursue opportunities to apply this expertise to a specific field – Urban and Regional Planning. Via undertaking a Masters degree at the University of South Australia, and then continuing on to a PhD at the Australasian Center for the Governance and Management of Urban Transportation, I have developed an appreciation of the great challenges in governance, policy making, ethics and values that are essential to urban planning, over and above technical approaches.

Thus as part of my PhD research I would highlight several research interests at the interdisciplinary convergence of these fields: Sustainable Transportation, Transport and Land Use Modelling, Community Informatics (particularly the dynamics of the Open Data movement and Peer Production), Urban Governance, particularly proposed reform approaches such as Deliberative Democracy.

As well as my University of Melbourne affiliation I am a participant in the emerging Kororoit Institute, a local research and action network bringing together people interested in communities, complex systems, information technology, environmental issues, and spatial planning.

During my PhD I plan to contribute and share some of the learning from the project via the Appropedia appropriate and sustainable technology web information commons. My page on Appropedia is [|linked here].