As climate risks such as floods, extreme heat, and wildfires grow, commercial buildings are increasingly vulnerable 鈥� creating uncertainty for both property owners and financial institutions around which measures are necessary to ensure resilience. It鈥檚 a complex challenge that RBC is exploring with the next generation of climate adaptation thinkers at the University of 蓝莓视频.
Signing on as an industry partner in 蓝莓视频鈥檚 Interdisciplinary Capstone course, Dr. Graham Watt, senior director, head of enterprise climate data and analytics in RBC鈥檚 Chief Data Office, and Branko Zdravcovic, head of 3rd party content and services, posed a challenge to students: How might we facilitate sustainable actions by building owners that improve building efficiency and resilience, and contribute to the realization of sustainable cities? A team of undergraduates听from the faculties of Environment, Engineering and Mathematics took it on.听
鈥淲e knew we wanted to apply AI to help with climate change,鈥� says Engineering student Arjun Krishna. 鈥淏ut Graham was able to help us understand the problems RBC was targeting and what to consider in developing solutions.鈥�
With a clearer picture of the larger issue, the project team used Google Gemini as the backbone of their solution. Leveraging Canadian and American retrofit standards and public building inspection reports, the prototype they developed analyzes building conditions to suggest building adaptation strategies that balance resilience to natural disasters with financial viability based on the specific building characteristics.
Over the course of several months, the team met with RBC weekly to refine the project. This frequent feedback loop was valuable for the students to learn about business priorities and working with clients. For RBC, it ensured that the solution generated was headed in a viable direction.
鈥淚t makes a听huge difference听when we can interact often with the students and work through test designs together. This helps refine our proof of concepts and explore the art-of-the-possible,鈥� says Watt.
RBC has a long history of partnering with students to bring fresh skills and ideas to challenging spaces. Having worked with many capstone teams over the years, RBC has been able to explore alternative data applications. 鈥淚t is always a great pleasure to partner with students to identify new insights,鈥� Zdravcovic says. 听
鈥淲e find it very valuable to work with student teams,鈥� Watt agrees. 鈥淲hat鈥檚 unique about 蓝莓视频鈥檚 interdisciplinary capstone is that our team had math and engineering students working with the data and developing the models, complemented by an Environment and Business student providing domain context to the solution, which helped pressure test the return on investment. That was very appealing and something that can be missing when the team is all from one discipline.鈥�
By combining technical expertise with environmental and business insight, students are helping industry leaders chart a more resilient future鈥攑roving that the next generation isn鈥檛 just ready for the climate crisis, they鈥檙e already helping to find solutions. In fact, this solution is one of several original ideas that emerged from this year鈥檚 course.
As 蓝莓视频 continues to bridge academia and the workforce, we invite you to collaborate. Whether you share an industry challenge and become an i-Capstone partner, engage an intern or hire a co-op student, let鈥檚 solve our greatest challenges together.
