Dr Fernberg is a landscape designer and environmental planner whose appetite for working in the built environment was whetted from visiting cities around the world while working in entertainment on cruise ships.
A first degree in Latin American studies and urban planning was followed by a Master’s in landscape architecture at Louisiana State University. It was here that he became interested in using the latest geospatial technology to tackle ecological problems in the Mekong Delta, where he was providing indirect consultancy to the World Bank.u
Stints as a landscape designer in multidisciplinary and engineering practices were followed by a PhD at Utah State University – an unusual career move in landscape design. A fellowship with the Landscape Architecture Foundation developed his interest in AI and his doctorate focused on the implications for AI on landscape architecture and design in the built environment.
He says: “My PhD supervisor is a computational forestry, computer science, and planning expert. I wanted to make sure that my training was not wholly focused within the discipline, but rather, where the boundaries of the discipline meet others.”