Dr. Ulaş Akın
Sustainable Urban Systems, Governance & Data-Driven Planning Advisor
Dr. Ulaş Akın is an impact entrepreneur and the founding partner of ekorteL - Urban εκοSystems Lab, an innovation catalyst platform. Ulaş is an experienced planner, acting in a large range of scales from urban design to regional planning.
He is an active member of Istanbul Metropolitan Planning and Urban Design Center (IMP), the alternative planning organization of the city. Within IMP, he plays a significant role in EU relations and international affairs, organizing international workshops with 22@Barcelona, London School of Economics, and municipalities and harbor companies of Rotterdam and Amsterdam.
Ulaş holds B.Sc., M.Sc. and Ph.D. degrees from Istanbul Technical University, and studied urban management and urban governance at Erasmus University in Rotterdam, The Netherlands. He has been involved in spatial and sectoral planning projects at various scales including Istanbul Metropolitan Area, Thrace Sub-Region, and Marmara geographical region in Turkey.
His international experience includes contributions to local government associations' networks in the Balkans (NALAS), European Union's FP6 and FP7 Research and Development Programs, UN-Habitat's Global Future Cities, and World Bank's Sustainable Cities Programs. He consults on localizing UN SDGs.
Ulaş conducts research on capacity building in urban management using actor-network theory to analyze Istanbul's urban and regional planning experience. He applies serious gaming to the field of capacity building via the Play the City project.
He has publications on urban energy efficiency, smart city policies, urban agriculture, urban information and communication technologies (ICTs), and multi-level coordination. He is a guest lecturer at universities in Turkey, Europe, and the USA, and serves as a thesis advisor. Dr. Ulaş Akın is a member of the MARUF19 and MARUF21 Steering Committee.
At Ecoheart, Ulaş advises on sustainable urban systems, governance, and data-driven planning, bringing his expertise in smart cities, multi-level coordination, and community-driven urban development.