Ernesto G. Arias Clare is Professor Emeritus of Planning and Design and Faculty Fellow of the Institute of Cognitive Sciences at the University of Colorado where he taught Architecture, City Planning, and Computer Science, founded the Urban Simulations Laboratory, and co-founded the Center for LifeLong Learning and Design (L3D). His Ph.D. in City and Regional Planning and Masters in Architecture and Planning are from the University of Pennsylvania. The pursuit of his research experience has been toward a contribution of the collaborative framing and resolution of design and planning problems through participation. To this end he has integrated environmental psychology and professional work on urban planning and design with the development ofinnovative technologies to better understand how we behave, think, and learn in trying to enhance the human competence and understanding to better design, plan, and use the built environment in the future.
Activities related to the EDC development include past Fulbright Research and Teaching Scholar (participation), past chair of the National Track in Urban Design of the American Collegiate Schools of Planning (design), and past member of the International Scientific Advisory Board of the National Institute of High Technology of Costa Rica (information technology). Some of his major planning and urban design experiences include ABUJA (the New Capital City of Nigeria), and various city redevelopments in the U.S.A (planning problems). He is presently a professor at the University of Costa Rica where he founded and coordinates the Urban Observatory of the Great Metropolitan Region in Costa Rica (OUGAM).
