People

Dr. Megha Tyagi

  • Role in Center:

    SMUS Postdoctoral Researcher

  • Discipline:

    Urban Planning

  • University:

    IIT Roorkee

  • Country:

    India

Biography: Dr. Megha Tyagi is an urban researcher who studies cities through a human-centric perspective to bring the voices of the traditionally marginalized population groups (children, women and persons with disabilities) into the mainstream city planning and design process. She holds a bachelor’s (2013) and master’s (2016) degree in Architecture; and an interdisciplinary PhD (2021) intersecting different fields of urban planning, urban mobility and children’s geographies. Her PhD research was one of the earliest from India investigating the impact of neighbourhood environment on children’s independent mobility to school and local destinations. Post-PhD, she has worked with international partners at UNICEF, UN-Habitat and North Carolina State University on various urban projects in different capacities. She got associated with GCSMUS in 2021 as a part of the team that developed 1st generation MOOC (Massive Open Online Course) from India under Action 5. As part of her SMUS postdoctoral scholarship, she has recently submitted two grant proposals to two separate European funding bodies.

Working title of research proposal: “The Wheels of Change: Rethinking Children’s Independent Mobility to school in the Era of Autonomous Vehicles”.

Selected Publications:

  •  

    1. Tyagi, M., Raheja, G. (2021) Children’s independent mobility licence and its association with the built and social environment: A study across neighbourhood typologies in Kolkata. Children’s Geographies. https://doi.org/10.1080/14733285.2021.1891526

     

    1. Tyagi, M., Raheja, G. (2020): Indian parents’ perception of children’s independent mobility in urban neighbourhoods: a case of Delhi. Children’s Geographies. https://doi.org/10.1080/14733285.2020.1797996

     

    1. Tyagi, M., Raheja, G. (2021) Understanding children’s independent mobility through the lens of universal design: a case of Delhi, India. In I. Verma (Ed.) Universal Design 2021: From Special to Mainstream Solutions. Proceedings of the 5th International conference on Universal Design, UD2021, Aalto University, Finland. IOS press. https://ebooks.iospress.nl/doi/10.3233/SHTI210411

     

    1. Tyagi, M., Raheja, G. (2020) “Are children independently mobile to school anymore?” A comparative study of two neighbourhoods in Kolkata, India. In J. Rodríguez Álvarez & J.C. Soares Gonçalves (Eds.) Planning Post Carbon Cities. Proceedings of the 35th PLEA Conference on Passive and Low Energy Architecture. A Coruña: University of A Coruña. ISBN: 978-84-9749-794-7.DOI: https://doi.org/10.17979/spudc.9788497497947

     

    1. Dasgupta, S., Tyagi, M. (2021) Para, adda and residents of Kolkata: Need for design of new neighbourhoods accommodating cultural legacies. In Design for Tomorrow: Proceedings of ICoRD 2021, IIT Bombay. Springer Publications, Inc. ISBN 978-981-16-0040-1. http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/978-981-16-0041-8_24

     

    1. Raheja, G., Tyagi, M. (2016): Mobility Experience of Persons with Visual Impairments in Indian Railway Station Environments. 3rd International Conference on Universal Design UD2016, York. IOS Press. http://ebooks.iospress.nl/ISBN/978-1-61499-684-2

Areas of Expertise:

1. Urban Mobility
2. Children’s Independent Mobility
3. Active Living
4. Participatory Urban Planning
5. Inclusive Design

Current Position(s):

SMUS Postdoctoral Researcher, Institute of Urban and Regional Planning, Technical University Berlin, Germany

Researcher, Active and Healthy Environments for Adolescents in India (AHEAD) project, North Carolina State University, USA

Past Position(s)

2021: Research Associate, Laboratory of Inclusive Design, Department of Architecture & Planning, Indian Institute of Technology Roorkee (IIT Roorkee), India

2021: Research Assistant, UNICEF (consultancy)

2016-2021: Ph.D. Scholar, Department of Architecture & Planning, IIT Roorkee, India

2013-2014: Junior Architect, Suresh Goel & Associates, Delhi, India

Prizes & Awards:

2014: Postgraduate GATE (Gradate Aptitude Test in Engineering) scholarship, Ministry of Education, Government of India

2016: Doctoral GATE (Gradate Aptitude Test in Engineering) scholarship, Ministry of Education, Government of India

Memberships & Networks:

International Play Association https://ipaworld.org/

PlacemakingX https://www.placemakingx.org/

HumaQind India https://www.humanqind.org/

The Center for Conscious Design https://theccd.org/conscious-cities/