EMS Outreach & Communication Award 2026: Instant AI Urban Climate Modelling and LEGO®

In 2026 the award goes to the innovative project: “Workshop with Instant AI Urban Climate Modelling and LEGO®” initiated by Prof. Dr. Lesley De Cruz and developed together with her dedicated research team.

Citation:

This outstanding initiative successfully bridges complex meteorological science and public outreach, making the invisible dynamics of the Urban Heat Island (UHI) effect both tangible and actionable for audiences of all ages.

Traditional climate communication can often feel abstract to the general public. This award-winning workshop flips the script by turning climate education into a hands-on, playful, and deeply scientific experience. The project enables diverse audiences to explore and understand sustainable urban design through a creative process that combines familiar building blocks with real-time AI modelling.

The award will be presented during the Awards Session at the EMS Annual Meeting in Utrecht on Monday, 7 September 2026, and the project will be presented in the EMS2026 Media and Communication Session on the following day.

The workshop flow relies on a simple yet effective interactive cycle:

• Build: Participants use familiar LEGO bricks to design and build their own micro-cities, representing different land-use choices like roads, buildings, water features, and vegetation.
• Scan: The physical LEGO model is placed inside a custom-built Temperature Booth, where it is scanned and translated into a digitized map.
• Simulate: An onboard, specialized AI-based urban climate model instantly processes the land-cover data to generate a localized temperature map.
• Analyze & Redesign: Participants immediately see how their architectural choices directly impact local heat patterns. They are then encouraged to experimen – such as substituting a parking lot with a park – and witness how the AI-driven heat map shifts in real time.

By focusing on the evening and night-time heat-retention characteristics of cities, the workshop provides non-expert audiences and children (especially from age 7 onwards) with an intuitive understanding of urban planning and climate resilience.

Since its debut at the I Love Science festival, the workshop has achieved remarkable public and academic success:

• Massive Outreach: The project has engaged thousands of children, families, and science enthusiasts across various public fairs and weekend schools. The project is presented on the Academy’s social media: Academy’s social media
• Academic Recognition: Beyond public engagement, the scientific methodology and educational evaluation of the project have been presented at major conferences, including the EGU General Assembly in 2024 and the 12th International Conference on Urban Climate in 2025, where it secured second place for the Best Student Presentation Award.
• Media & Prizes: The initiative won the prestigious annual Science Communication Prize of the Royal Flemish Academy of Belgium for Science and the Arts and the Young Academy and has been featured both in local media (also in here) and a dedicated TEDx talk by Prof. De Cruz (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8IraaA1qrYQ).

The project’s success is driven by a multidisciplinary team bridging urban climate science, meteorology, artificial intelligence, and education:

• Prof. Dr. Lesley De Cruz (Vrije Universiteit Brussel / Royal Meteorological Institute of Belgium) – Project initiator, supervisor, and funding lead.
• MSc Andrei Covaci (VUB / RMIB) – PhD researcher who spearheaded the development of the AI-based temperature model.
• MSc Firass Kooli (VUB) – Designed and constructed the initial physical “Temperature Booth”.
• MSc Geert De Paepe (Karel de Grote University of Applied Sciences and Arts / VUB) – Enhanced the user interface and managed public demonstrations.
• Dr. Sara Top (Ghent University) – Contributed core scientific expertise in urban climate modeling and outreach.

The project was financed by Innoviris