Dr Ann Forsyth, Professor of City and Regional Planning at Cornell University (Ithaca, USA) spent valuable time with the students and faculty members of SPAV. She spent almost a week in Vijayawada at the SPAV Campus between Feb 05 - 12, 2011. Dr Ann is in South Asia a part of a research assignment regarding transformation in urban peripherial areas in South Asia. During her stay in Vijayawada, she primarily interacted with the students of the Department of Planning, giving a series of lectures on 'Healthy Planning' and 'Techniques of City Planning'. She held workshops with the second year students of Planning about their studio assignments related to Housing Development and the third year Planning students about their assignment of comprehensive urban development planning for Kottayam, Kerala, where she imparted ideas about alternative practices to approach urban development challenges. She also delivered a combined lecture to all batches of Architecture and Planning titled "Healthy Places: Designers and Planners Perspective" sharing her experiences from other parts of the globe. On her final day, she conducted a seminar on 'portfolio development for planners' for students of Architecture and Planning.

Dr Forsyth held discussions with faculty members on aspects of exploring possibilities of collaborative education. Dr Forsyth is currently the Director of 'Centre of Design for Health' at the Cornell University. She has taught at Harvard, Massachusetts, and Minnesota and have won over 50 awards for various research and practice assignments. She completed her Architecture degree from University of Sydney, her MA in Urban Planning from University of California Los Angeles, and her PhD in Planning from Cornell University.