Children are the citizen of today and their active participation in the life and decision-making reveals the common sense that "what is good for children is also good for society at large.” 

Ataol is a Ph.D. candidate in the Urbanism and Urban Architecture (UUA) research group at the Eindhoven University of Technology (TU/e). She shares the editorship of Media+Book Review at Children, Youth and Environments journal. Her research focuses on the role of participatory urban planning in creating child-focused inclusive urban environments with children and their caregivers. Her experience includes collaborations with locals as well as with public and private institutions such as local governments, NGOs, and foundations within the fields of evidence-driven policymaking and participatory urban planning with children. As an urban planner and researcher, she dedicated her research to empowering children in urban planning since children are a distinctive user group of urban environments as well as because the built environment is a significant indicator in children’s physical and mental development starting from birth.

She advocates for children's right to participate in every matter children think matters, including their cities. She believes in and her scholarship furthers inclusive development processes for urban environments. She is committed to achieving international goals and agendas, such as Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and New Urban Agenda (NUA), with children as urban citizens. Specifically, her scholarship contributes to knowledge towards the implementation of SDG#11 –enhance inclusive urbanization and provide access to safe, inclusive, and accessible public spaces for all and NUA’s vision of cities for all, promoting inclusivity, equal use, and accessibility.