Newswise — Over half the world’s population now resides in urban areas, according to estimates, and that figure is expected to rise to over 70% by 2050.
Cities, now more than ever, need to leverage advanced technologies, from sensing, to communications, to data science and AI to forecast disasters and optimize emergency response, rethink planning methods and new construction to better enable aging populations to thrive, design infrastructure that can withstand catastrophic climate related incidents, and create connected healthcare systems that extend beyond hospital walls.
As cities worldwide grapple with these complex challenges, NYU Tandon School of Engineering is launching the Urban Institute, an NYU-wide initiative that unites multiple academic disciplines to conduct rigorous research and educate the next generation of urban scholars. The Institute represents a cohesive effort to develop scientifically-validated solutions for a future built around urban living.
“NYU has a long history of high-quality, high-impact urban research and education across several schools, departments, and centers, that address environment, construction, transportation, housing and more,” said said Juan de Pablo, NYU’s Anne and Joel Ehrenkranz Executive Vice President for Global Science & Technology and Executive Dean of NYU Tandon, who oversees the Institute.”The Institute brings these remarkable strengths together, creating unprecedented opportunities for collaboration that will establish our global leadership role while maximizing the impact of our collective expertise and resources.”
The Institute’s roll-out marks NYU’s latest move to restructure its scientific research and education around real-world problems rather than within traditional departmental boundaries. Last month, Tandon unveiled its new B.S. in Environmental Engineering program that educates students on engineering fundamentals while including interdisciplinary exploration in policy, sustainability, and public health.
The approach reflects what NYU Tandon calls an ‘allergy to the status quo’ that dismantles academic silos constraining advances that may use artificial intelligence, quantum computing, and data science.
“NYU’s unique position, embedded in the world’s greatest urban laboratory while maintaining a global network, offers us the ability to pilot technology-driven solutions to urban challenges that can be adapted worldwide,” said Maurizio Porfiri, the Institute’s inaugural director. “Research already underway includes using AI to predict mobility patterns during disasters and optimize evacuations, monitoring urban flooding in real time and creating immersive flood simulations that help communities visualize climate risks, and developing digital twins for traffic planning and embodied AI that protects construction workers. These are just a small sample of the innovations that the Institute will expand into broadly applicable solutions for urban life worldwide.”
The Urban Institute’s launch follows other efforts that similarly break down traditional academic walls. Last year, NYU announced the new Institute for Engineering Health, a joint venture between NYU Tandon and NYU Langone Medical Center. NYU Tandon expanded its M.S. in Emerging Technology program, allowing more students to build personalized engineering curricula drawing from multiple AI-focused disciplines, and unveiled a new M.S. in Quantum Science & Technology that offers an interdisciplinary curriculum spanning quantum computation, programming, sensing devices, optics, and machine learning with theory and hands-on experience.
The Urban Institute will conduct research and education – and find solutions – in physical infrastructure, natural environment, urban systems, and the science of cities, leveraging advances in AI, data science, and complex systems to inform and shape those efforts.
Rather than merging existing programs, the Institute will coordinate and streamline curriculum offerings along critical areas that shape the future of urban science and engineering, including construction management & urban project delivery, urban environment & sustainability, resilient infrastructures, smart and cognitive cities, and urban computing.
Centered at NYU Tandon, the Institute will initially draw faculty from the Civil and Urban Engineering Department (CUE) – whose researchers design infrastructure systems and develop innovations in construction, transportation, and sustainability – and from from the Center for Urban Science + Progress (CUSP) – whose researchers contribute new data-informed insight into how cities operate, grow, and improve. Porfiri is the Director of CUSP and interim CUE chair.
“The Institute’s direction will be charted by the amazing faculty coming together around this effort,” added Porfiri. Faculty members who will be involved include those from NYU Tandon centers like C2SMART — NYU Tandon’s transportation research center whose work includes an award-winning “Digital Twin” project with the New York City Fire Department to reduce emergency response times – the Sustainable Engineering Initiative, the newly-formed Center for Robotics and Embodied Intelligence and Floodnet. Faculty labs include the AI4CE lab, Building Informatics and Visualization Lab, Climate, Energy, and Risk Analytics Lab, Immersive Computing Lab, People+Technology Lab, Silverman Lab, Smart Innovations in Built Environment Research (SiBER) Lab, Urban Modeling Lab, The Urban Planet Lab and others.
The Institute is being launched now and is expected to begin the execution of its education and research agenda next year, with input of all its stakeholders