NETWORKING SMARTER CITIES
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> DEPARTMENT OF URBAN STUDIES AND PLANNING MIT
Cities represent crossroads, the nodes of interaction and communication for global networks of people, goods, money, places, and information. Emerging real-time data, spatiallyaware applications, ubiquitous computing, new media, and digital visualization are changing the ways that cities function and how they are formed and designed. Our goal is to find ways to use innovative new technologies to build smarter, more efficient, and more livable cities.
NETWORKING SMARTER CITIES
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THE RISE OF THE PLATFORM OR ‘SHARING’ ECONOMY IN URBAN SPACES
DIGITAL CITY DESIGN WORKSHOP
This project looks at the political economy of ‘disruptive’ market transformation within the rise of the platform or ‘sharing’ economy. It assesses the role of social and political institutions in shaping market outcomes across diverse international contexts. The research focuses on app-based ‘ridesharing’ firms in urban transportation markets, which offer the promise of technologically sophisticated and ‘efficient’ private mobility solutions as an alternative to incumbent state organized systems, thus reviving classic debates of markets versus planning. Jason Jackson
> DIGITAL MATATUS: OPEN DATA FOR INFORMAL TRANSIT SYSTEMS
Digital Matatus illustrates how anyone can leverage the ubiquitous nature of mobile technology in developing countries to collect data for an essential infrastructure, give it out freely, and in the process encourage the government to develop channels to provide better access to information. Conceived out of collaboration between American and Kenyan Universities, partnering with Nairobi’s growing technology sector, this project captured data on Nairobi’s informal transit system, called Matatus, developed mobile routing applications, and designed a new transit map for Nairobi that changed how both the residents and government see their transit system. Sarah Williams
DEPARTMENT OF URBAN STUDIES AND PLANNING MIT
DUSPMIT’s Digital City Design Workshop explores technological solutions to address key concerns of urban living. Recent projects have worked on the ground in Melbourne, Amsterdam, Rio de Janeiro, Cape Town, Zaragoza, and Medellín using real-time data from remote sensing and pervasive information technology to coordinate urban design, infrastructure, and public services. Dennis Frenchman and Carlo Ratti
> THE FUTURE OF MOBILITY
Future Urban Mobility (FM) is an Interdisciplinary Research Group under the Singapore MIT Alliance for Research and Technology (SMART). Now in its seventh year, FM involves MIT faculty from Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, Civil and Environmental Engineering and four DUSP faculty, with a research group of more than 40 individuals based in Singapore. DUSP work involves behavioral and institutional analysis of new mobility services enabled by autonomous vehicles, development of next generation integrated urban microsimulation tools, new forms technology-enabled data collection on passenger and freight mobility, and innovative behavioral analysis to inform urban mobility planning. Joe Ferreira, Carlo Ratti, Chris Zegras, and Jinhua Zhao
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NETWORKING SMARTER CITIES
DEPARTMENT OF URBAN STUDIES AND PLANNING MIT
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SOCIAL MOBILITY SHARING
INNOVATIVE PRODUCTS, SPACES, AND TECHNOLOGY
Traffic congestion, dominated by single-occupancy vehicles, reflects not only transportation system inefficiency and externality, but also a sociological state of human isolation. The MIT Mobility Lab develops human-centric ride-sharing systems that respect both network efficiency and individuals’ preferences (or lack of) for human interaction; and explore shared mobility as an opportunity for increasing social capital and fostering urban creativity and agglomeration. Jinhua Zhao
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IMMIGRATION, NEIGHBORHOOD CHANGE, AND BIG DATA
In collaboration with Universitat Autonoma de Barcelona, researchers are studying the patterns of mobility related to immigrant inflows in Spain. Using administrative data, they are learning how changes in housing occupancy and local and international migration relate to housing supply and demand at the neighborhood scale. The results will guide policy through a deeper understanding of the influence of immigrant population on housing and neighborhood desirability. Albert Saiz
This project part is about mapping the foundation of innovation to the built environment. The path of innovation is important for understanding the adoption of new technologies and the system that has developed to bring new products and processes to the market efficiently. The stages of innovation - R&D, invention, innovation, and diffusion - is an important consideration in understanding costs, human capital requirements, value changes, and market incentives. Dennis Frenchman, David Geltner, and Andrea Chegut
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EDUCATION ARCADE
Researchers at DUSPMIT’s Education Arcade create and explore games that promote learning through authentic and engaging play. By demonstrating the social, cultural, and educational potential of videogames and initiating new game development projects, this interdisciplinary research effort informs public conversations about the broader and sometimes unexpected uses of this emerging art form in education. Eric Klopfer
Design: Mario Avila Design