- City Science
Leticia Izquierdo is a PhD student at the MIT Media Lab, driven by a passion for ensuring that AI-driven city design and operation truly incorporate human experience, reflecting how people actually live, feel, and connect. Originally trained in architecture and computational design at the Polytechnic University of Madrid, she’s created generative urban-planning tools (Immersive Scope), investigated safer mobility and neighborhood planning through metrics and agent-based models (Lomas del Centinela Safety Studies), and explored how our minds interact with urban environments (Neurodesign Explorations in Shanghai).
Her work has been showcased at the Venice Architecture Biennale—including her participatory action research on women’s safety, selected for the 2018 Spanish Pavilion, and ICT for Safer Cities— and the Boston Museum of Science (Community Carbon Impact). Before joining MIT, she collaborated with EIT Climate to advance city-wide decarbonization efforts, and contributed to self-driving mobility initiatives (Rebuild the City with Autonomous Mobility). She also worked with architecture studios, nonprofit organizations—including Balkrishna Doshi’s foundation in India—and international research initiatives such as the UNESCO-UN Women Chair on Gender, Technology, and Innovation.