This past year the City Science team welcomed esteemed researchers from throughout the City Science Network to present their current research and upcoming plans. Themes included data-enabled decision making, digital twins, DAO’s for pro-social development, the future of mobility, innovation in informality, robotics in urban environments and more. 

In a rapidly evolving world, cities face unprecedented challenges that demand innovative solutions. The lectures represented an important knowledge exchange for researchers who share a common  vision to enable more livable, equitable and resilient communities. In addition, each lecture included an interactive question and answer session to allow for additional collaboration opportunities. The complete list of lectures and presentations is listed below.

City Science Network lectures were recorded and are available to Network members.
Weren’t able to attend? Email Maggie Church at mdchurch@media.mit.edu for more information.

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Digital Urban Twins
Connecting Hyper Local Knowledge for Global Challenges 

City Science Lab @ Hamburg

February 28, 2023

We call Hamburg our Urban Testbed. Our work is deeply rooted in the Digital Strategy of the City. In almost all our projects we collaborate closely with multiple municipal stakeholders and develop and co-create tools based on the local needs of Hamburg's administration. From the Cockpit of Social Infrastructure to our new project on Finding Places for Wind Turbines, we work with local specificity. But not least through our Sister Lab UNITAC, a collaboration with the United Nations, we started to try to deploy our tools to different cities with a special focus on the global south. 

Presented by: Martin Barner, Hilke Berger, Stefan Brezina, Rico Herzog, Annika Kuhn and Sophie Naue.

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Contextual and Decentralized - Empowering the Local for Global Challenges

City Science Lab @ Shanghai

March 28, 2023

The City Science Lab@Shanghai is based in Tongji University. In the past few years, we have initiated projects including CityScope LivingLine, Equity WITHOUT Zoning and Sustainable Cities WITH Decentralization. Our team members span the fields of urban and architectural design, software engineering, urban informatics, and service design to name a few.  

Presented by: Leon Yang Liu, Jarmo Suominen, Weiwei Guo, Ryan Yan Zhang, Charlotte Jiwen Ge, Chance Jiajie Li, Brian Kejiang Qian, Jue Ma and Aaron Songzhilin Shi.

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Coordinating National Ambitions with Global Innovation, Sustainable Development and Scientific Research

City Science Lab @ Andorra

April 25, 2023

The Andorran City Science Lab is managed by Andorra Research + Innovation (AR+I), a public entity in charge of generating and promoting knowledge, providing innovative solutions for sustainable development and contributing to the diversification of the Andorran economy. Divided in Technology, Society, Mountain and Sustainability areas, AR+I is involved in many scopes in the national and international sphere.

Presented by: Jordi Ascensi-Sala, Vanesa Arroyo, Aurora Crespo and Ian Serra.

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Reimagining the Costanera in Concepción, Chile

City Science Lab @ Biobío

May 23, 2023

The lab is based in Biobío, one of the most important regions of the country. 

The team is currently researching the Costanera de Concepción, a historical space of interaction between the city and the river, composed of the Pedro del Río, Aurora de Chile and Pedro de Valdivia neighborhoods. Under the leadership of Marcela Martínez, director of the laboratory, the team strives to imagine a new human-centered future for their communities.

Presented by: Marcela Martinez, Fernando Perez, Martín Andrade, and Helen de la Fuente Contreras.

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Diverse, functional, low impact urban design

City Science Lab @ Guadalajara

June 27, 2023 

The City Science Lab at the University of Guadalajara is an interdisciplinary team focused on basic and applied sciences. The Lab focuses on research for the development of emerging technologies to understand human behavior in urban environments and enable the design of sustainable communities. The Lab has worked extensively with informal communities introducing innovative technologies to improve quality of life- while learning, listening and taking inspiration from their creative problem solving.

Presented by: Mayra Gamboa, Gamaliel Palomo, Raquel Padilla, Juan Rodolfo and Larissa Pérez.

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From Bytes to Choices 
Exploring the synergy of bottom-up data-driven decision making processes

City Science Lab @ Taipei

July 25, 2023

In this talk, we will bring you the most recent research developments from CSL@Taipei Tech. We're specifically focusing on the crossroads of design technology and policy within Taipei's unique context. Collaborating closely with partners from academia, industry, and government is a cornerstone in virtually all of our projects. Drawing inspiration from MIT Media Lab City Science group’s research, we're presenting a set of digital tools that enables a bottom-up data-driven approach for building future communities. 

Presented by: Prof. Rick Chuang, Evelyn Liu, Justin Zhang, Eric Huang, Moris Chen, Homer Su, Hao Yang, Allen Song, Bruce Lin.

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