New urban science major coming to MIT this fall

2018-06-22T17:52:00-04:00

Urban settlements and technology around the world are co-evolving as flows of population, finance, and politics are reshaping the very identity of cities and nations. Rapid and profound changes are driven by pervasive sensing, the growth and availability of continuous data streams, advanced analytics, interactive communications and social networks, and distributed intelligence. At MIT, urban planners and computer scientists are embracing these exciting new developments.

Massachusetts Institute of Technology faculty recently voted to have its existing urban planning and computer science programs join forces and create a new undergraduate degree, the bachelor of science in urban science and planning with computer science.

"The rise of autonomous vehicles, sensor-enabled self-management of natural resources, cybersecurity for critical infrastructure, biometric identity, the sharing or gig economy, and continuous public engagement opportunities through social networks and data and visualization are a few of the elements that are converging to shape our places of living," explains the university's announcement.

Hashim Sarkis, dean of MIT's School of Architecture and Planning, said: “Every now and then, the world puts in front of us new problems that require new tools and forms of knowledge to address them. The growing challenges that cities are facing today has prompted us to develop this new major in urban science. We are combining the tools of AI and ...

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New urban science major coming to MIT this fall