Urban studies and planning

ROBOAT, a new collaboration between researchers from MIT and partner institutions in the Netherlands, seeks to design and deploy a fleet of autonomous boats on the canals of Amsterdam.

An autonomous fleet for Amsterdam

MIT, AMS Institute will collaborate to solve complex urban problems for Amsterdam with the development of autonomous "roboats."

September 19, 2016

“Design is one of many forces that can contribute to improving society. As a physical piece of most people’s lives, it is very important,” says Brent Ryan, an associate professor in MIT’s Department of Urban Studies and Planning.

Blueprints for renewal

Professor of urban design and public policy Brent Ryan believes good architecture can help revive cities.

September 19, 2016

“The way we measure street lighting is still very primitive,” says Sumeet Kumar PhD ’14. Kumar and his team came up with the idea of replacing manual inspections with a set of cameras and sensors mounted on top of a vehicle, in much the same way that Google uses vehicle-mounted camera systems to generate its street views.

Drive-by monitoring for urban streetlights

System developed at MIT could automate inspection for efficiency and maintenance issues.

September 16, 2016

STL Lab and MIT Game Lab project participants work together to develop and test a socially responsible real estate game.

A novel approach to teaching socially responsible real estate: games

MIT’s Samuel Tak Lee MIT Real Estate Entrepreneurship Lab uses gaming to advance its mission in China.

September 2, 2016

A study led by MIT researchers suggests that using mobile-phone data to track people’s movement provides a deeper picture of exposure to pollution in urban settings, compared to only studying air-quality levels in fixed places.

Measuring exposure to pollution

Mobile-phone data helps researchers study an urban problem in greater detail.

September 1, 2016

Researchers from MIT and Ford Motor have developed a new computational system that uses cellphone location data to infer urban mobility patterns.

Inferring urban travel patterns from cellphone data

Big-data analysis could give city planners timelier, more accurate alternatives to commuter surveys.

August 29, 2016

Lily Bui (center) poses at a GPS painting event in Christchurch, New Zealand.

Integrating user-collected data in city planning

Lily Bui draws upon science, art, and public advocacy to enrich urban design.

August 26, 2016

Field test participant Asma Patham uses a water test kit in the Khodiyarnagar neighborhood of Ahmedabad.

MIT-USAID program releases technology evaluation of water test kits

Study of water test kits used in Gujarat, India, assesses suitability, scalability, and sustainability.

August 23, 2016

John Fernández is a professor of building technology in the MIT Department of Architecture and director of the MIT Environmental Solutions Initiative.

John Fernández: Growing grassroots for sustainability on campus and abroad

Environmental Solutions Initiative’s new director discusses sustainable development, student engagement, and making Baker House his home.

August 2, 2016

To simulate objects, MIT CSAIL researchers analyzed video clips to find “vibration modes” at different frequencies that each represent distinct ways that an object can move.

Reach in and touch objects in videos with “Interactive Dynamic Video”

Technique from Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Lab could improve augmented reality and reduce the need for CGI green-screens.

August 2, 2016

Judith Tendler, professor emerita in urban studies and planning, dies at 77

With an optimistic outlook, Tendler combined development economics and organizational theory to advise governments.

July 27, 2016

Assessing health impacts of policies and plans

New class offers urban planners tools to explore the intersection of city planning and public health.

July 26, 2016

“The Cultures of Markets: The Political Economy of Climate Governance,” by Janelle Knox-Hayes (pictured), published by Oxford University Press.

Market makers

Good emissions trading programs are unique, not one-size-fits-all, new book argues.

July 26, 2016

“Beijing Studio” celebrates 30 years

MIT–Tsinghua collaboration grapples with urban issues in China.

July 14, 2016

Jamal Abdul Nasser Traffic Circle in Amman, Jordan

Improving pavement management in Jordan

Concrete Sustainability Hub researcher Omar Swei is working to help Jordanian planners optimize maintenance on state-owned highways.

July 11, 2016

MIT News | Massachusetts Institute of Technology

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