Core faculty: Professors Gulsah Akar, Clio Andris, William J. Drummond, Subhro Guhathakurta, Yiyi He, Perry Pei-Ju Yang

The MCRP specialization in urban analytics is designed for students with an interest in tackling significant urban problems through the acquisition, integration, and analysis of data generated by a diversity of sources in the urban environment. With the increasing availability of data, we can now ask more complex spatially and temporally defined questions about how cities function and how they impact the quality of life of the residents and the environment. Urban analytics is an emerging field that incorporates smart cities, urban informatics, and urban science. Students will gain analytical skills to address major issues cities continue to face, including air, water, and land pollution, carbon emissions, traffic congestion, inadequate housing options, and disparities in the provision of urban services, among others. The curriculum places special emphasis on social end-values such as sustainability, justice, and resilience, and on individual data rights including privacy and transparency. The specialization courses will enable students to explore key theories and concepts in urban analytics. Students will also develop a practical understanding of the basic principles of how high-fidelity spatial and temporal data are created, organized, and analyzed to enhance city planning.  

Students earning the MCRP specialization in Urban Analytics will be able to: 

• Understand fundamental principles across a range of core areas in urban analytics, including urban systems, spatial analysis, and GIS, and data modeling and visualization.
• Identify and frame problems in sustainable urban planning and development that can be addressed using the tools of urban analytics and data science.
• Understand and use methods for acquiring, managing, and utilizing large and fast-moving streams of data.
• Select, build, solve, and analyze urban system models using appropriate methodology.
• Apply and integrate the knowledge and skills students have gained, to successfully develop and execute urban analytics projects.
• Communicate complex ideas about solving urban analytic problems within the context of social and ethical responsibilities in data handling and analysis. 

Students will be required to take: 

CP8883     Introduction to Urban Analytics (annual)

And one of the following: 

CP 6552    Design of Smart Urban Systems (annual)
CP 6521    Advanced GIS (annual) 

Students should take two additional courses from the following list (to complete 12 credits).  

CP 6531     Introduction to Remote Sensing (annual)
CP 6521     Advanced GIS (annual)
CP 6552    Design of Smart Urban Systems (annual)
CP 6581     Programming for GIS (annual)
CP 6570     Socioeconomic GIS (elective; do our best to offer annually)
CP 6541     Environmental GIS (elective; do our best to offer annually)
CP 6542     Transport & GIS (was annual; looking for instructor)
CP 8853     Public Health Analytics (looking for instructor)
CP 6545     Climate Change Analytics (elective; do our best to offer annually)
CP 8853     Spatial Networks (unlikely to be offered soon) 

Additional courses may be added to this list as new courses in this area are developed. Students may also request relevant courses (with CP-prefix) for addition to the list of electives by petitioning the faculty coordinator of MCRP urban analytics specialization. Approval of such petitions is not guaranteed.