News & Events
Learn about the work done by faculty and students in the School of City and Regional Planning. Take a look at the recent happenings and consider joining us for the forthcoming events!

School of City and Regional Planning Partners With WUC
The School of City and Regional Planning (SCaRP) has entered a partnership with the World Urban Campaign (WUC) to promote healthy, green, inclusive urban change. UN-Habitat, which is the UN focal point for sustainable urbanization and human settlements, coordinates WUC to help achieve the urban dimension of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
Hiring Begins for Entrepreneurship Study
The first research assistant has joined the interdisciplinary team studying the relationship between merit scholarships and entrepreneurship careers. This marks the very first step of a three-year collaboration between Georgia Tech's School of City and Regional Planning (SCaRP), the University of Georgia's Terry College of Business, and Georgia State University's Andrew Young School of Policy Studies.
Georgia Tech Celebrates Global Development Week
Georgia Tech is celebrating Global Development Week this year with a week-long series of events in connection with the launch of Georgia Tech’s new Master of Science in Global Development, a degree dedicated to educating the next generation of global development leaders.

Georgia Tech Plans Tokyo Redesign Using Social Data
Students in the Tokyo Smart City studio, of the Eco Urban Lab, are changing the way we plan cities. Using machine learning techniques on data from smartphones, GPS, and Internet-of-Things (IoT) devices, students develop proposals based on measured human experience.
GIS Study Reveals: Poorly-built Cities Strain Romance
Clio Andris and her team use maps to study how relationships are situated in cities: whether people live near each other, whether it is easy for them to see each other, and what kinds of activities and amenities they can easily access.
She recently realized city layouts (where the buildings are, how public transportation works, even where sidewalks are placed) affect romantic couples.

Meet the Inaugural EJID Fellowship Recipients
In 2020 the School of City & Regional Planning reissued a statement committing to justice and inclusive communities. Attached to the statement was an action plan setting out a list of goals and clearly defined plans to pursue the advancement of social and racial justice. The Equity, Justice, and Inclusive Design Fellowship campaign launched in November 2020 to meet one of these goals.
MCRP students Ethan Knight-Scott and Madison Davis were the inaugural recipients. They reflect on the impact of the fellowship and their future goals in a conversation with the School.

Paige Clayton Publishes Two New Papers
Assistant Professor Paige Clayton recently published two new papers.
One article, "Academic Teams and Commercialization in the Life Sciences," was published in the journal Frontiers in Research Metrics and Analytics. Her collaborative research considers how academics form teams to start new companies and the implications of various configurations on firm behavior with regards to patenting, survival and firm growth.
Her other article, "Dissecting diffusion: Tracing the plurality of factors that shape knowledge diffusion," was published in the journal Research Policy. It explores how organizational origin, licensing strategy, complementary assets, industry stage, and early social networks play a role in shaping the knowledge diffusion of two comparable, foundational biotechnology inventions – recombinant DNA (rDNA) and polymerase chain reaction (PCR).
Faculty and Students Present at 2021 ACSP Conference
Seven of our PhD students and seven of our faculty have presentations at the 2021 Association of Collegiate Schools of Planning Conference.
A special congratulations to Florina Dutt and Subhro Guhathakurta for winning the ACSP Annual Conference Best Poster Award for the second year in a row! Their winning poster was titled: "Does Access to Diverse Urban Facilities Reduce Stress Amongst Urbanites? An Assessment Mining Social Media Microblogs and Points of Interest."

Gulsah Akar Appointed City and Regional Planning Chair
The College of Design is proud to announce Gulsah Akar’s appointment as chair of the School of City and Regional Planning, effective July 1, 2021.
“Dr. Akar has established herself as a thought leader in urban transportation planning,” said Steven P. French, the dean and John Portman Chair of the College of Design. “She is the editor of the Journal of Planning Literature, one of the top three urban planning journals in the United States. She serves on two Transportation Research Board committees and is a manuscript reviewer for all the major transportation journals.”
Design Faculty on Two NSF Civic Innovation Challenge Awards
Two of the 17 NSF Civic Innovation Challenge Awards (narrowed down from 52), include College of Design faculty. Their interdisciplinary work provides community-based solutions to mobility issues and disaster resilience.
Subhro Guhathakurta and Kari Watkins are on the Piloting On-Demand Multimodal Transit in Atlanta project. This project aims to synchronize on-demand shuttle services with Metropolitan Atlanta Rapid Transit Authority (MARTA) services and real-time feeds, and deploy these services in targeted transit deserts. Nisha Botchwey is on the Visualizing Resilience: BIPOC Youth Advocacy Through Mapmaking project. This project will deliver a curriculum to support youth advocacy for infrastructure projects in their communities.
New Master of Science in Urban Analytics Launches Fall 2021
The Georgia Tech College of Design is proud to announce its newest interdisciplinary degree, the Master of Science in Urban Analytics (MSUA). The School of City and Regional Planning will administer the degree in partnership with the H. Milton Stewart School of Industrial and Systems Engineering (ISyE), School of Computational Science and Engineering (CSE), and School of Interactive Computing (IC).

Linking Transportation, Housing, & Health in Infrastructure
Catherine Ross Tells U.S. House of Representatives Subcommittee How to Redesign
Ross discussed central issues about transportation and equity in an engaging conversation with members of the House Committee on Appropriations Transportation, and Housing and Urban Development, and Related Agencies Subcommittee.

Brian Stone Publishes New Research on Electric Grid Failure
The New York Times covered new research from Brian Stone on combined heat waves and power outages. Stone's research was published in the journal Environmental Science and Technology and is the result of a five year study of heat risk during critical infrastructure failures.
The study finds that millions of residents across large U.S. cities are at risk of heat illness or death from a concurrent heat wave and blackout event. It also finds that major blackouts have increased by more than 60% over the last five years in the U.S.

Student Planning Association Wins Top Award
Georgia Tech’s Student Planning Association (SPA) won the American Planning Association’s (APA) 2021 Outstanding Planning Student Organization (PSO) Award. The Outstanding PSO Award recognizes one PSO each year for its extraordinary efforts.