Cities and Technology Debates

The City Form Lab and the Department of Urban Planning and Design at the GSD  co-hosted the Cities and Technology Debate series in  Spring 2018. Some of the debate videos can be seen below.

"Will shared, electric and automated vehicles deteriorate or ameliorate pedestrian qualities of streets?"

Thursday, March 22nd from 12:00 pm to 2:00 pm in Piper Auditorium, Gund Hall (48 Quincy St, Cambridge, MA).


Panel speakers:

Seleta Reynolds
General Manager, Los Angeles Department of Transportation
President, National Association of City Transportation Officials (NACTO).

Robin Chase
Co-founder and former CEO, Zipcar
Founder and former CEO, Buzzcar

Chris Osgood
Chief of the Streets, Transportation, and Sanitation
City of Boston.

Diane Davis
Charles Dyer Norton Professor of Regional Planning and Urbanism
Chair of the Department of Urban Planning and Design
Harvard GSD

The panel is moderated by Andres Sevtsuk, Assistant Professor of Planning and Director of City Form Lab.

"Is big data changing urban theory?"

Wednesday, March 7th from 12:30 pm to 2:00 pm in Room 518, Gund Hall (48 Quincy St, Cambridge, MA).



Antoine Picon
G. Ware Travelstead Professor of the History of Architecture and Technology, Harvard Graduate School of Design
Director of Research, Harvard Graduate School of Design.

Cesar A. Hidalgo
Associate Professor of Media Arts and Science, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Director, Collective Learning group, MIT Media Lab.

Carlo Ratti
Professor of Urban Technologies and Planning, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Director, MIT SENSEable City Lab.

Alan G. Wiig
Assistant Professor of Community Development, University of Massachusetts Boston.

The panel is moderated by Andres Sevtsuk, Assistant Professor of Planning and Director of City Form Lab.

“How are computational methods and data changing social sciences?”

Wednesday, April 11 from 12:30 pm to 2:00 PM in the City Auditorium, Department of Urban Studies and Planning, MIT (77 Massachusetts Ave, Cambridge, MA).

Panel speakers include:

Edward Glaeser
Fred and Eleanor Glimp Professor of Economics, Harvard Kennedy School

David Lazer
Professor in Political Science and Computer and Information Science, Northeastern University

The panel is moderated by Andres Sevtsuk, Assistant Professor of Planning at the GSD and Director of City Form Lab. Food will be provided.

About

The Cities and Technology debate series is produced in collaboration between the Department of Urban Planning and Design and the City Form Lab. The series invites speakers at the nexus of city design and technology to discuss products, tools and technologies that are impacting cities. It offers an opportunity for the GSD and broader urban design and policy community in Boston to engage with the forces that technology is producing for urban planning and design and have faculty, public sector regulators and technology firm representatives debate, discuss and desirably improve city design and city life.