MIT PwC MIT Senseable City Lab

Forum on Future Cities:

Urban Intelligence

Organized by the MIT Senseable City Lab and the World Economic Forum’s Global Future Council on Cities and Urbanization

April 12, 2019

The Broad Institute
Cambridge, MA, USA

Conference
As AI (Artificial Intelligence) becomes ubiquitous, it transforms many aspects of the environment we live in. In cities, AI is opening up a new era of an endlessly reconfigurable environment. Empowered by robust computers and elegant algorithms that can handle massive data sets, cities can make more informed decisions and create feedback loops between humans and the urban environment. It is what we call the raise of UI (urban intelligence).

The 2019 Forum on Future Cities, organized by MIT Senseable City Lab and the World Economic Forum's Global Future Council on Cities and Urbanization, will focus on four aspects of the UI transformation: autonomous vehicles, ubiquitous data collection, advanced data analytics, and governing innovation. Panelists include mayors, academics, senior industry leaders and members of civil society to explore such topics from different points of view, highlighting the scientific and technological challenges, the critical collective decisions we as a society will have to make, and the exciting possibilities ahead.
Speakers
Penny Abeywardena Commissioner for International Affairs, City of New York
Ricardo Alvarez Researcher, Senseable City Lab
James Anderson Head of Government Innovation, Bloomberg Philanthropies
Ger Baron CTO, Amsterdam
Assaf Biderman Founder, Superpedestrian; Assoc. Director, Senseable City Lab
Eugenie Birch Professor of Urban Research & Education, University of Pennsylvania
Alice Charles Lead, Cities & Urbanization, World Economic Forum
Priyanka deSouza Researcher, Senseable City Lab
Gretchen Effgen VP Partnerships, nuTonomy
Miguel Gamino Executive Vice President, Head of Global Cities, Mastercard
Hazem Galal Global Leader Cities & Local Government, PwC
Umberto Fugiglando Researcher, Senseable City Lab
Timnit Gebru Research Scientist, Google
Carolien Gehrels European Director Big Urban Clients, ARCADIS
Newsha Ghaeli Cofounder, Biobot Analytics
Abha Joshi Ghani Senior Adviser Infrastructure, PPPs & Guarantees, The World Bank
Diane Hoskins CEO, Gensler
Nigel Jacobs Co-Chair, Mayor’s Office of New Urban Mechanics, City of Boston
Anna König Jerlmyr Mayor, City of Stockholm
Sigbritt Karlsson President, KTH Royal Institute of Technology
Jefferson Koijee Mayor, Monrovia
Trent Lethco Leader Americas Transport Consulting, Arup
Qingquan Li President, Shenzhen University
Yu Liu Professor, Peking University
Naheed Nenshi Mayor, Calgary
Carlo Ratti Director, Senseable City Lab
Mauricio Rodas Mayor, City of Quito
Daniela Rus Director, Center for Artificial Intelligence (CSAIL), MIT
Arjan Van Timmeren Scientific Director, AMS Institute
Andrew Whittle Professor, MIT Civil Engineering
Peter Woodward Facilitator, Quest Associates
Snoweria Zhang Researcher, Senseable City Lab
Schedule
Click on the titles to watch the sessions
08:30
Registration and Breakfast
09:00
Welcome


Carlo Ratti, Senseable City Lab
Alice Charles, World Economic Forum
Assaf Biderman, Senseable City Lab

09:10
Session 1: Innovation and City Government
As the internet enters the built environment and becomes an “Internet of Things”, innovation leaves research labs and enters cities. Urban areas around the world are transformed into “Living Labs” for different technologies. Sometimes such process happens in a deliberate way - for instance by volunteering test sites for autonomous or self-driving cars. In other cases innovations just makes its way through cities. How should mayors harness new technologies and deal with possible failures?


Introduced by: Alice Charles, World Economic Forum
Moderated by: Peter Woodward, Facilitator, Quest Associates
Panelists
Anna König Jerlmyr, Mayor of Stockholm, Sweden
Mauricio Rodas, Mayor of Quito, Ecuador
Naheed Nenshi, Mayor of Calgary, Canada
Jefferson Koijee, Mayor of Monrovia, Liberia

10:10
Session 2: New Mobilities
Data, edge computing and AI promise to have a dramatic impact on mobility. Autonomous systems are being developed at the intersection of computer vision, robotics and AI. They are poised to increase car sharing, generate new forms of micro-mobility, and enable new business models in-between public and private transportation. Could they allow us to meet tomorrow’s mobility challenges with more silicon and less asphalt?


Fire starter: Umberto Fugiglando, Senseable City Lab
Moderated by: Peter Woodward, Facilitator, Quest Associates
Panelists
Arjan van Timmeren, Scientific Director, AMS Institute
Daniela Rus, Director, Center for Artificial Intelligence (CSAIL) MIT
Trent Lethco, Leader Americas Transport Consulting, Arup
Assaf Biderman, Senseable City Lab and Superpedestrian

11:10
Coffee Break
11:25
Session 3: Urban Sensing
Cities are becoming giant data factories. Powered by a new generation of micro-sensors and smart handheld electronics that can gather large amounts of information about the urban environment. Mobile sensors allow cars, buses, bicycles and even humans to potentially become moving probes, collecting information about air quality, pathogens, pollution, urban infrastructure and so on. What type of new data are becoming available to governments and how should they be used?


Fire starter: Priyanka deSouza, Senseable City Lab
Moderated by: Peter Woodward, Facilitator, Quest Associates
Panelists
Nigel Jacob, New Urban Mechanics, City of Boston
Newsha Ghaeli, co-founder, Biobot
Diane Hoskins, CEO, Gensler
Andrew Whittle, MIT Civil and Environmental Engineering

12:25
Working Lunch
13:30
Session 4: Visual Informatics
Commercial systems such as Google Street View collect photos at street level from cities all over the world, while tourists and citizens in general provide a constant stream of photos shared online. UI is opening up new possibilities to analyze this massive visual repository in what we call urban biometrics. Applications allow the characterization of the urban environment in terms of materials, quality, safety and so on. What is the potential and the limits of such technologies?


Fire starter: Snoweria Zhang, Senseable City Lab
Moderated by: Peter Woodward, Facilitator, Quest Associates
Panelists
Timnit Gebru, Research Scientist, Google AI & Black in AI
Yu Li, Associate Dean of the School of Earth and Space Sciences, Peking University
Ricardo Álvarez, Research Associate, Senseable City Lab

14:15
Session 5: Governing Innovation: Education
Around the world, start up grow near university campuses. That’s were human talent convenes, and develops those ideas that are then brought into the real world. Such process seems to have accelerated in recent years—with an increasing number of graduates following the entrepreneurial route and prompting innovation districts around academic institutions to swell. How should universities approach such trends, both in terms of educational programs and campus planning?


Moderated by: Carlo Ratti, Senseable City Lab
Panelists
Richard Lester, Associate Provost, MIT
Sigbritt Karlsson, President, KTH Royal Institute of Technology

14:45
Coffee Break
15:00
Session 6: New Citizenship
Technologies, data and artificial intelligence are changing how companies are creating new urban solutions, how universities are advancing knowledge, and how governments are planning and managing cities. What about the urban dwellers? Across the globe people have been appropriating digital technologies and data to advance political agenda, to foster civic movements, and assess the environment from a citizen-science perspective.


Moderated by: Peter Woodward, Facilitator, Quest Associates
Panelists
Eugenie Birch, Lawrence C. Nussdorf Professor, University of Pennsylvania.
Carolien Gehrels, Arcadis
Penny Abeywardena, Commissioner for International Affairs, City of New York

15:30
Session 7: Governing Innovation: What is Next?
UI and data are at the core of a new wave of innovations, which use the city both as container and as content. Collectively referred to as “urban tech”, this sector has been estimated as the top one for venture capital investment, beyond pharma and biotech. In order to grow successfully, urban tech requires new collaborations – between universities, innovators and funders but also city governments and bureaucrats. How could cities then become living labs?


Moderated by: Peter Woodward, Facilitator, Quest Associates
Panelists
Abha Joshi Ghani, Senior Adviser Infrastructure, PPPs & Guarantees, The World Bank
Hazem Galal, Global Leader Cities & Local Government, PwC
Ger Baron, CTO, City of Amsterdam
Jeremy Kelly, Lead Director of Global Research Programmes, JLL
Miguel Gamino, Executive Vice President, Head of Global Cities, Mastercard

16:40
Closing Remarks


Assaf Biderman, Senseable City Lab
Alice Charles, World Economic Forum

Conference Location:
The Broad Institute,
415 Main St, Cambridge, MA,
02142, United States
senseable-conference@mit.edu
senseable.mit.edu
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