The Future City: Transforming Urban Infrastructure

This course introduces graduate students to technological innovations that are helping cities around the world create healthier and more resilient futures for their citizens. Its foundation is based in two sets of disciplines: (1) the “softer” ones: architecture, urban design, and real estate development and (2) the “harder” ones: structural, civil and mechanical engineering. It explores newer areas of study, such as data analytics, robotics and smart communication technologies, that offer opportunities for major advances in the quality of municipal services. In spanning these worlds, Columbia students from diverse backgrounds will be empowered to help realize the promise of tomorrow’s “smart city” in terms of livability, safety and inclusion.

The syllabus sequentially covers distinct sectors in the field of urban infrastructure: urban planning and design, transportation and mobility, buildings, power, sanitation, resilience, public safety and communications. For each sector, the nature and framework of current urban delivery systems will serve as the foundation for exploring digital technologies in the process of changing – and in most cases radically improving – the ways that government can support the lives of city residents.

While the course uses the NYC area as one lens through which to understand the opportunities and challenges associated with modern technology, students will be expected to learn about and consider case studies and examples from other cities and countries. This comparative perspective will help to highlight the different ways that technology can contribute to urban life and the challenges that remain in rolling it out across the wide range of political and economic contexts across the globe.

Students will develop a solid understanding of how digital and other modern technologies are shaping the way that urban infrastructure is provided in the 21st century in cities around the globe. As befits a multidisciplinary course, students from different disciplines will consider city infrastructure from alternative perspectives (policy, planning and design, construction, operations) - giving them a more well-rounded and nuanced view of the various issues city planners and engineers must consider in embracing modern technologies to make cities more equitable, sustainable and robust in the future.

This class is a lecture class, with homework undertaken individually and in a group format. Lectures will make up the bulk of class time, with some time for discussion of key topics each week. Certain classes will be devoted to case studies or accommodate outside lecturers on key topics. The last class will be devoted to a final exam.

Students should plan to attend all classes. Attendance will be taken; absence requests must be submitted by email to the TA and the professor for approval in advance of class. Students will also be expected to complete readings related to each lecture in the week preceding (or following) the relevant class. There are no required textbooks for the course: all required and optional readings will be posted on Canvas for easy access. Participation in both group and individual assignments is required. Weekly assignments are expected to be completed and submitted on time; late assignments will be marked down accordingly.