CSAIL researchers have found that ride-sharing taxis controlled by a citywide computer system could decrease the number of cars on the road in New York City, reports Clive Cookson for the Financial Times. The researchers found that “3,000 four-passenger cars could satisfy 98 per cent of the city’s demand.”
In a Boston Globe article about sensing technologies, Kevin Hartnett highlights Vice President Sanjay Sarma’s work developing techniques to detect where energy is leaking from a building and the condition of street lights. “Many cities have poor inventories of their infrastructure and don’t know if enough light is being delivered on the ground,” says Sarma.
MIT researchers have developed a system to map streetlights, writes Linda Poon for The Atlantic CityLab. Using sensors mounted on top of vehicles, the system measures illumination levels, gathers data into a map, and distinguishes between background light and streetlights through machine learning, explains Poon.
A new book by Prof. Carlo Ratti and graduate student Matthew Claudel focuses on the impact technology has on cities, writes Kate Abbey-Lambertz for The Huffington Post. “Ratti and Claudel envision a potential future where new technology ― from individualized heating grids to neighborhood 3D-printing fabrication studios ― ‘weaves into a tapestry of citizen empowerment’.”
In an article for The New Yorker, Frank Rose features “The City of Tomorrow”, a new book by Prof. Carlo Ratti and graduate student Matthew Claudel. Rose writes that the city Claudel and Ratti envision is “a hybrid of the digital and the physical, a ‘triumph of atoms and bits’ that yields a sort of augmented urban reality.”
Prof. Carlo Ratti speaks with Catherine Lawson of Wired about the future of technologies and cities. “I think that we should focus more on design,” says Ratti. “Design is the best way not to predict the future, but to help create it.”
MIT researchers are using Kumbh Mela — India’s largest religious festival — to help policymakers and planners develop smarter cities, writes Krishna Pokharel for The Wall Street Journal. “It’s about helping the smart citizens make their cities smart,” says John Werner of the MIT Camera Culture group.
CNN reporter Meera Senthilingam writes about LIVE Singapore, a project from the Singapore-MIT Alliance for Research and Technology (SMART) that aims to use big data to improve urban living. "We can analyze the pulse of the city, moment to moment," says Professor Carlo Ratti director of MIT’s Senseable City Lab.
Hashim Sarkis, dean of the MIT School of Architecture and Planning, speaks on Boston Public Radio about Boston architecture and the future of urban planning. “Architects have proven time and time again the power of architecture in helping us imagine the future,” says Sarkis.
The Economist reports on two projects started at MIT aimed at improving sustainable agriculture in cities. The CityFARM initiative aims to convert tall buildings into indoor farms; MIT alumni Jamie Byron and Gabe Blanchet are working on technology to produce food in home kitchens.
Jason Keyser of the Associated Press previews a speech by Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel, delivered at a forum hosted by MIT's Center for Advanced Urbanism, an interdisciplinary think tank that focuses on big-scale urban design problems.