Repost of Julia Mongo's November 24, 2020 MIT News story.
MIT senior Meghan Davis has been named one of the 12 winners of the George J. Mitchell Scholarship’s Class of 2022. After graduating next spring with dual majors in biological engineering and urban planning, she will pursue a master’s in global health at Trinity College in Dublin.
Repost of Hannah Meiseles' November 6, 2020 MIT News Article.
“What’s an important part of your identity?”
It was a simple question. Yet Mimi Wahid watched as the high school students in her workshop fell silent, their eyebrows furrowed in thought. It was clear that for many, this was the first time they had been directly asked this question before.
Repost of Rachel Gordon's October 26th, 2020 MIT News Story.
The feverish race to produce the shiniest, safest, speediest self-driving car has spilled over into our wheelchairs, scooters, and even golf carts. Recently, there’s been movement from land to sea, as marine autonomy stands to change the canals of our cities, with the potential to deliver goods and services and collect waste across our waterways.
With the increased capability to accurately track and map data, epidemiologists, anthropologists, urban designers, and planners are building a more comprehensive understanding of how their individual academic domains intersect and the potential synergies that occur at those points of intersection that have the potential to transform both fields.
In the spring term of 2020 students from the Department of Urban Studies and Planning and the Harvard Graduate School of Design gathered for a course offered at MIT, the Workshop on City Form. The Workshop on City Form leveraged complementary strengths of urban design, urban planning, and computer science to create a set of key performance indicators for urban design. Their process and findings have recently been published in a report, Urban Design Performance Indicators.
Repost of Peter Dizikes's September 8, 2020 MIT News Story.
Lacking a strong public transit system, residents of Nairobi, Kenya, often get around the city using “matatus” — group taxis following familiar routes. This informal method of transportation is essential to people’s lives: About 3.5 million people in Nairobi regularly use matatus.
Repost of Peter Dizikes' August 28, 2020 MIT News Piece
How many retail, food, and service establishments are there on the streets of New York City? How about Evanston, Illinois? Or Sacramento, California? It turns out the amount of urban street commerce is strikingly related to population size. The biggest metro areas in the U.S. have one retail, food, or service establishment for roughly every 120 people, while the smallest metro areas have roughly one for every 100 people.
The reality of the world today urgently calls us to reimagine what is required to build inclusive, thriving, and sustainable cities. Towards these ends, DUSP is committed to a transformation of our departmental culture as well as our approach to teaching, research, and career development. DUSP stands in solidarity and seeks to support Black Lives Matter and other movements drawing attention to systemic racism that permeates all aspects of life in the USA.
Repost of Peter Dizikes' August 5, 2020 MIT News Story.
The invention of philanthropist William R. George, the “junior republic” was mostly occupied by impoverished or immigrant teenagers from New York City, acting as politicians, judges, police officers, journalists, and other workers, in their own separate civic world. George thought this would instill American democratic values in Freeville’s young residents.
The World Economic Forum estimates that there are approximately 139 million domestic migrant laborers in India who move from rural areas to urban centers such as Delhi or Mumbai in search of economic opportunities.
These workers frequently rely on the advice of a “bandhu” (Hindi for friend, brother, or relative) to determine where and when to migrate. Additionally, labor contractors, third-party brokers who link migrant workers with potential employment, are critical actors in the migration decision-making process.
The Black, Indigenous, People of Color (BIPOC) in the Built Project is a digital collection and remembrance of BIPOC designers and advocates that have shaped how we see and interact with the built environment and city form. This summer, students across MIT’s School of Architecture and Planning (SA+P) and MIT Libraries have joined forces to create this resource. The project currently focuses on the U.S. (with plans to expand in the future to other countries) and highlights those who have made —and continue to make— contributions to the built environment in education and in practice.
We are now accepting applications for the MIT Department of Urban Studies and Planning "Excellence in Public Service Awards." Deadline: August 10, 2020.
Purpose. In 1999, DUSP established the Fund for Excellence in Public Service to raise funds to assist and encourage graduates from the Master in City Planning (MCP) program who choose to pursue public service careers. The Excellence in Public Service Awards, as the Fund’s first initiative, is designed to advance three purposes:
