The  Urban Analytics Institute strives to be a leader in knowledge translation, mobilization, and implementation of smart city solutions by:

    • Fostering linkages with industry and governments to identify and implement advanced solutions for cities to be more livable and productive
    • Serving as a repository for urban data for analysis and simulation
    • Serving as a testbed for students and researchers to prototype analytics-driven urban solutions
    • Training practitioners and students in urban simulation methods for devising smart urban solutions
    • Working with news media to promote evidence-based planning by highlighting applied urban research in economics, engineering, management, and planning

Mission

The Institute’s mission is to collaborate with public, private, and non-profit sectors to devise and implement Smart City solutions for urgent urban challenges. The Institute assists partners with research and in implementing smart technologies, including big data analytics, deep learning, and artificial intelligence. The Institute strives to be a clearinghouse for global best practices for Smart City solutions. The Institute serves as a repository of urban data using state-of-the-art data archiving technologies.

The Differentiator

What sets the Urban Analytics Institute apart from others is its problem-centric research focus with the goal to improve the state-of-practice in government and industry. The Institute’s applied research will focus on implementing existing research and identifying the best practices for evidence-based, data-centric urban decision-making.

Open Data

The Institute promotes the use and development of open source analytics solutions for urban solutions. The Institute is developing a repository of publicly available data set on urban systems. The Institute aims to be a clearinghouse for urban data.