Join us to celebrate the ten year milestone of the LCAU through an exploration, critique, and discussion of the evolving relationship between urbanism, emerging technologies, and climate change. https://lnkd.in/dRtVpBtd MIT Norman B. Leventhal Center for Advanced Urbanism MIT School of Architecture and Planning
Civic Data Design Lab
Research Services
Cambridge, Massachusetts 1,624 followers
“Big data” will not change the world unless it is collected and synthesized into tools that have a public benefit.
About us
The Civic Data Design Lab works with data to understand it for public good. We seek to develop alternative practices which can make the work we do with data and images richer, smarter, more relevant, and more responsive to the needs and interests of citizens traditionally on the margins of policy development. In this practice we experiment with and develop data visualization and collection tools that allow us to highlight urban phenomena. Our methods borrow from the traditions of science and design by using spatial analytics to expose patterns and communicating those results, through design, to new audiences. Through the years of work, we have developed a distinct methodology called Data | Action, which is a creative process that involves building, analyzing, communicating results, and then ground-truthing the findings through site visits and interviews, reworking the analytics based on the input all along the way. Data | Action is an iterative process as each action informs the next and the work evolves. The results generate policy debates, influence civic decisions, and inform design to help ensure that the voices of people represented in the data are heard. Data | Action asks advocates of big data analytics to rethink how they work with data to make the process more responsive to the people their work impacts.
- Website
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http://civicdatadesignlab.mit.edu/
External link for Civic Data Design Lab
- Industry
- Research Services
- Company size
- 11-50 employees
- Headquarters
- Cambridge, Massachusetts
- Type
- Educational
- Specialties
- data visualization, big data, data action, spatial analytics, public good, policy advocacy, data science, information design, storytelling, and interactive technology
Locations
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Primary
Get directions
77 Massachusetts Ave
MIT 10-400
Cambridge, Massachusetts 02139, US
Employees at Civic Data Design Lab
Updates
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Civic Data Design Lab reposted this
The Norman B. Leventhal Center for Advanced Urbanism and the Civic Data Design Lab are at the cutting edge of AI technology, applying complex technologies to age-old issues of urban design. A new report by the CDDL, made in collaboration with Transport for New South Wales (TfNSW) and the University of New South Wales (UNSW), shows how AI-powered computer vision has the potential to revolutionize how planners and designers measure the performance of public space design. The experiment, installed on the UNSW campus, found that introducing movable seating to a public space resulted in an eight-fold increase of women visiting and using the site compared to baseline conditions. The methodology was packaged into an open-source guidebook, allowing local organizations to conduct their own AI-aided public space observations. Click the link below to learn more about Benchmark NSW’s technology, results, and implications for how cities design public space. We want to thanks our researchers and collaborators on this project including: The UNSW Industrial Design Team: Mariano Ramirez, Gonz . The Transport for NSW Smart Places team and our very own team: Sarah Williams, Minwook Kang, Hannah Shumway, Maria Gabriela Carucci Alvarez, Karen Kuo, Sebastian Ives, Clay Anderson, and Mercy Olagunju Learn more and interact with this project here: https://lnkd.in/eeXpbhwV
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Civic Data Design Lab reposted this
The Norman B. Leventhal Center for Advanced Urbanism is hiring an External Engagement Manager! Join our team and contribute to our various projects and initiatives being developed at the Center. Link to full description and application here: https://lnkd.in/eksXN-su #mit #externalengagement #urbanism #hiring
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Civic Data Design Lab reposted this
✨New Paper✨: Sarah Williams, Sara Beery, Chris Conley, Michael Lawrence Evans, Santiago G., Eric Gordon, Nigel Jacob, and Eden Medina. 2024. “People-Powered Gen AI: Collaborating with Generative AI for Civic Engagement.” An MIT Exploration of Generative AI, September. https://lnkd.in/epaNm9JA. The paper is the outcome of collaborative work involving the MIT Department of Urban Studies and Planning; MIT Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science; MIT Program in Science, Technology, and Society; City of Boston; Boston University School of Law; and Emerson College Engagement Lab. Abstract: Cities globally have begun experimenting with using generative artificial intelligence (Gen AI) for civic engagement. Civic engagement is essential to a well-functioning government and involves the various interactions between the public and the city to share information and make decisions. Using Gen AI for civic engagement holds much potential, including the deployment of chatbots, language translation, synthesis of complex and technical documents, visioning and co-creation of design ideas, data visualization, and simulation and scenario planning. However, with these opportunities comes numerous concerns for the accuracy of results, algorithmic bias, private sector involvement, digital equity, and environmental costs. . . . Given these risks, we argue that the successful integration of Gen AI for civic engagement must be powered by people who use their judgment to validate outputs, mitigate potential errors, contextualize results, and build trust between the government and the community. This people-centered approach requires developing methods to involve communities in decisions about how AI tools should shape city–resident interactions and the design of guidelines for how Gen AI can be used responsibly and ethically for civic engagement.
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Director of the Civic Data Design Lab and Leventhal Center for Advanced Urbanism @MIT, Author : Data Action : Using Data for a Public Good. Associate Professor of Technology and Urban Planning @ MIT
Finally the data we made on crashes in Nairobi are openly available for download. Making data open is important to having and impact! https://lnkd.in/e_kcsFKu
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Our new collaboration in Australia! Results coming at the end of August!
Director of the Civic Data Design Lab and Leventhal Center for Advanced Urbanism @MIT, Author : Data Action : Using Data for a Public Good. Associate Professor of Technology and Urban Planning @ MIT
Check out this story about our new project Benchmark looking at safety in public space done in collaboration with the Transport for NSWU, UNSW Arts, Design & Architecture, UNSW City Futures Research Centre, Civic Data Design Lab, MIT Norman B. Leventhal Center for Advanced Urbanism , MIT School of Architecture and Planning, MIT Department of Urban Studies and Planning https://lnkd.in/ewTBfkpN This work could not have been done without our amazing team LCAU / Civic Data Design Lab Team - Hannah Shumway, Minwook Kang, Karen Kuo, Sebastian Ives Collaborators at UNSW - Mariano Ramirez, Gonz . Partners at Transport for NSW - Sandy Burgoyne, Zoe Eather, Brooke Wharton, Ella Dunne, Justine Simpson, Sarah Bray, Gisella Velasco and Ashlie Hunter, the Smart Places team Zoe Eather, Tamara Townsend, Joanna Kraatz @Tracey Chung Seldon Coventry and the leadership from @rory brown and Anna Bradley
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Civic Data Design Lab reposted this
Director of the Civic Data Design Lab and Leventhal Center for Advanced Urbanism @MIT, Author : Data Action : Using Data for a Public Good. Associate Professor of Technology and Urban Planning @ MIT
Come to the closing of the box.. this Friday 5-7 pm at the media lab!! Snacks and drinks plus drawing on the wall!! Think analog AI! Massachusetts Institute of Technology MIT Media Lab MIT School of Architecture and Planning Let’s celebrate analog AI!
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