Over half of the world’s nearly 7.5 billion people live in cities, which have experienced unprecedented urban growth over the past several decades. This number is predicted to increase to 70% by 2050, with much of this growth occurring in less developed countries. However, urban population growth is posing numerous challenges, which spurred the United Nations to develop the “New Urban Agenda” as a roadmap for building cities that are engines of prosperity and culturally rich centers of social engagement, while still protecting the environment.
Smart & Sustainable Cities (CEE 4160)
This course is taught in three parts. In Part I “City Infrastructure Systems,” the course focuses on providing a broad overview of how cities function by examining the various city infrastructure systems (e.g., transportation infrastructure, power supply, water distribution, buildings, etc.) and their interdependencies in relation to one another and to human and natural systems. This will be explored in the context of the role city infrastructure systems play in understanding and achieving urban sustainability. Part II “Sustainability Challenges” examines the key challenges urban environments face and emerging solutions in place or under development to address these challenges. Finally, in Part III of the course on “Smart Solutions,” students form into teams to conceptualize solutions to a key challenge that is explored in a team semester project. Final project teams identify and explore interdisciplinary solutions, which may be analytical (data-driven) or theoretical (focused on modeling and design).
Virtually Remaking Cities (CEE 8813)
The main focus of this course is on sustainable development of cities and students at Georgia Tech will participate in the leadership and design of distributed projects at specific sites in the city of Atlanta through a virtual collaboration with their teams at 2-3 other collaborative Universities in the US and Europe. City visualizations within this virtual environment helps students broaden their experience with virtual reality and smart cities research and virtually discover sustainability indicators in the city of Atlanta while trading information with their teammates at other cities. This project is anticipated to contribute to this ongoing course by empowering students in integrating engineering, design and technology towards virtually designing cities that are built according to the community needs and by considering city sustainability elements.