Smart and Sustainable Cities

The Smart and Sustainable Cities (SSC) major is one of the first majors of its kind in the United States. Building on the Public and Urban Affairs (PUA) degree core, students will learn the dynamics of urban change across time, space, and place. Students will gain a deep understanding of sustainable urban development and how smart technology and urban analytics can be combined to create solutions for the cities of the future. The core of the major consists of two parallel tracks. The first track focuses on urban analytics and decision-making. In this track, students will develop modeling and data visualization skills that can be applied to understand urban and regional systems in data-driven, quantitative, and computational ways. The second track focuses on sustainable urbanization and the future of cities. Students in this track will study the process of urbanization. Specific attention given to the interdependence of social, economic, environmental and technological factors and how these evolve over time.