Warwick and King’s College London, in partnership with New York University, plan a major initiative in collaboration with the GLA and the London Borough of Southwark to launch 'CUSP London', a branch of NYU’s Center for Urban Science and Progress, to be based at Canada Water from 2018. The announcement was made on Monday 17 June 2014 by Boris Johnson, Mayor of London, at an event organised by Bloomberg to mark the start of London Technology Week.

London will be the first city to build upon the success of CUSP in New York, which was launched in April 2012 by Mayor Bloomberg and of which Warwick is an academic partner. In developing CUSP London, the partners will benefit from the experience in New York City, where CUSP is now established as a leader in the new field of urban science and informatics.

Professor Nigel Thrift, Vice-Chancellor of Warwick commented: "I welcome the launch of CUSP London, both as a researcher of the dynamics of cities, and as Vice-Chancellor of Warwick which is a partner both in the CUSP London initiative and the original CUSP in New York. CUSP London will be a significant engine of applied urban science research, innovation and education that will work with London as a living laboratory applying research to the needs of our capital and to other great cities."

CUSP London will bring together researchers, businesses, local authorities and government agencies to apply urban science to improving public health and wellbeing. It will draw on the real experience and ‘big data’ available in cities, thereby using the cities themselves as living laboratories to tackle their most significant issues. CUSP London will complement the MedCity initiative which the GLA recently launched with King’s and other academic partners, and the Mayor of London’s Smart London plan.

Experts at CUSP London will use data to develop deeper understanding and practical solutions to a wide range of challenges affecting people’s everyday lives. The international partnership will also train a new generation of postgraduate and PhD level urban scientists with the skills and knowledge to benefit London and other major UK and global cities.

Professor Sir Richard Trainor KBE, Principal of King’s, commented: "If we are to tackle the increasingly complex challenges facing London and other cities, we need initiatives like CUSP London. It will train a new generation of urban scientists, and harness expertise, research insights and big data from across the public and private sectors in order to enhance health and efficiency in increasingly populated and fast changing cities."

It is anticipated that CUSP London would generate around 180 construction jobs for two years, and once fully operational, to accommodate around 100 researchers and 500 students. CUSP London will seek development funding from public, industry and philanthropic sources.

Steve Koonin, Director of New York University’s Center for Urban Science and Progress, said: "We are delighted to welcome London to the CUSP family. We are honored by their strong support of our work and the steps taken to build on our successes in New York City. Our New York team stands ready to work with Kings College and the University of Warwick as the CUSP model is expanded abroad."

Contact Information for the Department of Computer Science: Professor Artur Czumaj (Head of Computer Science) at A.Czumaj@warwick.ac.uk.

To apply, please follow the instructions available on the official University web-page.

Please quote job vacancy reference number 71077-044.

Closing date for applications: 22 May 2014.

The University of Warwick is one of the founding partners in New York's recently announced Centre for Urban Science and Progress (CUSP).

http://www.nyu.edu/about/university-initiatives/center-for-urban-science-progress.html

CUSP is an applied sciences institute focused on creating new transdisciplinary solutions for ‘smart urban environments’.

At full strength, CUSP will house 30 faculty, 400 Master’s students, 100 PhD students and 30 post-docs, researching areas including intelligent transportation, managing urban services and infrastructure, public safety and security, health informatics, and efficient, responsive and resilient buildings.

The University of Warwick is seeking to make several appointments in support of this initiative.

We welcome interest from Computer Science researchers in areas including:

Information Analytics;
Sensors and Mobile Infrastructures;
Data Visualization;
Security and Surveillance;
Real-time video processing;
Adaptive control and machine learning;
The Internet of Things.

Other research areas with clear application to smart cities and urban science will also be considered.

You will undertake research, teaching, administration and other activities supporting the work of the Department of Computer Science, both at the University of Warwick and also at the Centre for Urban Science and Progress (CUSP) in New York.

You will have a PhD or equivalent in Computer Science or a discipline related to smart urban environments, and you will be able to demonstrate excellent research potential in this area. You will have interdisciplinary interests and industrial research experience. Although you will be based at the University of Warwick in the UK, you must be prepared to make regular visits to New York for teaching and research purposes. You will also be required to work with industry partners as part of this initiative.

Closing date: 2 July 2012

Please quote job vacancy reference number 71908-052.

£37,012- £44,166 pa

More details can be found here.