The 2014 VandeLinde Lecture was held on 27 March New York University Constance Milstein and Family Global Academic Center, Washington to discuss Urban Informatics: A New Science for Better Cities.

Urban informatices: A new science for better cities

‘Big Data’ has been championed as the key to understanding everything from who we vote for in elections, to what we buy in a store. For big cities, this ability to gather and analyze data could spawn great advances towards becoming more efficient, sustainable and successful. But to what extent?

Nigel Thrift, Vice Chancellor of University of Warwick, and Steven Koonin, Director of New York University’s Center for Urban Science and Progress, partners in this endeavour, discussed the emerging field of applied urban science and informatics, the opportunities it presents, and how it is challenging the way we think about information. The discussion was moderated by Sallie Keller, Director, Social Decision and Analytics Laboratory, Virginia Bioinformatics Institute at Virginia Tech.

New York University’s Center for Urban Science and Progress was created in partnership with the City of New York, University of Warwick and diverse international partners to advance this mission and build a practice to help cities around the world become more productive, livable, equitable, and resilient.

The VandeLinde Lecture has been established to honour Professor David VandeLinde, who served with distinction as the fourth Vice Chancellor of the University of Warwick. An American citizen, David VandeLinde studied at Carnegie Mellon University and was Dean of the Engineering Faculty at Johns Hopkins University.

Find out more and watch the event below: