Syllabus

This course reviews the infrastructure, data, algorithms, and implementation of emerging digital technologies in cities. We ask: what makes a city smart? We discuss challenges and opportunities, critically evaluating what technology has and has not been able to offer cities. We contrast utopian visions of technology with the possible buggy and brittle realities. Finally, we consider projects that could be implemented in Philadelphia to make the city smarter. What are the qualities of a good smart city project? 

Aug 29. Introduction

Aug 31.  The evolution of ICT 

 Information Communication Technologies (ICT) and the Internet of Things (IoT) form the backbones of digitally enabled cities. Some call it the fourth utility. How has ICT changed over time? Are there places and people that are still missing access to ICT? 

  1. Townsend, A.M., 2013. The $100 Billion Jackpot, in: Smart Cities: Big Data, Civic Hackers, and the Quest for a New Utopia. WW Norton & Company. 
  2. Check out this map of cell coverage in the US as of May 15, 2021 (click on all the layers). What do you think of the coverage?
  3. Blumenthal, Eli, 2022. 5G’s next big launch could make its improved speed promises a reality. CNET.
  4. Vogels, E., 2021. The Digital Divide Persists Even as Americans with Lower Incomes Make Gains in Tech Adoption. Pew. 

URBAN DATA AND DATA SHARING

Sep 5. What is data?

Why do we collect the data that we collect? Is it the only data? Is it the correct data? Are data classifications always accurate? How should we think about bias in our data? 

  1. Gitelman, L., 2013. Introduction, in: Raw Data Is an Oxymoron. MIT press. 
  2. Bowker, G.C., Star, S.L., 2000. The Case of Race Classification and Reclassification under Apartheid. Sorting Things out: Classification and Its Consequences. MIT press, Chapter 6. 
  3. Bowker, G.C., Star, S.L., 2000. Excerpt from the Conclusion. Sorting Things out: Classification and Its Consequences. MIT press, pp. 324–325. 
  4. Crawford, K., 2011. Six provocations for big data.

Sep 7. Open data

More governments are opening data streams in the name of transparency. How can open data be most effective? Does open data make for better governance? 

  1. Sunlight Foundation, n.d. Ten Principles For Opening Up Government Information.
  2. World wide web foundation, 2017. Open Data Barometer Global Report Fourth Edition.  
  3. Look through data.gov and Philadelphia’s Open Data Portal  

Sep 12. City dashboards with Mjumbe Poe

Dashboards are a method of sharing information, distributing data, and integrating data into real-time city operations. Do you think they are useful? What would you include in a dashboard? 

  1. Mattern, S., 2015. Mission Control: A History of the Urban Dashboard. Places Journal. https://doi.org/10.22269/150309.  
  2. Kitchin, R., Lauriault, T.P. and McArdle, G., 2015. Knowing and governing cities through urban indicators, city benchmarking and real-time dashboards. Regional Studies, Regional Science, 2(1), pp.6-28
  3. Young, G.W., Kitchin, R. and Naji, J., 2022. Building city dashboards for different types of users. In Sustainable Smart City Transitions (pp. 259-279). Routledge. 
  4. Look through Vancouver’s VanDashboard and Minneapolis DataSource. 
  5. Kitchin, R. and McArdle, G., 2016. Urban data and city dashboards: Six key issues. 

Sep 14. Data privacy and Cybersecurity

Assignment #1 due Fri, Sep 15 by 11:59pm

In this class we’ll look at two related issues, data privacy and cyber security. First we’ll think about who has access to our data. Reactions to privacy vary drastically across cultures. How much of your data are you willing to share? Then we’ll think about how secure urban data is. How should cities protect themselves? 

  1. Van Zoonen, L., 2016. Privacy concerns in smart cities. Government Information Quarterly, 33(3), pp.472-480. *For this reading, focus on the issue of “quadrant shifting.” You can skim the rest. 
  2. Cavoukian, A., 2011. Privacy by design: The 7 foundational principles.  
  3. Cerrudo, C., 2018. Cities Are Facing A Deluge Of Cyberattacks, And The Worst Is Yet To Come. Forbes.
  4. US Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, 2023. Cybersecurity best practices for smart cities.  (For this reading, I want you to primarily note that smart city cybersecurity is an emerging and serious international effort. Don’t worry too much about all the links.)

Sep 19. Blockchain in the city with Mark Wheeler

Blockchain is one method of making transaction data secure. It’s often used with financial transactions (hello, cryptocurrency!), but that’s not its only use. The first articles introduce you to the idea of blockchain. The last article is about Estonia, the country that is probably leading the way with data and transaction security, including using blockchain. We’ll be joined in this class session by Philadelphia’s former Chief Information Officer, Mark Wheeler. As CIO, Mark worked hard to introduce blockchain into Philadelphia, but eventually let it go. 

  1. Barber, K.F., Gregory, 2019. Blockchain: The Complete Guide. Wired.
  2. Expert Explains One Concept in 5 Levels of Difficulty – Blockchain, 2017. WIRED Videos. (be sure to get to the end of the video—the conversation moves from bitcoin to smart electrical grids)
  3. Heller, N., 2017. Estonia, the Digital Republic | The New Yorker.

POSSIBILITIES AND LIMITATIONS OF ADVANCED ANALYTICS

Sep 21. A short history of city modeling

While smart cities and urban analytics might feel new, the use of modeling to build a better city is as old as the field of urban planning. It may seem that machine learning can solve almost anything (does Anderson suggests this?). Do you think there are lessons from the past that we can bring into models today? What are they?

  1. Townsend, A.M., 2013. Cities of tomorrow, in: Smart Cities: Big Data, Civic Hackers, and the Quest for a New Utopia. WW Norton & Company.
  2. Lee Jr, D.B., 1973. Requiem for large-scale models. Journal of the American Institute of planners, 39(3), pp.163-178.
  3. Anderson, C., 2008. The End of Theory: The Data Deluge Makes the Scientific Method Obsolete. Wired. 

Sep 26. Machine learning, training models for prediction, and bias

Machine learning and predictive analytics have many proponents, but there are also many reasons to be cautious. One of the big challenges are biases and errors in training data, which influences the quality of algorithmic outputs. What do you think are the big advantages and disadvantages of using ML as a tool for delivering city services? 

  1. Broussard, M., 2018. Machine Learning: the DL on ML, in: Artificial Unintelligence: How Computers Misunderstand the World. MIT Press. 
  2. Ruha, B., 2019. Default Discrimination, in: Race After Technology. Polity Press. 
  3. Dzieza, J., 2023. AI is a lot of Work.  
  4. Julia Angwin, J.L., 2016. Machine Bias. ProPublica.  

Sep 28. Artificial Intelligence in the City – Panel from 12 – 1 pm

AI is exploding and there are a lot of prospective urban applications. How can we expect AI to be used? What should we be optimistic about? What should we be cautious of? In lieu of our classroom meeting today, you will attend a Zoom panel from 12-1p hosted by PennIUR. I will post the link on the discussion board. 

  1. Sanchez, Tom, 2022. AI in Planning: Why Now Is the Time. American Planning Association.  
  2. O’Neil, L., 2023. These women tried to warn us about AI. Rolling Stone Magazine.
  3. New York City Mayor’s Office of the Chief Technology Officer, 2021. AI Strategy.  

Oct 3. Smart Safety

Can we effectively use smart technologies (sensors, algorithms, and automatic responses) to improve safety for residents? Who benefits and who loses with different interventions? The following articles address issues of racism and classism, but there are other factors (e.g., gender, sexuality, age, religion) that can significantly contribute to differential experiences of safety in a city. How do we ensure that the safety of some residents is not privileged over the safety of others? (Note: for the Crowe article, why do you think this was included on the Smart Cities Dive website?) 

  1. Eubanks, V., 2017. High tech homelessness in the City of Angels, in: Automating Inequality: How high-tech tools profile, police, and punish the poor. St. Martin Press.
  2. Vo, L.T., 2023. How Citizen is trying to remake itself by recruiting elderly Asians. MIT Tech Review.
  3. Shapiro, A., 2017. Reform predictive policing. Nature News, 541(7638), p.458.
  4. Vincent, J., 2023. EU draft legislation will ban AI for mass biometric surveillance and predictive policing. The Verge.  

Oct 5. Increasing model transparency with open algorithms

Should algorithms be made more transparent? What does it mean to make an algorithm transparent – is it just about opening up the code, or should we also be thinking about how to make the intentions and decisions in the code accessible to more people? 

  1. Brauneis, R. and Goodman, E.P., 2018. Algorithmic transparency for the smart city. Yale JL & Tech., 20, p.103. https://ssrn.com/abstract=3012499
  2. Kemper, J. and Kolkman, D. 2019. Transparent to whom? No algorithmic accountability without a critical audience (tandfonline.com) , Communication & Society, 22:14, 2081-2096.

Oct 10. No Class.

Assignment #2 due Tues, Oct 10 by 11:59pm

Oct 12. Fall Break, No Class.

SMART GOVERNMENTS & CITIZENS

Oct 17. Smart governance and planning

There are different ways of making a city smarter. The first readings tell the story of New York City’s plan, OneNYC, and the development of the Mayor’s Office of Data Analytics. The next is San Antonio’s new smart city roadmap. Be sure to look at Assignment 3 before this session. 

  1. Espey, J. and Mesa, N., 2018. OneNYC and the SDGs, in d’Almeida, A.C. (ed.) Smarter New York City: How City Agencies Innovate. Columbia University Press. Chapter 1.
  2. Campbell, C. and Goldsmith, S., 2018. The Mayor’s Office of Data Analytics, in d’Almeida, A.C. (ed.) Smarter New York City: How City Agencies Innovate. Columbia University Press. Chapter 2.
  3. City of San Antonio, 2023. Smart Cities Roadmap.  

Oct 19. Smart citizenry

Is it enough for government to be smart? Or to citizens have to be smart, too? Can smart technologies create a more engaged citizenry? More inclusive cities with higher degrees of trust?

  1. Cardullo, P. and Kitchin, R., 2019. Being a ‘citizen’ in the smart city: up and down the scaffold of smart citizen participation in Dublin, Ireland. GeoJournal, 84(1), pp.1-13.
  2. Shelton, T. and Lodato, T., 2019. Actually existing smart citizens: Expertise and (non) participation in the making of the smart city. City, 23(1), pp.35-52.
  3. Gordon, E., Coleman, B., Harlow, J., Teng, M. and L. Meaning, 2018. Making a Civic Smart City: Designing for public value and civic participation. (download the white paper here)

Oct 24. Digital inclusion in Philadelphia with Ashley Pollard

To make sure the smart city is for everyone, building digital literacy is a major challenge. Philadelphia’s Digital Inclusion Manager, Ashley Pollard, will discuss the city’s work on digital inclusion and addressing the digital divide. 

  1. Definitions, 2017. National Digital Inclusion Alliance.  
  2. UN Office of the Secretary-General’s Envoy on Technology, n.d. *Click on the 1-page brief and the Definition of Digital Inclusion.  
  3. Office of Innovation and Technology. A digital equity plan for the city of Philadelphia.  
  4. Chakravorti, B., 2021. How to close the digital divide in the U.S.

Oct 26. Broadband planning and equity with Joshua Edmonds

Who is planning and developing broadband? We might be used to broadband being provided by private companies, but should it be that way? See examples of a plan for “neutral host”, community-based broadband in New York, a non-profit working on community-owned broadband in Detroit, and (lightning-fast!) municipally-owned broadband in Chattanooga. In this class we’ll be joined by Josh Edmonds, former Digital Inclusion manager in Detroit and current DigitalC CEO. 

  1. Mayors Office of the Chief Technology Officer, 2020. The New York City Internet Master Plan. *Skim this plan, paying attention to what is included in the plan and thinking of it as an example of how an internet master plan could be written.
  2. Nonko, E., 2022. What happened to New York City’s internet master plan?  
  3. Varn, J., Gong, L., and C. Humphry, 2023. How state broadband offices are using initial dollars from capital projects fund.  
  4. Motherboard, 2017. Meet the people building their own internet in Detroit.  
  5. Roth, R., 2023. Silicon Valley of the South: Chattanooga offers low-latency compute for smart city applications.

SMART SYSTEMS: MOBILITY AND ENERGY

Oct 31. Smart mobility

I think the trend may be dying down a bit, but autonomous vehicles have been one of the most hyped and discussed innovations in future cities. Are you enthusiastic? Skeptical? What about other forms of emerging mobility? Do you think EVs are a better focus for smart cities?

  1. Broussard, M., 2018. This car won’t drive itself. Artificial Unintelligence: How Computers Misunderstand the World. MIT Press.
  2. U.S. Department of Energy, n.d. Developing infrastructure to charge electric vehicles.  
  3. U.S. Department of Transportation, n.d. Equity considerations in planning.
  4. Nikiforuk, Andrew., 2022. Are Electric Cars the Solution? | The Tyee

Nov 2. Smart energy and microgrids

It is possible that the urban infrastructure that is most ready to benefit from emerging technologies is the electrical grid. The first reading gives an overview on how the electrical grid works, the next readings get into what it means to build smart grids. In class, we’ll talk about the challenge of getting to net zero carbon emissions. 

  1. McBride, J. and Siripurapu, A., 2021. How does the U.S. power grid work? https://www.cfr.org/backgrounder/how-does-us-power-grid-work
  2. Yoldaş, Y., Önen, A., Muyeen, S.M., Vasilakos, A.V. and Alan, İ., 2017. Enhancing smart grid with microgrids: Challenges and opportunities. Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, 72, pp.205-214.
  3. Simon, M. (2019, May 16).This Casino’s Microgrid Might Be the Future of Energy | WIRED Retrieved July 1, 2022

Nov 7. Virtual power plants and peer-to-peer trading

The next readings get more into the details of smart energy. The first discuss how it’s possible to create “virtual” power plants by distributing energy storage. The next discuss peer-to-peer trading. discuss microgrids can be augmented with smart technologies. Can radically decentralizing electricity increase resilience and improve performance? Do these readings make you think differently about the value of EVs? You may want to review the blockchain readings from Sep 22.

  1. Oberhaus, D., 2020. The power plant of the future is Right in your home. Wired.
  2. Mengelkamp, E., Notheisen, B., Beer, C., Dauer, D. and Weinhardt, C., 2018. A blockchain-based smart grid: towards sustainable local energy markets. Computer Science-Research and Development, 33(1-2), pp.207-214.
  3. Cardwell, D., 2017. Solar Experiment Lets Neighbors Trade Energy Among Themselves. The New York Times.

BUILDING SMART PLACES

Nov 9. Are we getting smarter? 

Assignment #3 due Wed, Nov 13 by 11:59pm

Read about measuring “smartness.” Skim through the Smart Dallas Roadmap. In class, we’ll talk about reconciling multiple city plans – many of which may be related to digital technologies – and establishing meaningful indicators. You may also want to review the Smart City roadmap from San Antonio, Philadelphia’s Digital Equity plan, and New York’s Internet Master Plan. 

  1. ESI Thoughtlab, 2018. Smarter Cities 2025.
  2. Woetzel, J., Remes, J., Boland, B., Lv, K., Sinha, S., Strube, G., Means, J., Law, J., Cadena, A., von der Tann, V., 2018. Smart Cities: Digital Solutions for a More Livable Future. McKinsey. 
  3. Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), 2020. Measuring smart cities’ performance. 
  4. City of Dallas, 2018. Smart Dallas Roadmap.

Nov 14. Philadelphia’s SmartCityPHL with Akshay Malik

How does a city transform itself into a smart city? Starting in 2017, Philadelphia decided to adopt a smart city agenda. Then, in 2019, created the SmartCityPHL roadmap. (Technology roadmapping is a process often used in the business sector that came out of the seminal article from Phaal et al. and is now sometimes applied to smart cities.) In class, we’ll hear from Akshay Malik, Philadelphia’s Smart City Director and Penn MCP alum. First, Akshay will talk to us about how he uses the roadmap, visions for the next roadmap, and projects he would like to see in the city. Then, we’ll talk about your final assignment. Please plan on leaving class with your final project team assembled.  

  1. SMARTCITYPHL Roadmap, 2019.
  2. Phaal, R., Farrukh, C.J. and Probert, D.R., 2004. Technology roadmapping—A planning framework for evolution and revolution. Technological forecasting and social change, 71(1-2), pp.5-26. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0040-1625(03)00072-6

Nov 16. Testbeds for innovation

Innovation districts are cropping up within many cities as a method of testing smart city programs. Do you think this is the best way to implement smart cities? Why or why not? If you were to create an innovation district, what would you put in it? Are Special Economic Zones (popular in many countries outside of the U.S.) similar to testbeds or innovation districts? 

  1. Vey, J., Katz, B., Andes, S., Hachadorian, J., 2017. Connect to Compete: How the University City-Center City innovation district can help Philadelphia excel globally and serve locally. Brookings Institute.  
  2. Project for Public Spaces, 2018. Assessing your innovation district: A how-to guide. Brookings Institution.
  3. Hu, R., 2019. The state of smart cities in China: the case of Shenzhen.  

Nov 21. Work on projects during class

In class, we will talk more about the final project. Then, you will work with your team to move your project ahead.

Nov 23. Thanksgiving

Nov 28. Maintaining the smart city

While water mains are often 100 years old, technology has a much shorter lifespan. How will the smart city persist? Who will be responsible for it? Should maintenance be a reason to be cautious about implementing digital infrastructure and algorithms? Note: I looked into updating the first article, from 2018, and found sooooo many other similar articles. I like the clarity of the list of cyberattacks in this article, so I did not replace it. Should you be interested, there are many, many other articles to read on the subject.  

  1. Broussard, M., 2018. Aging Computers, in: Artificial Unintelligence: How Computers Misunderstand the World. MIT Press.
  2. Townsend, A.M., 2013. Buggy, Brittle, and Bugged, in: Smart Cities: Big Data, Civic Hackers, and the Quest for a New Utopia. WW Norton & Company.
  3. Mattern, S., 2018. Maintenance and Care. Places Journal. https://doi.org/10.22269/181120

Nov 30. Sign up for an individual meeting time with me

Assignment #4 due Mon, Dec 4 by 11:59pm

Dec 5. Final Presentations

Dec 7. No Class.