Showing posts with label Urban Planning. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Urban Planning. Show all posts

Tuesday, December 11, 2012

Urban planning studio works with Arlington County to explore ways to evaluate public art

by Barbara L. Micale

Artists are designing a more attractive
replacement for this 1600 foot long fence in front
of the Water Pollution Control Plant along
Arlington's Four Mile Run
(photo by Chase Williston)
"Twelve students from five countries and three different Virginia Tech programs joined in an urban design studio, “Exploring Evaluation for Public Art: Arlington County as Laboratory,” to analyze past studies on public art and then develop the most effective methodologies for two case studies: Four Mile Run Water Pollution Control Plant Fence Enhancement and Arlington County: Long Bridge Park Phase I."  Read more

Monday, November 26, 2012

New Free Online Coursera Course Focuses on Urban Planning, Technology, Cities, To Be Co-Taught by OSU's Jennifer Evans-Cowley and VT's Tom Sanchez

New Free Online Coursera Course Focuses on Urban Planning, Technology, Cities
TechniCity Class To Be Co-Taught by OSU's Jennifer Cowley and VT's Tom Sanchez

The Ohio State University's College of Engineering will offer its first free online course, TechniCity, in May 2013 as part of OSU's new Coursera offerings.

The four-week class will explore how the increasing availability of networks, sensors and mobile technologies allows for new approaches to address the challenges that our cities face. It will cover how cities are changing, how technology is used to engage with the public to support decision-making, tools for analyzing the city, the infrastructure that makes the real time city possible, and how creativity can spawn technological innovation.

Geared toward upper-level undergraduate and graduate students, TechniCity is being taught by Jennifer Evans-Cowley, associate dean for academic affairs and professor of city and regional planning at Ohio State, and Tom Sanchez, professor of urban affairs and planning at Virginia Tech.

"We were inspired to engage with thousands of students across the globe who share our passion for cities and want to think creatively about how technology can improve our quality of life" said Cowley.

Sanchez notes that "this course covers some of the most fascinating technologies in cities today.  The course is also structured to encourage students to look into the future and imagine the new roles that technology will play." The instructors envision the course as an active "virtual salon," or discussion forum, where participants can engage in reasoned debate and polite conversation, while offering criticisms of current technology issues facing the world's cities. Students will hear technological innovators and thought leaders about course topics, complete homework assignments and engage in a peer evaluation project of their choosing.

Ohio State University partnered with Coursera in fall 2012 to offer free online courses. Formed by two Stanford University professors, Coursera offers high-quality college-level courses online for free, creating new worldwide learning opportunities. Coursera courses can be taken for free by anyone who signs up by providing an email address. Visit www.coursera.org for more information.

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Contact: Jennifer Evans-Cowley, 614-292-0479, cowley.11@osu.edu

Monday, January 9, 2012

Citizen Apps to Solve Complex Urban Problems

CPAP's Dr. Kevin DeSouza, director of the Metropolitan Institute, has "a paper accepted for publication in the Journal of Urban Technology. Co-authored with Akshay Bhagwatwar (Kelley School of Business, Indiana University) this paper looks at how citizen apps are employed to solve complex urban problems."

Read the abstract at this link

Tuesday, August 9, 2011

New Report: Transportation and Health Policy Interventions

A new report published by the Partnership for Prevention is available, entitled “Transportation and Health: Policy Interventions for Safer, Healthier People and Communities.”

Here's an excerpt from the report's introduction (p. 1):

"Both the general public and the government have a strong interest in improving health, bringing down health care costs, and reducing energy use and traffic congestion. The report is divided into three chapters to focus on the following policy areas: policies that improve the environment and environmental health (Chapter 1); policies that enhance community design and promote active transportation (Chapter 2); and policies that reduce motor vehicle-related injuries and fatalities (Chapter 3)."