Leveraging Statistics to Improve Data Quality

UAP Assistant Professor Ralph Hall and Assistant Research Professor of Statistics Eric Vance have released a new video that highlights their efforts to leverage technology and statistics to advance quality data collection efforts in Africa.  The initiative is part of an impact evaluation project that Hall and Vance are conducting on behalf of the Millennium Challenge Corporation.

The 16-minute video was created at the request of UAP Professor Tom Sanchez and will be part of the new TechniCity MOOC (massive open online course) that Sanchez will be co-teaching in summer 2013 with Jennifer Evans-Cowley/Ohio State University.

The video contains many imagines and several clips from the fieldwork conducted during 2011, Hall noted, and it features several VT graduate students, who each played an important role in the research.

NCR Hokies Blood Drive, Friday April 19

Virginia Tech Alumni Association National Capital Region Blood Drive Friday, April 19th, 2013 12:00 pm – 6:00 pm Room 100 - Graduate Center7054 Haycock Road, Falls Church To schedule your Life Saving Appointment please go to www.redcrossblood.org/make-donation and use Sponsor Code: 05312500 Or call 1-800-RED-CROSS Questions regarding eligibility please call: 1-866-236-3276

Tues April 30: 11th Street Bridge Park Presentation

Courtesy of Building Bridges Across the River at THEARC:

"Join residents of Wards 6, 7 and 8 at a presentation by graduate students at Virginia Tech's Urban Planning Studio, who have spent the entire semester studying the proposed 11th Street Bridge Park, to deliver their final report.

Presentations will include:

 1) Recommendations to ensure that the Bridge Park is stitched deeply  into surrounding neighborhoods; 

 2) Assessment of nearby playgrounds, cultural amenities, and gardens;

 3) Case studies of similar transformed infrastructure projects across the   US; and

 4) Recommendations for continued community engagement.

Led by Elizabeth Morton, Ph.D., the studio represents one of many ways that Virginia Tech’s’s Urban Affairs and Planning (UAP) program immerses graduate students in real world challenges. UAP is one of three programs that make up the School of Public and International Affairs; its National Capital Region campus is located in Old Town Alexandria.

The District government and local nonprofit partner, Building Bridges Across the River at THEARC, are transforming the old 11th Street river bridge into the city's first elevated park: a new venue for healthy recreation, environmental education and the arts.

Join the movement to transform, connect and engage communities on both sides of the Anacostia River."

RSVP at http://11thstreetbridgepark-eac2.eventbrite.com/#

Van Houweling Defends Dissertation on Gender, Water, and Development

Courtesy of Ralph Hall:

"On March 29, Emily Van Houweling successfully defended her dissertation entitled "Gender, Water, and Development: The multiple impacts and perspectives of a rural water project in Nampula, Mozambique."  Congratulations, Emily!

Read more at http://ralphphall.wordpress.com/author/rphall/

Cities and Technology

UAP Professor Tom Sanchez and Jennifer Evans-Cowley from Ohio State University will be teaching a Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) on Cities and Technology beginning on Saturday May 4, and will run for four weeks. The course currently has over 13,000 students registered from around the world.  You can sign up for the course at: TechniCity.



The course focuses on how technology is being used in cities. The increasing availability of networks, sensors and mobile technologies allows for new approaches to address the challenges that our cities face. The way we understand cities is undergoing sweeping transformation, right along with the analytical tools we use to design our cities and the communication tools we use to engage people. We developed this course to help in fostering a community of people who care about the future of our cities and have an interest in how technology can play a role in their future.

Follow us on Twitter @EvansCowley and @tomwsanchez. We'll use Twitter to communicate thoughts about technology, cities, MOOCs, and other topics, in addition to using the course mechanisms (using hashtag #technicity) We also have a LinkedIn group if you would like to network with others interested in technology and cities.

Tues Apr 9: UAP's Ralph Buehler to Link Planning, Increased Cycling at MNCPPC Speaker Series

Update: Ralph Buehler's Montgomery County presentation has been posted online; watch the video at http://vimeo.com/63861859


Courtesy of Maryland-National Capital Park and Planning Commission:

"SILVER SPRING – Take a look around and it’s easy to see that cycling is booming. The roads of Washington, D.C. are crisscrossed with bike lanes, and the District-based Capital Bikeshare program bills itself as the largest in the nation.



To delve into how good planning equates to safe, accessible, enjoyable cycling, Virginia Tech professor Ralph Buehler will present at the Montgomery County Planning Department’s speaker series on Tuesday, April 9. His talk, Making Cycling Irresistible: Lessons from Europe and North America, will link transportation and land-use policies with bike use.

Co-editor of the recently published book City Cycling (MIT Press), Buehler will report on cycling trends and policies in North American, European, and Australian cities and tie those to how planners and local government officials can promote cycling in their communities.

In his book and classes, Buehler contends that cycling should not be limited to those who are highly trained, extremely fit, and daring enough to battle traffic on busy roads. His presentation will describe ways to make cycling feasible, convenient, and safe for commutes to work and school, shopping, and other daily transportation needs.

Specifically, Buehler’s presentation will offer information on:

• cycling safety
• bikeways and bike parking
• integrating cycling with public transportation
• promoting cycling for everyone

Buehler is assistant professor of Urban Affairs & Planning and a Faculty Fellow with the Metropolitan Institute at Virginia Tech in Alexandria, VA. Originally from Germany, Buehler’s research focuses on comparing transportation and land-use policies in Western Europe and North America and how policies affect travel behavior. In 2008, Buehler’s dissertation comparing German travel behavior and transportation policy was selected as the best planning dissertation by the Association of Collegiate Schools of Planning.
Continuing education credits (1.5 hours) have been approved for planning professionals.

Who:
Ralph Buehler, Assistant Professor of Urban Affairs and Planning, Metropolitan Institute at Virginia Tech

What:
Making Cycling Irresistible: Lessons from Europe and North America

When:
7 p.m. Tuesday, April 9

Where:
Park and Planning Headquarters auditorium
8787 Georgia Avenue, Silver Spring"

SPIA in the NCR Discusses Sustainability with Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur

The IITK-VT research partnership, meeting at SPIA in late March in Alexandria, Va.

School of Public and International Affairs (SPIA) faculty members met in late March in Northern Virginia with colleagues from the Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur (IITK) to discuss the IITK-VT research partnership that is focused on sustainable infrastructure.  The partnership’s overarching goal is to encourage mutual understanding, facilitate educational reform, and engage civil society through knowledge sharing.

March meeting topics included discussing new courses to be created/transferred and also areas of research collaboration, presenting the draft knowledge platform for approval, and reviewing potential topics for a project workshop.  This is the second in-person meeting of the project group, having last met during October 2012 in Kanpur.

The initiative is funded by a grant from the Obama-Singh 21^st Century Knowledge Initiative as part of efforts to create an International Program for Sustainable Infrastructure Development.  The three-year IITK-VT partnership includes a series of meetings, workshops, research collaborations, and graduate student exchanges that are connected via a knowledge platform designed to support the virtual and digital exchange of information and data.

Virginia Tech representatives participating in the Alexandria and Arlington meetings included UAP Assistant Professor Ralph Hall, Ph.D.; UAP Assistant Professor Shalini Misra; Myers Lawson School of Construction Associate Professor Mike Garvin, Ph.D.; MI+SPIA Interim Research Director Joe Schilling, Ph.D.; MI+SPIA Operations Manager Jessica Hanff; and SPIA Director Anne Khademian, Ph.D.  Representatives from IITK attending the meeting included Professors Sudhir Misra, Onkar Dikshit, and Mukesh Sharma.

More information about the project team can be viewed on the project website at http://www.iitk-vt.net.

Following the Northern Virginia meetings, IITK representatives met with Virginia Tech faculty members in Blacksburg to continue the project dialogue.  The next in-person meeting will occur again in Virginia in Fall 2013 and the schedule will include time for small group discussions among faculty members about specific research proposals that are in progress.

Learn more about the VT-IITK partnership by watching these videos from SPIA Director Anne Khademian, Ph.D. and Myers Lawson School of Construction Director Brian Kleiner, Ph.D.