This initiative investigates advances in the sciences, engineering, business, architecture, design, and law to ensure smart, equitable, sustainable, and healthy cities. Topics include hard and soft infrastructure; digital technologies; transportation systems; clean, sustainable, and secure energy storage and distribution; climate change resilience; efficient and reliable water systems; landscapes and ecology; urban agriculture; financial systems; and security. The complexity of these issues requires multidisciplinary efforts that address the human factors, social issues, and public policy and management, with the goal of achieving positive social impacts.
Urban Futures
Featured Urban Futures Research
Creating an Energy Saving Radiator
Peoples Gas awarded its Innovation Strategies and Technologies prize to engineering faculty members Mohammad Heidarinejad and Brent Stephens and their students for the team’s Battery-Operated Radiator Control (BORC) system.
Equalizing Flooding Infrastructure
A group of Illinois Tech researchers led by Professor Matthew Shapiro will seek policy solutions to address Chicago’s aging stormwater system, with a particular focus on disparities between the city’s North and South sides.
Going Green: An Electric Vehicle Roundtable
Government officials, industry leaders, and consumer advocates gathered on Illinois Institute of Technology’s campus to discuss the future of electric vehicles in a U.S. Department of Energy-led roundtable
$10 Million Center Tackles Transportation Safety
The Center for Assured and Resilient Navigation in Advanced Transportation Systems (CARNATIONS) at Illinois Institute of Technology was named a new Tier 1 University Transportation Center (UTC) by the United States Department of Transportation.
Studying the Philosophy of Policing
Chicago-Kent College of Law Professor Raff Donelson is reaching into a relatively new field of research, studying the philosophy behind modern police policy.