The City Science Summit is hosted by a different network member, in a different location each year.
2023 MIT Media Lab - Cambridge, USA
In collaboration with ClimateTech
The 2023 City Science Summit will consist of two events.
1- ClimateTech by MIT Technology Review: In addition to ClimateTech's core programming, we presented a section featuring the City Science Network Directors in a series of 9 lightning talks. These talks will address key technologies that can be extended, deployed, and evaluated in unique contexts around the globe, exploring distinctive approaches to solving global climate problems at the local level.
2- Network Workshops: We brought together international collaborators and thought leaders in the fields of urban science, planning, computer science, policy and decision-making, social sciences and rapid urbanization.
2022 MIT Media Lab - Cambridge, USA
In collaboration with the Norman Foster Foundation
HYPER-Local Solutions to GLOBAL Challenges - The city, our greatest invention, will be at the center of solutions to global warming, public health, and economic development. The most recent U.N. IPCC report makes this clear: “Urban areas represent 67-72% of global emissions… How new cities and towns are designed, constructed, managed, and powered will lock-in behavior, lifestyles, and future urban GHG emissions.’’ Urban communities can lead in a bottom-up process that may be even more impactful than top-down government action. The City Science Summit explores a data-driven model for developing urban interventions that could dramatically reduce emissions while improving the quality of life and economic opportunities for residents. Deploying a high-performance model for cities at scale has become a societal imperative.
We explore this future in two parts:
1- Learning from Kendall Square: From Innovation District to Innovation Community
2- Planning for a future Kharkiv and Ukraine
2020 Guadalajara, México
Co-hosted with the University of Guadalajara
The Power of WITHOUT - The 2020 summit theme: The Power of WITHOUT, was a continuation of the theme from the 2019 Hamburg summit Cities WITHOUT and encouraged the speakers and audience to consider this theme specifically in the context of Latin America.
2018 Shanghai, China
Co-hosted with Tongji University College of Design and Innovation
City Science Summit Shanghai 2018, in participation with Tongji University and the MIT Media Lab's City Science group, welcomed an international cohort of mayors, technical experts, high-level CEOs, and academics to discuss global service innovations and model our cities' latest visualization tools.
2021 Taipei, Taiwan
Co-hosted with Taipei Tech
Cities WITH(in) - Hyper-Local Solutions to Global Problems. Network Directors and teams respond to a City Science framework for the Sustainable Development Goals which offers a more detailed and actionable descriptions to the relevant SDGs. In main stage presentations and workshops the network addresses how their research can create local solutions to global problems.
2019 Hamburg, Germany
Co-hosted with HafenCity University
Cities WITHOUT - This City Science Summit explores a future WITHOUT top-down and increasingly obsolete systems. A majority of urban growth is expected to happen in the vast shantytowns of informal settlements, or in cities with almost nonexistent or collapsing infrastructure. What if heavy infrastructure can be replaced WITH lightweight, distributed and ultimately autonomous systems?
2017 Andorra la Vella, Andorra
Co-hosted with the Andorra Innovation Hub
In September 2017 the City Science group launched the first city science summit, held in Andorra, where urban planners, industry leaders, and researchers came together to create a vibrant network of smart cities.