Keynote 1 - Subhro Guhathakurta, Georgia Institute of Technology, USA

Beyond Smart Cities: The Role of Technology in Resilient Urban Futures

A smart city is a term commonly used to describe iconic and often futuristic urban areas that utilize advanced information and communication technologies to ensure sustainable management of city infrastructure and services. However, an important question often overlooked is whether "smart" cities can also enhance human aspirations and creativity. The evolution of cities over the past three thousand years sheds light on the key factors that make a city vibrant, creative, beautiful, just, and inspiring. City planning has been a profession for over a century, and while technology can significantly contribute to effective city management, it alone is not enough to ensure a high quality of life. A city encompasses much more than its technological aspects; its character is shaped by history, culture, and the unique social practices that set one city apart from another. This talk will examine technology's role in effective city management while acknowledging its limitations. It will also showcase some of our research that makes cities smarter and more resilient.

Bio

Subhro Guhathakurta is a professor in the School of City and Regional Planning. He is currently the Director of the Master of Science in Urban Analytics program. He joined Georgia Tech in 2011 as the director of the Center for Geographic Information Systems, which was renamed the Center for Spatial Planning Analytics and Visualization (CSPAV) under his leadership. He served as chair for the School of City & Regional Planning from 2018 to 2021.

Keynote 2 - Clio Andris, Georgia Institute of Technology, USA

User-Centered Interactive Maps for Exploring Points of Interest: A Focus on Diversity, Popularity, Social Life, and Uniqueness

This will be a hands-on workshop where we will explore three different interactive map systems that were developed for tasks associated with choosing locations, learning about cities and neighborhoods, and making recommendations. The first map allows users to explore places and place types that are well-suited for co-workers, families, romantic ties, and friendships. The map was built using data from Yelp. The second map allows users to explore popular locations in Atlanta, and an estimate of demographics associated with the locations. This map was built using GPS-trace data. The third map allows users to explore restaurants in the U.S. by franchise, and by their 'chainness'. This map helps highlight independent vs. chain restaurants and areas with clusters of these restaurants. We will discuss how these systems were built, including ArcGIS Online and R Shiny environments, and the challenges associated with using the input data. Participants of the workshop will be encouraged to find places in Atlanta to visit based on these data, and to share insights that they gathered from using the systems.

Bio

Clio Andris is an associate professor at Georgia Tech in the School of City & Regional Planning and the School of Interactive Computing. She directs the Friendly Cities Lab and conducts research in GIS, Social Networks, and Geovisualization.