The State of Urban Technology w/ Siqi Zhu
Last week, we continued our streak of guest speakers in the UT studio hosting Siqi Zhu, Director of Urban Planning, Urban Technology, and leader of the Solutions Team at Sasaki, a national urban planning firm based in New York City. Siqi was passing through, and graciously offered to talk with UT students 1 on 1, and give a guest lecture on the state of Urban Tech in the real world. In addition to some yummy Mediterranean wraps, students that attended got to ask questions about the industry, and hear what Siqi thinks is the best way to currently navigate the Urban Tech landscape. Here were the highlights:
The Urban Tech “Combo Platter”
Siqi Zhu has a wide background, spanning traditional planning practices to design thinking in urban spaces, graduating with a Masters in Urban Planning with a specialization in Urban Design and Technology at the Harvard Graduate School of Design. As mentioned in his talk to students, Siqi and others in the urban tech space use their diverse backgrounds to come together and solve problems with modern day technologies and problem solving methods.
One thing that was hit multiple times in both Siqi’s presentation and the Q&A session afterward was how Urban Tech not only accepts people from a variety of backgrounds and experiences, but how the field thrives on this diverse makeup of professional and personal differences. Siqi emphasized that up until now, there has been no formal academic curriculum or formal path leading to a career in Urban Technology, which means that historically, the field has pulled from whatever disciplines it’s needed to in order to fulfill the vision of harmonious digital and physical experiences. Urban tech is special in that the field itself exists due to a need to make cities work better for everyone in a digital age. By the very nature of a problem like this existing, it implies that current systems are not meeting the needs of its user base. Realizing this means rethinking how cities are planned, how digital products are made, and how these products co-exist with people in urban spaces. Traditional urban planning practices, and modern day software development have given us a pretty solid base to think about a prosperous digital future, but it takes a certain kind of person to recognize when existing systems should be changed to meet the ever-changing world around it. Change is hard, but in many cases, it might be the best way forward.
This leads one to wonder, “How can change be brought forth in the most meaningful, impactful and just way within urban environments?”
Making The Tech, Shaping The Tech
Siqi proposes that there are two main focuses in the current landscape of Urban Technology. Of course, there are those that are making the products, services and devices that are to be embedded into the urban fabric. This is challenging, as it sometimes requires rethinking from the ground up how we might use an existing system of infrastructure, or how interactions in digital or physical contexts could be impacting the space and people around them. Siqi and his crew still take on a variety of traditional planning projects, but the Sasaki Strategies team are full steam ahead in making new digital products for municipalities and other actors in urban space. Using their skills in data science, machine learning, prototyping and other traditionally Silicon Valley skills, Sasaki uses technology to enable data augmented project delivery, focusing on solving some of the most pressing problems in city building. Budget overruns and externalities often plague large capital improvement projects; Sasaki says, “why don’t we use data and digital tools to predict and track the impact of externalities on project performance?” Existing buildings and districts are vulnerable to climate disasters, some more than others; Sasaki says “Let’s use computer vision and geospatial data to illustrate where resiliency efforts should be focused.” Urban technologists don’t just operate within the existing bounds of what has been done in the city before, they break barriers and move beyond traditional methods of planning. Sasaki and other planning firms are taking hold of this approach in their work, but so are startups aiming to solve problems like last mile delivery, the feasibility of e-bikes, or our currently oligopolized mobile phone networks.
Siqi defines a “product” as a solution to a repeated, universal need where other systems or technologies are either non-existent, or not meeting current user needs. [By his definition, maybe the Urban Technology degree program is a “product” itself…. ;) ] While government agencies are not excluded from this style of development — and are actually adopting the “product model” more and more — these solutions typically come from private entities who, by their nature and definition, cannot possibly consider and design for every indirect outcome or result their product may bring about in urban life. This is where Siqi’s second area of focus in urban technology comes in. Shaping urban technology is a delicate balance of understanding the goal of a particular product or service, as to not fully inhibit it’s ability to solve the problem it’s going after, but to then also orient the innovation in the full context of the city and all of its citizens. While delivery robots may solve a fairly localized problem to a certain set of users and companies, it’s the role of local governments and policy makers to account for the indirect benefits or harms this tech might bring to different users throughout the city, like considering that delivery robots mainly traverse on sidewalks, a piece of infrastructure relied on heavily by low income populations. Local innovation and data offices are starting to lay out digital governance frameworks, data sharing and community engagement requirements, and are developing standardized, open protocols to usher in new innovation that serves the needs of the city in meaningful ways.
The makers and the shapers both need strong representation in the discussion and development of digital systems and solutions aimed at changing the city. Skip the makers, and there is little innovation to begin with; skip the shapers, and all you have is innovation for the sake of innovation. We as urban technologists have the potential to use our innovation to serve the values and needs of society, but only through a harmonious link between thoughtful regulation, and cutting edge development.
Thanks for reading. I am aiming to post a piece every month on topics relating to urban planning/technology, transportation, public policy, socio-economics, and more. I hope you’ll follow along for more.
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