Center for Urban Science and Progress

Location: New York, NY

Website: www.cusp.nyu.edu

The Center for Urban Science and Progress (CUSP) is a unique public-private research center that uses New York City as its laboratory and classroom to help cities around the world become more productive, livable, equitable, and resilient.

CUSP observes, analyzes, and models cities to optimize outcomes, prototype new solutions, formalize new tools and processes, and develop new expertise/experts. These activities will make CUSP the world’s leading authority in the emerging field of “Urban Informatics.”

The Center for Urban Science and Progress (CUSP) aims to unite two extraordinarily profound developments in human history in order to improve the lives of citizens around the globe.

90 percent of the world’s data has been created in the last two years alone. For the first time in history, more than half the world’s population lives in urban areas.

CUSP will instrument New York City and use existing data from a network of agencies to transform the city into a living laboratory and classroom. It will make sense of the vast amount of data it collects to help cities around the world become more productive, more livable, more equitable, and more resilient.

As it develops new expertise through research and new experts through educational programs such as a master’s degree and an advanced certificate, CUSP will become the world’s leading authority in the emerging field of urban informatics — the collection, integration, and analysis of data to understand and improve urban systems and quality of life.

CUSP was created by New York University, NYU‑Poly, a consortium of world-class universities, and prominent international tech companies as a response to a challenge put forth by New York City to create an applied science campus that will make the city a world capital of science and technology, and dramatically grow its economy. As such, CUSP has the commitment and cooperation from New York City to take the city’s pulse like never before as it establishes professional and academic standards for the field of urban informatics.