In January 2019, researchers from the MIT Media Lab City Science group conducted a workshop at the City Science Lab at HafenCity University in Hamburg, Germany. The MIT researchers—Ariel Noyman, Luis Alonso, Arnaud Grignard, Yasushi Sakai, and Ronan Doorley—spent the week working with their research counterparts on several new initiatives and projects relating to urban science, mobility, energy, and public participation. The team from Hamburg offered workshops and brought in external speakers to review urban planning opportunities, as well as current and predictive mobility modes in the city.

The MIT and HCU collaboration, led by Ariel Noyman and Kent Larson, started in 2015 and was one of the first City Science Network labs established by the City Science group. This young collaboration took a turn in 2016 when the HCU and MIT labs were requested by the local government to assist with finding applicable housing solutions for tens of thousands of refugees arriving to the city of Hamburg that year. The effort yielded Finding Places—an internationally renowned public participation and decision-making process that utilized MIT’s CityScope, an urban modeling and simulation platform. Ever since, HCU CSL evolved into an independent research entity with dozens of  projects and nearly 30 researchers focusing on urban science challenges in Hamburg and beyond.  

Kent Larson and Gesa Ziemer  also attended the HafenCity workshop to better understand and direct the team's vision with a focus on research output.  In addition, Maggie Church and Ariel Noyman contributed to the planning of the 2019 City Science Summit, which will be held in Hamburg on October 1 and 2, 2019. The Summit aims to bring together the international City Science network with other global collaborators and stakeholders to discuss the most relevant tools and opportunities for the future of our cities.

Finally, Arnaud Grignard presented to the greater HafenCity community on his work in agent-based modeling using the GAMA Platform. He shared current work and the ability to use the platform to model energy, mobility, and social phenomena. He also introduced the CityScope GitHub where open source tools are presented for modelers and planners.

More information will be posted as research progresses. Follow updates and progress from MIT City Science @MITcities on Facebook and Instagram, and learn more about the Hamburg lab.