a propoSal by the univerSity of WarWicK, in partnerShip WITH NEW YORK UNIVERSITY AND NYU-POLY, THE CITY UNIVERSITY OF NEW YORK, CARNEGIE MELLON UNIVERSITY, UNIVERSITY OF TORONTO, INDIAN INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY BOMBAY, IBM AND CISCO.

CUSP new York Proposal and adapted from documentation from the United nations Human Settlement Programme (Un-HABITAT)1

© 2012

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On 23 April 2012, New York’s Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg announced a historic agreement between New York City, New York’s Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) and a consortium of world-class academic institutions and private technology companies, which will lead to the creation in New York of a new Center for Urban Science and Progress – CUSP.

The New York Center for Urban Science and Progress has been formed by a consortium of world-class institutions from around the globe, led by NYU and NYU-Poly and including the University of Warwick, Carnegie Mellon University, the City University of New York, Indian Institute of Technology Bombay and University of

Toronto. Industry partners include IBM, Cisco, Siemens, Con Edison, National Grid, Xerox, Arup, IDEO and AECOM.

CUSP is an applied science research institute dedicated to researching and creating new solutions for the pressing and complex challenges confronting the world’s growing cities. Under the Directorship of Steve Koonin, former US Undersecretary of Energy for Science, Chief Scientist of BP and Provost of the California Institute of Technology, CUSP will eventually play host to 50 principal scientists (30 from the academic partners and 20 research staff from the industrial partners), over 400 Masters students, 100 PhD students and 30 post-docs.

Center for Urban SCienCe and ProgreSS – nEW YoRK

CUSP is a signifi cant component of New York’s Applied Sciences NYC Initiative. This research institute will spark new technologies, discoveries and innovations, will create new businesses and jobs, and will educate the workforce for the high-tech urban science sector. New research and technologies developed at CUSP are expected to generate $5.5 billion in economic activity and create a total of 7,700 jobs over the next 30 years.

Work has begun to establish CUSP in its 460,000-square-foot New York campus at 370 Jay Street in Downtown Brooklyn, a vibrant, creative and entrepreneurial neighbourhood.

“oVER THE nEXT FIVE YEARS, 370 JAY STREET WILL BE TRAnSFoRMEd InTo A CUTTInG-EdGE CEnTER FoR RESEARCH And SCIEnCE THAT WILL GIVE AnoTHER HUGE BooST To oUR CITY’S EConoMY. oUR AdMInISTRATIon HAS LonG SEEn THE PRoMISE oF doWnToWn BRooKLYn, And WE’VE MAdE THE InVESTMEnTS nEEdEd To TRAnSFoRM IT InTo A THRIVInG CEnTER FoR BUSInESS. WITH THE AddITIon oF THIS nEW CAMPUS, BRooKLYn WILL BE onE oF THE MoST dYnAMIC EnVIRonMEnTS FoR EnTREPREnEURS AnYWHERE In THE CoUnTRY.”

MAYoR MICHAEL R. BLooMBERG

London is the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom and the largest urban zone in the European Union2: Greater London has a population of over 7.8 million (July 2010), accounting for 12.5% of the UK population3; London’s metropolitan area has an estimated population of between 12 and 14 million4, 5. London’s population density (5,100 inhabitants per square kilometer) is greater than that of Buenos Aires, Moscow and Paris, and more than twice that of New York6.

London is recognized as a leading global city, with strengths in the arts, commerce, education, entertainment, fashion, fi nance, healthcare, media, professional services, research and development, tourism and transport. The London metropolitan area generates approximately 30% of the UK’s GDP7 and is host to more than 70 of the FTSE 100 companies8. Currently, over 85% of the employed population of Greater London works in the services industries.

Despite its global success, London faces several ongoing challenges9:

London’s public transport network, administered by Transport for London (TfL), is one of the most extensive in the world. London’s bus network is one of the world’s largest, with over 8,000 buses running on 700 bus routes and more than 6 million passenger journeys made every weekday; London’s tube network, dating from 1863,

is the oldest and second longest system in the world, serving 270 stations.

London is home to 75% of all households in temporary accommodation in England, most of which are housed in the private rented sector. Parts of Inner London are now unaffordable for low-income families renting privately and this is impacting on Outer London boroughs, where housing is cheaper, but where there is a lower level of public service provision: 35% of Outer London primary schools are full or overcrowded, compared with 19% in Inner London; 8 of the 10 primary care trusts with the fewest GPs per head of the population are in Outer London.

Babies born in Southwark, Croydon, Haringey and Harrow are twice as likely to die before their fi rst birthday as those born in Bromley, Kingston and Richmond.

London’s population is predicted to grow. By 2031 it is estimated that the population of Greater London will be 8.8 million, a disproportionately large percentage of which will be either of school age or over 65 (by then the number of over 65s is set to increase by 34%)10.

These city challenges, in London and elsewhere, represent clear opportunities; according to the Smart Cities Market Data Study from ABI research11, the global spend on Smart Cities technologies will grow from $8.1bn in 2011 to $39.5bn in 2016.

oPPortUnitY London

Centre for Urban SCienCe and ProgreSS – London

Our proposal is to create the Centre for Urban Science and Progress – London, based on a similar model to that of its sister institution, CUSP New York.

We believe that there are compelling social, scientific and business reasons for building CUSP London, and see undoubted strength in a CUSP New York + CUSP London partnership.

CUSP London would drive the creation, development and testing of new sustainable urban systems in areas including:

Smarter SenSorS

The development and deployment of urban instrumentation for data collection across city infrastructures, driving informatics, operations and strategic decision making.

Smarter infraStructure

Examples include mains water systems that monitor demand and balance pressure to reduce water leaks; roads that monitor vehicles and that can calculate their own stresses; and networks that integrate city blueprints to reduce radio dead-spots, ensuring good communications for emergency personnel.

Smarter video

Processing video images requires high bandwidth and power, yet the ability to process spatially distributed images is essential to take advantage of significant benefits to city-wide security, health and human services.

Smarter buildingS

Buildings that can monitor occupancy and adjust lighting, heating and ventilation to save energy, possibly also taking account of holiday patterns, weather conditions and forecasts.

CUSP’s research model is based on the concept of Living Laboratories. Studies will use real-world data from municipal agencies and the focus will be on developing research-led solutions to help those agencies to address existing and emerging city challenges. New York’s Metropolitan Transportation Authority has already agreed to be our prototype partner in CUSP New York, giving CUSP’s researchers access to the very specific scientific and engineering challenges that the authority faces in the coming years.

Smarter interfaceS

Urban informatics and smart visualisation are needed to synthesise and interpret vast new volumes of city-wide information.

Smarter city repair

A city infrastructure requires near constant repair and coordinating multiple stakeholders when replacing co-located systems is often problematic. Predictive models can significantly improve the efficiency of this type of work.

Smarter information gathering

Sources of information include data on people, preferences and behaviour. Anonymised data show that activity flows can be used to deliver personalised and intelligent information to residents and visitors.

Smarter traffic

Mobile telephone apps in combination with parking sensors can be used to alert drivers that there are free parking spaces in their vicinity. Real-time traffic flow information can also be used to divert emergency vehicles to uncongested streets.

Smarter connectivity

It is estimated that 22 billion devices will be connected to the Internet by 2020. There is considerable potential in exploring practical applications of this new interconnected infrastructure for societal and business city needs.

LoCation

CUSP New York is to be sited at 370 Jay Street in Downtown Brooklyn, in a building which for more than a decade has laid largely fallow. CUSP New York will cement the location’s image as a ‘tech cluster’ and enhance the vibrant, entrepreneurial culture of the neighbourhood.

Other suitable locations exist, as highlighted in the recent statement from the Mayor of London, Boris Johnson:

“In the nineteenth century the wharfs and warehouses of east London were the epicentre for world trade. Virtually every commodity was traded in and transported from our city to markets far and wide. Today London is at the forefront of the high-tech revolution. But we can and must do more to cement our position as a global magnet for the new talent that meets the needs and harnesses the opportunities of the 21st century. In the outstanding space and infrastructure offered by the London 2012 Media Centre, the olympic and Paralympic Games will bequeath to London a vibrant new business quarter in the east of our city. We must do everything we can to support its development as one of the UK’s leading hubs for businesses exploiting the digital and creative markets. We are already doing a lot to support this new economy, from making reams of city data freely available to London’s technical talent for transformation into apps, websites or mobile products, to piloting public wi-fi on London Underground.”

We believe that CUSP London has an important role to play in this new economy. We are committed to the project, to its success and to the industry and jobs that it would create.

We look forward to further discussions on this proposal.

We envisage an equivalent location (and mission) for CUSP London, perhaps complementing the activities of the East London Tech City within the Old Street, Hoxton and Shoreditch High Street triangle, or extending this eastwards towards Bethnal Green and Bow.

1 State of the World’s Cities 2007-2008, United Nations Human Settlement Programme (UN-HABITAT)

2 European Statistical Agency (EUROSTAT)

3 July 2010 Population estimates for UK, England and Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland. UK Offi ce for National Statistics

4 The Principal Agglomerations of the World. City Population. Archived from the original on 23 July 2010

5 British urban pattern: population data. ESPON project 1.4.3 Study on Urban Functions. European Spatial Planning Observation Network. March 2007. p119

6 City Mayors, www.citymayors.com/statistics, accessed June 2012

7 After the Fall. The Economist, 29 November 2007

8 London Stock Exchange. London Stock Exchange plc, 2008

9 London’s Poverty Profi le 2011, New Policy Institute, 2011

10 The London Plan, Spatial Development Strategy for Greater London, Greater London Authority, July 2011

11 ABI Research, Smart Cities Market Data, www.abiresearch.com/research/1008146-Smart_Cities_Market_Data,accessed June 2012

contactProfessor Tim Jones, Pro-Vice-Chancellor for Knowledge Transfer, Business Engagement and Research (Science & Medicine)

tel +44 (0)24 7652 3653email t.s.jones@warwick.ac.uk

referenCeS