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Critical Technologies: 
Urban Tech for Social Impact

 

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How can technology and planning create more equitable cities? 

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June 9 2021, Cornell Tech

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Moderator: Sharon Yavo Ayalon, Wendy Ju, Meirav Aharon Gutman, Jennifer Minner

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Critical Technologies is a collaborative symposium of the Jacobs Institute at Cornell Tech, The College of Architecture, Art and Planning at Cornell University and the Technion's Faculty of Architecture and Town Planning.

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The ongoing pandemic has highlighted long-standing social inequalities. These inequities have manifested themselves in various ways and along multiple fracture lines (e.g. race and ethnicity, class, and disability). Despite mounting inequality, and a growing body of evidence of its negative consequences, big barriers remain to understanding how these complex social issues and planning processes connect. There is a growing need for effective, technology-based, spatial tools to understand the mechanisms that create and distribute disparities through the city.

 

This conference focused on the spatial dimensions of inequality in cities and explored ways for technology to promote more equitable cities. It brought together academic researchers from Cornell University, Cornell Tech, and the Technion, with practitioners from both NYC and Tel Aviv Planning Departments.

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The conference followed five main questions in five panels: Why, What, How, Who, and Where. Why is 
it important to harness technology to create more equitable cities; What can technology contribute to 
cities? How can current technologies contribute to societal challenges? This was exemplified through 
research projects from the three academic departments, ranging from data-
driven urban research to, 
mixed reality, visualization, simulations to art. The closing session will cover the Who and Where?
through a panel of decision-makers and examples of decision environments

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