{"id":664494,"date":"2020-06-18T09:09:29","date_gmt":"2020-06-18T16:09:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/research\/?post_type=msr-event&p=664494"},"modified":"2025-08-06T11:52:45","modified_gmt":"2025-08-06T18:52:45","slug":"urban-futures-summer-workshop","status":"publish","type":"msr-event","link":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/research\/event\/urban-futures-summer-workshop\/","title":{"rendered":"Urban Futures \u2013 Summer Workshop"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n

\n\t\n\t\tWatch on demand\t<\/a>\n\n\t<\/p>\n

Related projects and initiatives:<\/strong>
\nUrban Innovation Initiative<\/a>
\nProject Eclipse<\/a><\/p>\n

This was an invite-only event.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Contact us:<\/strong>
\nEmail msrevent@microsoft.com<\/a> with any questions.Opens in a new tab<\/span><\/p>\n

The Microsoft Urban Futures Summer Workshop (opens in new tab)<\/span><\/a> (July 28\u201330, 2020) was three intensive days of talks, discussion and planning for data driven urban transformation. With over 100 attendees, we built a research driven coalition of civic, academic and research leaders to envision what services could be built on top of data sets for improving the future of cities. Together we produced a series of white papers (opens in new tab)<\/span><\/a> that present research and action plans for cities, academia, and industry, to conduct real world research and deployments.<\/p>\n

Two hours each morning were devoted to research and technology talks (opens in new tab)<\/span><\/a> from stakeholders representing Microsoft Research, top academic institutions, and civic leaders. The second half of each day was devoted to working groups writing the white papers focused on topics relevant to the future of cities, people, and the environment.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Program Committee members<\/h3>\n

Scott Counts (opens in new tab)<\/span><\/a>, Microsoft Research
\nGavin Jancke (opens in new tab)<\/span><\/a>, Microsoft Research
\nPaul Johns (opens in new tab)<\/span><\/a>, Microsoft Research
\nKristin Lauter (opens in new tab)<\/span><\/a>, Microsoft Research
\nMichael Mattmiller (opens in new tab)<\/span><\/a>, Microsoft
\nAsta Roseway (opens in new tab)<\/span><\/a>, Microsoft Research
\nKenji Takeda (opens in new tab)<\/span><\/a>, Microsoft Research
\nRoy Zimmermann (opens in new tab)<\/span><\/a>, Microsoft Research<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n

Microsoft\u2019s Event Code of Conduct<\/h3>\n

Microsoft\u2019s mission is to empower every person and every organization on the planet to achieve more. This includes virtual events Microsoft hosts and participates in, where we seek to create a respectful, friendly, and inclusive experience for all participants. As such, we do not tolerate harassing or disrespectful behavior, messages, images, or interactions by any event participant, in any form, at any aspect of the program including business and social activities, regardless of location.<\/p>\n

We do not tolerate any behavior that is degrading to any gender, race, sexual orientation or disability, or any behavior that would violate\u00a0Microsoft\u2019s Anti-Harassment and Anti-Discrimination Policy, Equal Employment Opportunity Policy, or Standards of Business Conduct (opens in new tab)<\/span><\/a>. In short, the entire experience must meet our culture standards. We encourage everyone to assist in creating a welcoming and safe environment. Please\u00a0report (opens in new tab)<\/span><\/a>\u00a0any concerns, harassing behavior, or suspicious or disruptive activity. Microsoft reserves the right to ask attendees to leave at any time at its sole discretion.<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n
\n\t\n\t\tReport a concern\t<\/a>\n\n\t<\/div>\n

Opens in a new tab<\/span><\/p>\n

Day 1 | July 28, 2020<\/h2>\n

Theme: Data Driven Urban Transformation<\/h3>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
Time<\/strong><\/td>\nSession<\/strong><\/td>\nSpeaker(s)<\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
9:00 AM\u20139:10 AM<\/td>\nWelcome: Introduction to the workshop | Video (opens in new tab)<\/span><\/a><\/td>\nKristin Lauter & Roy Zimmermann, Microsoft<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
9:10 AM\u20139:30 AM<\/td>\nCity Futures \u2013 Urban innovation at Microsoft | Video (opens in new tab)<\/span><\/a><\/td>\nScott Counts, Microsoft<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
9:30 AM\u201310:00 AM<\/td>\nLondon\u2019s digital twin for air quality and COVID-19 response | Video (opens in new tab)<\/span><\/a><\/td>\nPaul Hodgson, City Data at Greater London Authority<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
10:00 AM\u201310:30 AM<\/td>\nTransformative uses of data in cities | Video (opens in new tab)<\/span><\/a><\/td>\nLuis Bettencourt, University of Chicago<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
10:30 AM\u201311:00 AM<\/td>\nUrban transformation and COVID-19 | Video (opens in new tab)<\/span><\/a><\/td>\nBill Fulton, Rice University<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
11:00 AM\u201311:30 AM<\/td>\nCreating a global network of smart cities: The global measurement and monitoring initiative | Video (opens in new tab)<\/span><\/a><\/td>\nTom Baer, Stanford University<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
11:30 AM\u201312:00 PM<\/td>\nLunch break<\/td>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
12:00 PM\u20131:30 PM<\/td>\nFacilitated break out groups: Research plan development<\/td>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
1:30 PM\u20132:00 PM<\/td>\nGroup report back and intern posters<\/td>\nKristin Lauter, Alaysia Brown, & Adam Stewart, Microsoft<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
2:00 PM<\/td>\nEnd of day 1<\/td>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n
<\/div>\n
\n\t\n\t\tWatch sessions on demand\t<\/a>\n\n\t<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n

Day 2 | July 29, 2020<\/h2>\n

Theme: Sensors and Data<\/h3>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
Time<\/strong><\/td>\nSession<\/strong><\/td>\nSpeaker(s)<\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
9:00 AM\u20139:30 AM<\/td>\nWelcome: Urban Innovation at Microsoft and Project Eclipse | Video (opens in new tab)<\/span><\/a> | Slides<\/a><\/td>\nScott Counts, Gavin Jancke, & Miriam Berhane Russom, Microsoft<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
9:30 AM\u201310:00 AM<\/td>\nQuantifying urban scale CO2 reductions and related emissions changes during the COVID-19 Shelter in place | Video (opens in new tab)<\/span><\/a> | Slides<\/a><\/td>\nRon Cohen, University of California, Berkeley<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
10:00 AM\u201310:30 AM<\/td>\nHow cities can become smarter: Sensors, edge computing, and the array of things | Video (opens in new tab)<\/span><\/a> | Slides<\/a><\/td>\nCharlie Catlett, Discovery Partners Institute, University of Illinois and Argonne National Laboratory<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
10:30 AM\u201311:00 AM<\/td>\nCommunity air quality sensing: What we\u2019ve learned from calibration and crowdsourcing studies | Video (opens in new tab)<\/span><\/a> | Slides<\/a><\/td>\nEdmund Seto, University of Washington<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
11:00 AM\u201311:30 AM<\/td>\nUsing campuses in the Cascadia Corridor to advance smart city innovation | Video (opens in new tab)<\/span><\/a> | Slides<\/a><\/td>\nJon Fink, Portland State University<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
11:30 AM\u201312:00 PM<\/td>\nLunch break<\/td>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
12:00 PM\u20131:30 PM<\/td>\nFacilitated break out groups: Research plan development<\/td>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
1:30 PM\u20132:00 PM<\/td>\nGroup report back and intern posters<\/td>\nScott Counts, Helen Fitzmaurice, & Pietro Vannucci, Microsoft<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
2:00 PM<\/td>\nEnd of day 2<\/td>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n
<\/div>\n
\n\t\n\t\tWatch sessions on demand\t<\/a>\n\n\t<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n

Day 3 | July 30, 2020<\/h2>\n

Theme: Policy and Social Impact<\/h3>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
Time<\/strong><\/td>\nSession<\/strong><\/td>\nSpeaker(s)<\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
9:00 AM\u20139:30 AM<\/td>\nWelcome: Future scenarios & AI for Earth \u2013 shaping urban development toward a sustainable future | Video (opens in new tab)<\/span><\/a> | Slides<\/a><\/td>\nAsta Roseway & Lucas Joppa, Microsoft<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
9:30 AM\u201310:00 AM<\/td>\nGranular CO2 emissions for every U.S. city from the Vulcan and Hestia Projects<\/td>\nKevin Gurney, Northern Arizona University<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
10:00 AM\u201310:30 AM<\/td>\nThe role of collaboration in city innovation | Video (opens in new tab)<\/span><\/a> | Slides<\/a><\/td>\nBrenna Berman, CEO, City Tech Collaborative<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
10:30 AM\u201311:00 AM<\/td>\nTowards an Integrated System for Urban Greenhouse Gas Monitoring and Assessment | Video (opens in new tab)<\/span><\/a> | Slides<\/a><\/td>\nJocelyn Turnbull, University of Colorado<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
11:00 AM\u201311:30 AM<\/td>\nLunch break<\/td>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
11:30 AM\u20131:00 PM<\/td>\nFacilitated break out groups: research plan development<\/td>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
1:00 PM\u20132:00 PM<\/td>\nGroup report back and intern posters<\/td>\nAsta Roseway, Mikayla Buford, & Alex Cabral, Microsoft<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
2:00 PM<\/td>\nEnd of workshop<\/td>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n
<\/div>\n
\n\t\n\t\tWatch sessions on demand\t<\/a>\n\n\t<\/div>\n

Opens in a new tab<\/span><\/p>\n

Community Engagement on Environmental Issues<\/h3>\n

Popping into Focus: Community Engagement for Environmental Impact and Awareness<\/strong><\/a>
\nMadeleine I. G. Daepp, Helen Fitzmaurice, Shawn Janzen, Jaime Ponce, Asta Roseway, Juliana Felkner, Wende Copfer, Wilfred Pinfold, and Dev Niyogi<\/i><\/p>\n

Post COVID-19 Cities<\/h3>\n

How Cities Can Become More Flexible in the Wake of COVID-19: Housing Case Study<\/strong><\/a>
\nSravya Avasarala, Sifang Chen, Scott Counts, Jonathan Fink, Bill Fulton, Eric Gordon, John Harlow, Paul Hodgson, Yuan Lai, Walter Merida, Dan O\u2019Brien, Kyle Shelton<\/i><\/p>\n

Science of Air Quality<\/h3>\n

Why all cities should have \u201cClean Air as a City Service\u201d<\/strong><\/a>
\nAlex Cabral, Ron Cohen, Varsha Gopalakrishnan, Vikram Iyer, Gavin Jancke, Craig Michie, Amy Mueller, Outi Nyman, Adam Stewart, Jocelyn Turnbull, Alexander Turner<\/i><\/p>\n

Social Equity<\/h3>\n

On Achieving (Urban) Social Equity<\/strong><\/a>
\nWendy Chisholm, Alaysia Brown, Daniel Aliaga, Mikayla Buford, Paul Johns, Kevin Miller, Sid Espinosa, Kim Lucas, Junfeng Jiao, Roy Zimmermann<\/i><\/p>\n

Public Health<\/h3>\n

Democratizing Digital Solutions to Improve Public Health and Urban Air Quality<\/strong><\/a>
\nEdmund Seto, Miriam Berhane Russom, Michael Mattmiller, Vaishnavi Ranganathan, Kate Brown, Pietro Vannucci, Alex Mariakakis, Eric Basha, Shahana Khurshid<\/i>Opens in a new tab<\/span><\/p>\n

Future-looking research collaboration<\/h2>\n

The Microsoft Urban Futures Summer Workshop<\/a> (July 28\u201330, 2020) was three intensive days of talks, discussion and planning for data driven urban transformation. With over 100 attendees, we built a research driven coalition of civic, academic and research leaders to envision what services could be built on top of data sets for improving the future of cities. Together we produced a series of white papers<\/a> that present research and action plans for cities, academia, and industry, to conduct real world research and deployments.<\/p>\n

Two hours each morning were devoted to research and technology talks<\/a> from stakeholders representing Microsoft Research, top academic institutions, and civic leaders. The second half of each day was devoted to working groups writing the white papers focused on topics relevant to the future of cities, people, and the environment.<\/p>\n

In addition to the white papers produced by workshop participants, several potential future-looking research collaboration ideas emerged from the workshop:<\/p>\n

1. Clean air as a city service<\/h3>\n

Clean air is fundamental to human health and the environment and is an essential human right. Measuring Greenhouse Gases is crucial for fighting climate change.\u00a0 Every city should have a service that makes air quality data available to residents, policy makers, and third parties. This project uses Project<\/a> Eclipse<\/a> (and other) hyperlocal air quality sensors to drive development of a service that will inform the public and guide policy decisions to more efficiently lead to clean air for all.<\/p>\n

2. Piloting urban pop-up lab<\/h3>\n

Engaging the public with environmental data will be crucial to inducing positive climate change related behavior. This project pilots the concept of a pop-up \u201ceco-lab\u201d: a mobile (e.g., housed in a shipping container) lab experience that can be placed in communities where MSR is deploying its environmental sensing technologies. The goal is to make the technology and data understandable, relatable, and valuable to the people in the communities that ultimately should benefit.<\/p>\n

3. Public health mobile app development for preventing asthma<\/h3>\n

Paired with air quality data from Project Eclipse, this project launches a mobile app for people to both check local air quality and report their respiratory status. Such a platform can be used formally for public health research, and less formally to build community and raise public awareness of the conditions and locations that most trigger respiratory health issues.<\/p>\n

4. Can deep learning match current climate science modeling techniques for identifying pollution sources?<\/h3>\n

Brief description: Current climate science models for inverse modeling (tracing pollutants back to emission sources) require extremely computationally intensive models. With this project, we will assess the accuracy of deep learning models as an Azure-compatible and more computationally efficient approach.<\/p>\n

5. Developing a housing health index for cities<\/h3>\n

Especially given the expected climate migration, meeting housing demand will be amongst the toughest challenges facing cities in the coming decades. This project aggregates disparate data (permit data, rent and mortgage rates, building codes, etc.) to build a multidimensional housing health index for a city. In addition to helping cities understand the state of their housing, the index can also be used for intelligent planning by allowing \u201cwhat if\u201d tweaking of model inputs.<\/p>\n

6. Urban heat islands<\/h3>\n

Cities heat and retain heat, causing negative public health and global warming impacts, resulting in a \u201cheat island\u201d effect that is a major concern for many urban areas. This phenomena causes heat to be unevenly distributed around cities, and thus with this project we propose the use of hyperlocal heat sensors to identify \u201cheat islets\u201d where cities can allocate resources for localized cooling.<\/p>\n

7. Air quality sensors improving on volatile organic compounds (VOCs)<\/h3>\n

VOCs, including those from trees, contribute to atmospheric pollution. In this project we will combine ground level gas measurements (via Project Eclipse) with VOC measurements, at different levels of urban development, from highly urban to forested to better understand how VOCs from these varying levels of human development mix with gases to contribute to pollution.<\/p>\n

Microsoft will continue to collaborate with our external partners and evolve these ideas and research plans with an eye toward implementing them in the next year or so.<\/p>\n

\u2014Scott Counts,\u00a0Kristin Lauter, and\u00a0Asta Roseway<\/p>\n

Microsoft Urban Innovation Initiative<\/a>Opens in a new tab<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Microsoft Urban Futures Summer Workshop will be three intensive days of talks, discussion and planning for data driven urban transformation. At this event we will build a research driven coalition of civic, academic and research leaders to envision what services could be built on top of data sets for improving the future of cities. Please join us for the Microsoft Urban Futures Summer Workshop. This will be three intensive days of talks, discussion and planning for data driven urban transformation. At this event we will build a research driven coalition of civic, academic and research leaders to envision what services could be built on top of data sets for improving the future of cities. Together we will develop research and action plans for cities, academia, and industry, to conduct real world research and work toward deployments. We will consider which data sets are needed to drive urban transformation based on real world scenarios.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":666141,"template":"","meta":{"msr-url-field":"","msr-podcast-episode":"","msrModifiedDate":"","msrModifiedDateEnabled":false,"ep_exclude_from_search":false,"_classifai_error":"","msr_startdate":"2020-07-28","msr_enddate":"2020-07-30","msr_location":"Virtual\/Online","msr_expirationdate":"","msr_event_recording_link":"","msr_event_link":"","msr_event_link_redirect":false,"msr_event_time":"9:00 AM\u20132:00 PM Pacific Daylight Time \u200e(UTC-7)\u200e","msr_hide_region":true,"msr_private_event":false,"msr_hide_image_in_river":0,"footnotes":""},"research-area":[13556,198583],"msr-region":[197900],"msr-event-type":[197944],"msr-video-type":[],"msr-locale":[268875],"msr-program-audience":[],"msr-post-option":[],"msr-impact-theme":[],"class_list":["post-664494","msr-event","type-msr-event","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","msr-research-area-artificial-intelligence","msr-research-area-ecology-environment","msr-region-north-america","msr-event-type-hosted-by-microsoft","msr-locale-en_us"],"msr_about":"\n\n

\n\t\n\t\tWatch on demand\t<\/a>\n\n\t<\/p>\n

Related projects and initiatives:<\/strong>
\nUrban Innovation Initiative<\/a>
\nProject Eclipse<\/a><\/p>\n

This was an invite-only event.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Contact us:<\/strong>
\nEmail msrevent@microsoft.com<\/a> with any questions.Opens in a new tab<\/span><\/p>\n

The Microsoft Urban Futures Summer Workshop (opens in new tab)<\/span><\/a> (July 28\u201330, 2020) was three intensive days of talks, discussion and planning for data driven urban transformation. With over 100 attendees, we built a research driven coalition of civic, academic and research leaders to envision what services could be built on top of data sets for improving the future of cities. Together we produced a series of white papers (opens in new tab)<\/span><\/a> that present research and action plans for cities, academia, and industry, to conduct real world research and deployments.<\/p>\n

Two hours each morning were devoted to research and technology talks (opens in new tab)<\/span><\/a> from stakeholders representing Microsoft Research, top academic institutions, and civic leaders. The second half of each day was devoted to working groups writing the white papers focused on topics relevant to the future of cities, people, and the environment.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Program Committee members<\/h3>\n

Scott Counts (opens in new tab)<\/span><\/a>, Microsoft Research
\nGavin Jancke (opens in new tab)<\/span><\/a>, Microsoft Research
\nPaul Johns (opens in new tab)<\/span><\/a>, Microsoft Research
\nKristin Lauter (opens in new tab)<\/span><\/a>, Microsoft Research
\nMichael Mattmiller (opens in new tab)<\/span><\/a>, Microsoft
\nAsta Roseway (opens in new tab)<\/span><\/a>, Microsoft Research
\nKenji Takeda (opens in new tab)<\/span><\/a>, Microsoft Research
\nRoy Zimmermann (opens in new tab)<\/span><\/a>, Microsoft Research<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n

Microsoft\u2019s Event Code of Conduct<\/h3>\n

Microsoft\u2019s mission is to empower every person and every organization on the planet to achieve more. This includes virtual events Microsoft hosts and participates in, where we seek to create a respectful, friendly, and inclusive experience for all participants. As such, we do not tolerate harassing or disrespectful behavior, messages, images, or interactions by any event participant, in any form, at any aspect of the program including business and social activities, regardless of location.<\/p>\n

We do not tolerate any behavior that is degrading to any gender, race, sexual orientation or disability, or any behavior that would violate\u00a0Microsoft\u2019s Anti-Harassment and Anti-Discrimination Policy, Equal Employment Opportunity Policy, or Standards of Business Conduct (opens in new tab)<\/span><\/a>. In short, the entire experience must meet our culture standards. We encourage everyone to assist in creating a welcoming and safe environment. Please\u00a0report (opens in new tab)<\/span><\/a>\u00a0any concerns, harassing behavior, or suspicious or disruptive activity. Microsoft reserves the right to ask attendees to leave at any time at its sole discretion.<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n
\n\t\n\t\tReport a concern\t<\/a>\n\n\t<\/div>\n

Opens in a new tab<\/span><\/p>\n

Day 1 | July 28, 2020<\/h2>\n

Theme: Data Driven Urban Transformation<\/h3>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
Time<\/strong><\/td>\nSession<\/strong><\/td>\nSpeaker(s)<\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
9:00 AM\u20139:10 AM<\/td>\nWelcome: Introduction to the workshop | Video<\/a><\/td>\nKristin Lauter & Roy Zimmermann, Microsoft<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
9:10 AM\u20139:30 AM<\/td>\nCity Futures \u2013 Urban innovation at Microsoft | Video<\/a><\/td>\nScott Counts, Microsoft<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
9:30 AM\u201310:00 AM<\/td>\nLondon\u2019s digital twin for air quality and COVID-19 response | Video<\/a><\/td>\nPaul Hodgson, City Data at Greater London Authority<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
10:00 AM\u201310:30 AM<\/td>\nTransformative uses of data in cities | Video<\/a><\/td>\nLuis Bettencourt, University of Chicago<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
10:30 AM\u201311:00 AM<\/td>\nUrban transformation and COVID-19 | Video<\/a><\/td>\nBill Fulton, Rice University<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
11:00 AM\u201311:30 AM<\/td>\nCreating a global network of smart cities: The global measurement and monitoring initiative | Video<\/a><\/td>\nTom Baer, Stanford University<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
11:30 AM\u201312:00 PM<\/td>\nLunch break<\/td>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
12:00 PM\u20131:30 PM<\/td>\nFacilitated break out groups: Research plan development<\/td>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
1:30 PM\u20132:00 PM<\/td>\nGroup report back and intern posters<\/td>\nKristin Lauter, Alaysia Brown, & Adam Stewart, Microsoft<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
2:00 PM<\/td>\nEnd of day 1<\/td>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n
<\/div>\n
\n\t\n\t\tWatch sessions on demand\t<\/a>\n\n\t<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n

Day 2 | July 29, 2020<\/h2>\n

Theme: Sensors and Data<\/h3>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
Time<\/strong><\/td>\nSession<\/strong><\/td>\nSpeaker(s)<\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
9:00 AM\u20139:30 AM<\/td>\nWelcome: Urban Innovation at Microsoft and Project Eclipse | Video<\/a> | Slides<\/a><\/td>\nScott Counts, Gavin Jancke, & Miriam Berhane Russom, Microsoft<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
9:30 AM\u201310:00 AM<\/td>\nQuantifying urban scale CO2 reductions and related emissions changes during the COVID-19 Shelter in place | Video<\/a> | Slides<\/a><\/td>\nRon Cohen, University of California, Berkeley<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
10:00 AM\u201310:30 AM<\/td>\nHow cities can become smarter: Sensors, edge computing, and the array of things | Video<\/a> | Slides<\/a><\/td>\nCharlie Catlett, Discovery Partners Institute, University of Illinois and Argonne National Laboratory<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
10:30 AM\u201311:00 AM<\/td>\nCommunity air quality sensing: What we\u2019ve learned from calibration and crowdsourcing studies | Video<\/a> | Slides<\/a><\/td>\nEdmund Seto, University of Washington<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
11:00 AM\u201311:30 AM<\/td>\nUsing campuses in the Cascadia Corridor to advance smart city innovation | Video<\/a> | Slides<\/a><\/td>\nJon Fink, Portland State University<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
11:30 AM\u201312:00 PM<\/td>\nLunch break<\/td>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
12:00 PM\u20131:30 PM<\/td>\nFacilitated break out groups: Research plan development<\/td>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
1:30 PM\u20132:00 PM<\/td>\nGroup report back and intern posters<\/td>\nScott Counts, Helen Fitzmaurice, & Pietro Vannucci, Microsoft<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
2:00 PM<\/td>\nEnd of day 2<\/td>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n
<\/div>\n
\n\t\n\t\tWatch sessions on demand\t<\/a>\n\n\t<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n

Day 3 | July 30, 2020<\/h2>\n

Theme: Policy and Social Impact<\/h3>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
Time<\/strong><\/td>\nSession<\/strong><\/td>\nSpeaker(s)<\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
9:00 AM\u20139:30 AM<\/td>\nWelcome: Future scenarios & AI for Earth \u2013 shaping urban development toward a sustainable future | Video<\/a> | Slides<\/a><\/td>\nAsta Roseway & Lucas Joppa, Microsoft<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
9:30 AM\u201310:00 AM<\/td>\nGranular CO2 emissions for every U.S. city from the Vulcan and Hestia Projects<\/td>\nKevin Gurney, Northern Arizona University<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
10:00 AM\u201310:30 AM<\/td>\nThe role of collaboration in city innovation | Video<\/a> | Slides<\/a><\/td>\nBrenna Berman, CEO, City Tech Collaborative<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
10:30 AM\u201311:00 AM<\/td>\nTowards an Integrated System for Urban Greenhouse Gas Monitoring and Assessment | Video<\/a> | Slides<\/a><\/td>\nJocelyn Turnbull, University of Colorado<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
11:00 AM\u201311:30 AM<\/td>\nLunch break<\/td>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
11:30 AM\u20131:00 PM<\/td>\nFacilitated break out groups: research plan development<\/td>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
1:00 PM\u20132:00 PM<\/td>\nGroup report back and intern posters<\/td>\nAsta Roseway, Mikayla Buford, & Alex Cabral, Microsoft<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
2:00 PM<\/td>\nEnd of workshop<\/td>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n
<\/div>\n
\n\t\n\t\tWatch sessions on demand\t<\/a>\n\n\t<\/div>\n

Opens in a new tab<\/span><\/p>\n

Community Engagement on Environmental Issues<\/h3>\n

Popping into Focus: Community Engagement for Environmental Impact and Awareness<\/strong><\/a>
\nMadeleine I. G. Daepp, Helen Fitzmaurice, Shawn Janzen, Jaime Ponce, Asta Roseway, Juliana Felkner, Wende Copfer, Wilfred Pinfold, and Dev Niyogi<\/i><\/p>\n

Post COVID-19 Cities<\/h3>\n

How Cities Can Become More Flexible in the Wake of COVID-19: Housing Case Study<\/strong><\/a>
\nSravya Avasarala, Sifang Chen, Scott Counts, Jonathan Fink, Bill Fulton, Eric Gordon, John Harlow, Paul Hodgson, Yuan Lai, Walter Merida, Dan O\u2019Brien, Kyle Shelton<\/i><\/p>\n

Science of Air Quality<\/h3>\n

Why all cities should have \u201cClean Air as a City Service\u201d<\/strong><\/a>
\nAlex Cabral, Ron Cohen, Varsha Gopalakrishnan, Vikram Iyer, Gavin Jancke, Craig Michie, Amy Mueller, Outi Nyman, Adam Stewart, Jocelyn Turnbull, Alexander Turner<\/i><\/p>\n

Social Equity<\/h3>\n

On Achieving (Urban) Social Equity<\/strong><\/a>
\nWendy Chisholm, Alaysia Brown, Daniel Aliaga, Mikayla Buford, Paul Johns, Kevin Miller, Sid Espinosa, Kim Lucas, Junfeng Jiao, Roy Zimmermann<\/i><\/p>\n

Public Health<\/h3>\n

Democratizing Digital Solutions to Improve Public Health and Urban Air Quality<\/strong><\/a>
\nEdmund Seto, Miriam Berhane Russom, Michael Mattmiller, Vaishnavi Ranganathan, Kate Brown, Pietro Vannucci, Alex Mariakakis, Eric Basha, Shahana Khurshid<\/i>Opens in a new tab<\/span><\/p>\n

Future-looking research collaboration<\/h2>\n

The Microsoft Urban Futures Summer Workshop<\/a> (July 28\u201330, 2020) was three intensive days of talks, discussion and planning for data driven urban transformation. With over 100 attendees, we built a research driven coalition of civic, academic and research leaders to envision what services could be built on top of data sets for improving the future of cities. Together we produced a series of white papers<\/a> that present research and action plans for cities, academia, and industry, to conduct real world research and deployments.<\/p>\n

Two hours each morning were devoted to research and technology talks<\/a> from stakeholders representing Microsoft Research, top academic institutions, and civic leaders. The second half of each day was devoted to working groups writing the white papers focused on topics relevant to the future of cities, people, and the environment.<\/p>\n

In addition to the white papers produced by workshop participants, several potential future-looking research collaboration ideas emerged from the workshop:<\/p>\n

1. Clean air as a city service<\/h3>\n

Clean air is fundamental to human health and the environment and is an essential human right. Measuring Greenhouse Gases is crucial for fighting climate change.\u00a0 Every city should have a service that makes air quality data available to residents, policy makers, and third parties. This project uses Project<\/a> Eclipse<\/a> (and other) hyperlocal air quality sensors to drive development of a service that will inform the public and guide policy decisions to more efficiently lead to clean air for all.<\/p>\n

2. Piloting urban pop-up lab<\/h3>\n

Engaging the public with environmental data will be crucial to inducing positive climate change related behavior. This project pilots the concept of a pop-up \u201ceco-lab\u201d: a mobile (e.g., housed in a shipping container) lab experience that can be placed in communities where MSR is deploying its environmental sensing technologies. The goal is to make the technology and data understandable, relatable, and valuable to the people in the communities that ultimately should benefit.<\/p>\n

3. Public health mobile app development for preventing asthma<\/h3>\n

Paired with air quality data from Project Eclipse, this project launches a mobile app for people to both check local air quality and report their respiratory status. Such a platform can be used formally for public health research, and less formally to build community and raise public awareness of the conditions and locations that most trigger respiratory health issues.<\/p>\n

4. Can deep learning match current climate science modeling techniques for identifying pollution sources?<\/h3>\n

Brief description: Current climate science models for inverse modeling (tracing pollutants back to emission sources) require extremely computationally intensive models. With this project, we will assess the accuracy of deep learning models as an Azure-compatible and more computationally efficient approach.<\/p>\n

5. Developing a housing health index for cities<\/h3>\n

Especially given the expected climate migration, meeting housing demand will be amongst the toughest challenges facing cities in the coming decades. This project aggregates disparate data (permit data, rent and mortgage rates, building codes, etc.) to build a multidimensional housing health index for a city. In addition to helping cities understand the state of their housing, the index can also be used for intelligent planning by allowing \u201cwhat if\u201d tweaking of model inputs.<\/p>\n

6. Urban heat islands<\/h3>\n

Cities heat and retain heat, causing negative public health and global warming impacts, resulting in a \u201cheat island\u201d effect that is a major concern for many urban areas. This phenomena causes heat to be unevenly distributed around cities, and thus with this project we propose the use of hyperlocal heat sensors to identify \u201cheat islets\u201d where cities can allocate resources for localized cooling.<\/p>\n

7. Air quality sensors improving on volatile organic compounds (VOCs)<\/h3>\n

VOCs, including those from trees, contribute to atmospheric pollution. In this project we will combine ground level gas measurements (via Project Eclipse) with VOC measurements, at different levels of urban development, from highly urban to forested to better understand how VOCs from these varying levels of human development mix with gases to contribute to pollution.<\/p>\n

Microsoft will continue to collaborate with our external partners and evolve these ideas and research plans with an eye toward implementing them in the next year or so.<\/p>\n

\u2014Scott Counts,\u00a0Kristin Lauter, and\u00a0Asta Roseway<\/p>\n

Microsoft Urban Innovation Initiative<\/a>Opens in a new tab<\/span><\/p>\n","tab-content":[{"id":0,"name":"About","content":"The Microsoft Urban Futures Summer Workshop<\/a> (July 28\u201330, 2020) was three intensive days of talks, discussion and planning for data driven urban transformation. With over 100 attendees, we built a research driven coalition of civic, academic and research leaders to envision what services could be built on top of data sets for improving the future of cities. Together we produced a series of white papers<\/a> that present research and action plans for cities, academia, and industry, to conduct real world research and deployments.\r\n\r\nTwo hours each morning were devoted to research and technology talks<\/a> from stakeholders representing Microsoft Research, top academic institutions, and civic leaders. The second half of each day was devoted to working groups writing the white papers focused on topics relevant to the future of cities, people, and the environment.\r\n\r\n \r\n

Program Committee members<\/h3>\r\nScott Counts<\/a>, Microsoft Research\r\nGavin Jancke<\/a>, Microsoft Research\r\nPaul Johns<\/a>, Microsoft Research\r\nKristin Lauter<\/a>, Microsoft Research\r\nMichael Mattmiller<\/a>, Microsoft\r\nAsta Roseway<\/a>, Microsoft Research\r\nKenji Takeda<\/a>, Microsoft Research\r\nRoy Zimmermann<\/a>, Microsoft Research\r\n
<\/div>\r\n

Microsoft\u2019s Event Code of Conduct<\/h3>\r\nMicrosoft\u2019s mission is to empower every person and every organization on the planet to achieve more. This includes virtual events Microsoft hosts and participates in, where we seek to create a respectful, friendly, and inclusive experience for all participants. As such, we do not tolerate harassing or disrespectful behavior, messages, images, or interactions by any event participant, in any form, at any aspect of the program including business and social activities, regardless of location.\r\n\r\nWe do not tolerate any behavior that is degrading to any gender, race, sexual orientation or disability, or any behavior that would violate\u00a0Microsoft\u2019s Anti-Harassment and Anti-Discrimination Policy, Equal Employment Opportunity Policy, or Standards of Business Conduct<\/a>. In short, the entire experience must meet our culture standards. We encourage everyone to assist in creating a welcoming and safe environment. Please\u00a0report<\/a>\u00a0any concerns, harassing behavior, or suspicious or disruptive activity. Microsoft reserves the right to ask attendees to leave at any time at its sole discretion.\r\n
<\/div>\r\n
[msr-button text=\"Report a concern\" url=\"https:\/\/app.convercent.com\/en-us\/Anonymous\/IssueIntake\/LandingPage\/65d3b907-0933-e611-8105-000d3ab03673\" new-window=\"true\" ]<\/div>"},{"id":1,"name":"Agenda","content":"

Day 1 | July 28, 2020<\/h2>\r\n

Theme: Data Driven Urban Transformation<\/h3>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n
Time<\/strong><\/td>\r\nSession<\/strong><\/td>\r\nSpeaker(s)<\/strong><\/td>\r\n<\/tr>\r\n
9:00 AM\u20139:10 AM<\/td>\r\nWelcome: Introduction to the workshop | Video<\/a><\/td>\r\nKristin Lauter & Roy Zimmermann, Microsoft<\/td>\r\n<\/tr>\r\n
9:10 AM\u20139:30 AM<\/td>\r\nCity Futures \u2013 Urban innovation at Microsoft | Video<\/a><\/td>\r\nScott Counts, Microsoft<\/td>\r\n<\/tr>\r\n
9:30 AM\u201310:00 AM<\/td>\r\nLondon\u2019s digital twin for air quality and COVID-19 response | Video<\/a><\/td>\r\nPaul Hodgson, City Data at Greater London Authority<\/td>\r\n<\/tr>\r\n
10:00 AM\u201310:30 AM<\/td>\r\nTransformative uses of data in cities | Video<\/a><\/td>\r\nLuis Bettencourt, University of Chicago<\/td>\r\n<\/tr>\r\n
10:30 AM\u201311:00 AM<\/td>\r\nUrban transformation and COVID-19 | Video<\/a><\/td>\r\nBill Fulton, Rice University<\/td>\r\n<\/tr>\r\n
11:00 AM\u201311:30 AM<\/td>\r\nCreating a global network of smart cities: The global measurement and monitoring initiative | Video<\/a><\/td>\r\nTom Baer, Stanford University<\/td>\r\n<\/tr>\r\n
11:30 AM\u201312:00 PM<\/td>\r\nLunch break<\/td>\r\n<\/td>\r\n<\/tr>\r\n
12:00 PM\u20131:30 PM<\/td>\r\nFacilitated break out groups: Research plan development<\/td>\r\n<\/td>\r\n<\/tr>\r\n
1:30 PM\u20132:00 PM<\/td>\r\nGroup report back and intern posters<\/td>\r\nKristin Lauter, Alaysia Brown, & Adam Stewart, Microsoft<\/td>\r\n<\/tr>\r\n
2:00 PM<\/td>\r\nEnd of day 1<\/td>\r\n<\/td>\r\n<\/tr>\r\n<\/tbody>\r\n<\/table>\r\n
<\/div>\r\n
[msr-button text=\"Watch sessions on demand\" url=\"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/research\/video\/microsoft-urban-futures-summer-workshop-data-driven-urban-transformation-day-1\/\" ]<\/div>\r\n
<\/div>\r\n

Day 2 | July 29, 2020<\/h2>\r\n

Theme: Sensors and Data<\/h3>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n
Time<\/strong><\/td>\r\nSession<\/strong><\/td>\r\nSpeaker(s)<\/strong><\/td>\r\n<\/tr>\r\n
9:00 AM\u20139:30 AM<\/td>\r\nWelcome: Urban Innovation at Microsoft and Project Eclipse | Video<\/a> | Slides<\/a><\/td>\r\nScott Counts, Gavin Jancke, & Miriam Berhane Russom, Microsoft<\/td>\r\n<\/tr>\r\n
9:30 AM\u201310:00 AM<\/td>\r\nQuantifying urban scale CO2 reductions and related emissions changes during the COVID-19 Shelter in place | Video<\/a> | Slides<\/a><\/td>\r\nRon Cohen, University of California, Berkeley<\/td>\r\n<\/tr>\r\n
10:00 AM\u201310:30 AM<\/td>\r\nHow cities can become smarter: Sensors, edge computing, and the array of things | Video<\/a> | Slides<\/a><\/td>\r\nCharlie Catlett, Discovery Partners Institute, University of Illinois and Argonne National Laboratory<\/td>\r\n<\/tr>\r\n
10:30 AM\u201311:00 AM<\/td>\r\nCommunity air quality sensing: What we\u2019ve learned from calibration and crowdsourcing studies | Video<\/a> | Slides<\/a><\/td>\r\nEdmund Seto, University of Washington<\/td>\r\n<\/tr>\r\n
11:00 AM\u201311:30 AM<\/td>\r\nUsing campuses in the Cascadia Corridor to advance smart city innovation | Video<\/a> | Slides<\/a><\/td>\r\nJon Fink, Portland State University<\/td>\r\n<\/tr>\r\n
11:30 AM\u201312:00 PM<\/td>\r\nLunch break<\/td>\r\n<\/td>\r\n<\/tr>\r\n
12:00 PM\u20131:30 PM<\/td>\r\nFacilitated break out groups: Research plan development<\/td>\r\n<\/td>\r\n<\/tr>\r\n
1:30 PM\u20132:00 PM<\/td>\r\nGroup report back and intern posters<\/td>\r\nScott Counts, Helen Fitzmaurice, & Pietro Vannucci, Microsoft<\/td>\r\n<\/tr>\r\n
2:00 PM<\/td>\r\nEnd of day 2<\/td>\r\n<\/td>\r\n<\/tr>\r\n<\/tbody>\r\n<\/table>\r\n
<\/div>\r\n
[msr-button text=\"Watch sessions on demand\" url=\"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/research\/video\/microsoft-urban-futures-summer-workshop-sensors-and-data-day-2\/\" ]<\/div>\r\n
<\/div>\r\n

Day 3 | July 30, 2020<\/h2>\r\n

Theme: Policy and Social Impact<\/h3>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n
Time<\/strong><\/td>\r\nSession<\/strong><\/td>\r\nSpeaker(s)<\/strong><\/td>\r\n<\/tr>\r\n
9:00 AM\u20139:30 AM<\/td>\r\nWelcome: Future scenarios & AI for Earth \u2013 shaping urban development toward a sustainable future | Video<\/a> | Slides<\/a><\/td>\r\nAsta Roseway & Lucas Joppa, Microsoft<\/td>\r\n<\/tr>\r\n
9:30 AM\u201310:00 AM<\/td>\r\nGranular CO2 emissions for every U.S. city from the Vulcan and Hestia Projects<\/td>\r\nKevin Gurney, Northern Arizona University<\/td>\r\n<\/tr>\r\n
10:00 AM\u201310:30 AM<\/td>\r\nThe role of collaboration in city innovation | Video<\/a> | Slides<\/a><\/td>\r\nBrenna Berman, CEO, City Tech Collaborative<\/td>\r\n<\/tr>\r\n
10:30 AM\u201311:00 AM<\/td>\r\nTowards an Integrated System for Urban Greenhouse Gas Monitoring and Assessment | Video<\/a> | Slides<\/a><\/td>\r\nJocelyn Turnbull, University of Colorado<\/td>\r\n<\/tr>\r\n
11:00 AM\u201311:30 AM<\/td>\r\nLunch break<\/td>\r\n<\/td>\r\n<\/tr>\r\n
11:30 AM\u20131:00 PM<\/td>\r\nFacilitated break out groups: research plan development<\/td>\r\n<\/td>\r\n<\/tr>\r\n
1:00 PM\u20132:00 PM<\/td>\r\nGroup report back and intern posters<\/td>\r\nAsta Roseway, Mikayla Buford, & Alex Cabral, Microsoft<\/td>\r\n<\/tr>\r\n
2:00 PM<\/td>\r\nEnd of workshop<\/td>\r\n<\/td>\r\n<\/tr>\r\n<\/tbody>\r\n<\/table>\r\n
<\/div>\r\n
[msr-button text=\"Watch sessions on demand\" url=\"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/research\/video\/microsoft-urban-futures-summer-workshop-policy-and-social-impact-day-3\/\" ]<\/div>"},{"id":2,"name":"Breakout Group Reports","content":"

Community Engagement on Environmental Issues<\/h3>\r\nPopping into Focus: Community Engagement for Environmental Impact and Awareness<\/strong><\/a>\r\nMadeleine I. G. Daepp, Helen Fitzmaurice, Shawn Janzen, Jaime Ponce, Asta Roseway, Juliana Felkner, Wende Copfer, Wilfred Pinfold, and Dev Niyogi<\/i>\r\n

Post COVID-19 Cities<\/h3>\r\nHow Cities Can Become More Flexible in the Wake of COVID-19: Housing Case Study<\/strong><\/a>\r\nSravya Avasarala, Sifang Chen, Scott Counts, Jonathan Fink, Bill Fulton, Eric Gordon, John Harlow, Paul Hodgson, Yuan Lai, Walter Merida, Dan O\u2019Brien, Kyle Shelton<\/i>\r\n

Science of Air Quality<\/h3>\r\nWhy all cities should have \u201cClean Air as a City Service\u201d<\/strong><\/a>\r\nAlex Cabral, Ron Cohen, Varsha Gopalakrishnan, Vikram Iyer, Gavin Jancke, Craig Michie, Amy Mueller, Outi Nyman, Adam Stewart, Jocelyn Turnbull, Alexander Turner<\/i>\r\n

Social Equity<\/h3>\r\nOn Achieving (Urban) Social Equity<\/strong><\/a>\r\nWendy Chisholm, Alaysia Brown, Daniel Aliaga, Mikayla Buford, Paul Johns, Kevin Miller, Sid Espinosa, Kim Lucas, Junfeng Jiao, Roy Zimmermann<\/i>\r\n

Public Health<\/h3>\r\nDemocratizing Digital Solutions to Improve Public Health and Urban Air Quality<\/strong><\/a>\r\nEdmund Seto, Miriam Berhane Russom, Michael Mattmiller, Vaishnavi Ranganathan, Kate Brown, Pietro Vannucci, Alex Mariakakis, Eric Basha, Shahana Khurshid<\/i>"},{"id":3,"name":"Future Research Collaboration","content":"

Future-looking research collaboration<\/h2>\r\nThe Microsoft Urban Futures Summer Workshop<\/a> (July 28\u201330, 2020) was three intensive days of talks, discussion and planning for data driven urban transformation. With over 100 attendees, we built a research driven coalition of civic, academic and research leaders to envision what services could be built on top of data sets for improving the future of cities. Together we produced a series of white papers<\/a> that present research and action plans for cities, academia, and industry, to conduct real world research and deployments.\r\n\r\nTwo hours each morning were devoted to research and technology talks<\/a> from stakeholders representing Microsoft Research, top academic institutions, and civic leaders. The second half of each day was devoted to working groups writing the white papers focused on topics relevant to the future of cities, people, and the environment.\r\n\r\nIn addition to the white papers produced by workshop participants, several potential future-looking research collaboration ideas emerged from the workshop:\r\n

1. Clean air as a city service<\/h3>\r\nClean air is fundamental to human health and the environment and is an essential human right. Measuring Greenhouse Gases is crucial for fighting climate change.\u00a0 Every city should have a service that makes air quality data available to residents, policy makers, and third parties. This project uses Project<\/a> Eclipse<\/a> (and other) hyperlocal air quality sensors to drive development of a service that will inform the public and guide policy decisions to more efficiently lead to clean air for all.\r\n

2. Piloting urban pop-up lab<\/h3>\r\nEngaging the public with environmental data will be crucial to inducing positive climate change related behavior. This project pilots the concept of a pop-up \u201ceco-lab\u201d: a mobile (e.g., housed in a shipping container) lab experience that can be placed in communities where MSR is deploying its environmental sensing technologies. The goal is to make the technology and data understandable, relatable, and valuable to the people in the communities that ultimately should benefit.\r\n

3. Public health mobile app development for preventing asthma<\/h3>\r\nPaired with air quality data from Project Eclipse, this project launches a mobile app for people to both check local air quality and report their respiratory status. Such a platform can be used formally for public health research, and less formally to build community and raise public awareness of the conditions and locations that most trigger respiratory health issues.\r\n

4. Can deep learning match current climate science modeling techniques for identifying pollution sources?<\/h3>\r\nBrief description: Current climate science models for inverse modeling (tracing pollutants back to emission sources) require extremely computationally intensive models. With this project, we will assess the accuracy of deep learning models as an Azure-compatible and more computationally efficient approach.\r\n

5. Developing a housing health index for cities<\/h3>\r\nEspecially given the expected climate migration, meeting housing demand will be amongst the toughest challenges facing cities in the coming decades. This project aggregates disparate data (permit data, rent and mortgage rates, building codes, etc.) to build a multidimensional housing health index for a city. In addition to helping cities understand the state of their housing, the index can also be used for intelligent planning by allowing \u201cwhat if\u201d tweaking of model inputs.\r\n

6. Urban heat islands<\/h3>\r\nCities heat and retain heat, causing negative public health and global warming impacts, resulting in a \u201cheat island\u201d effect that is a major concern for many urban areas. This phenomena causes heat to be unevenly distributed around cities, and thus with this project we propose the use of hyperlocal heat sensors to identify \u201cheat islets\u201d where cities can allocate resources for localized cooling.\r\n

7. Air quality sensors improving on volatile organic compounds (VOCs)<\/h3>\r\nVOCs, including those from trees, contribute to atmospheric pollution. In this project we will combine ground level gas measurements (via Project Eclipse) with VOC measurements, at different levels of urban development, from highly urban to forested to better understand how VOCs from these varying levels of human development mix with gases to contribute to pollution.\r\n\r\nMicrosoft will continue to collaborate with our external partners and evolve these ideas and research plans with an eye toward implementing them in the next year or so.\r\n\r\n\u2014Scott Counts,\u00a0Kristin Lauter, and\u00a0Asta Roseway\r\n\r\nMicrosoft Urban Innovation Initiative<\/a>"}],"msr_startdate":"2020-07-28","msr_enddate":"2020-07-30","msr_event_time":"9:00 AM\u20132:00 PM Pacific Daylight Time \u200e(UTC-7)\u200e","msr_location":"Virtual\/Online","msr_event_link":"","msr_event_recording_link":"","msr_startdate_formatted":"July 28, 2020","msr_register_text":"Watch now","msr_cta_link":"","msr_cta_text":"","msr_cta_bi_name":"","featured_image_thumbnail":"\"simple","event_excerpt":"The Microsoft Urban Futures Summer Workshop will be three intensive days of talks, discussion and planning for data driven urban transformation. At this event we will build a research driven coalition of civic, academic and research leaders to envision what services could be built on top of data sets for improving the future of cities. Please join us for the Microsoft Urban Futures Summer Workshop. This will be three intensive days of talks, discussion and…","msr_research_lab":[],"related-researchers":[],"msr_impact_theme":[],"related-academic-programs":[],"related-groups":[],"related-projects":[],"related-opportunities":[],"related-publications":[],"related-videos":[681834,681774,681873],"related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/msr-event\/664494","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/msr-event"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/msr-event"}],"version-history":[{"count":17,"href":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/msr-event\/664494\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1146954,"href":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/msr-event\/664494\/revisions\/1146954"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/666141"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=664494"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"msr-research-area","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/research-area?post=664494"},{"taxonomy":"msr-region","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/msr-region?post=664494"},{"taxonomy":"msr-event-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/msr-event-type?post=664494"},{"taxonomy":"msr-video-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/msr-video-type?post=664494"},{"taxonomy":"msr-locale","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/msr-locale?post=664494"},{"taxonomy":"msr-program-audience","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/msr-program-audience?post=664494"},{"taxonomy":"msr-post-option","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/msr-post-option?post=664494"},{"taxonomy":"msr-impact-theme","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/msr-impact-theme?post=664494"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}