The creation of MetroLab was announced on Monday at a White House event in Washington.
Tuesday, September 15, 2015
Carnegie Mellon, Pittsburgh part of national effort to improve urban areas
The creation of MetroLab was announced on Monday at a White House event in Washington.
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After completing Susan Tsu's project on an aspect of the vibrant city of Pittsburgh, it is exciting to see a government initiative such as this to revitalize cities to their former glory. What often makes these projects not meet expectations is their lack of community involvement--in other words, the White House imports designers and researchers into a given environment, often working in isolation from those around them. The collaboration with an institute such as CMU gives the MetroLab Network project an excellent chance of success, as students and faculty have had extensive experience in the city of Pittsburgh and will be an integral source for knowledge and research development. Hopefully us students and members of the Pittsburgh community will see some positive changes in the years to come!
I am not very well travelled, but I have been to a few major cities, namely NYC, Chicago, San Francisco, and LA. I am a little biased having grown up here, but there is no place like Pittsburgh. It seems to me that no other city combines green and buildings like we do. I am glad Pittsburgh is part of an initiative to bring our style elsewhere. Pittsburgh's a pretty unique city for many reasons but our architectural style seems to be one of them. I would be much more amenable to the idea of living elsewhere if I could bring some trees with me. Assuming the MetroLab succeeds, I wonder how far it will go and how long it will take. I look forward to the future.
Before moving to here around a month ago I had only been to Pittsburgh a few times, but there is such a feeling of innovation here that I haven't found anywhere else. The city is always changing, and always trying to be better. This ideal is really reflective of Carnegie Mellon and what it strives to do as a university. I think it is really important for organizations, like universities, that have excessive resources, and significant amount of money to help the community that houses them. I look forward to seeing how Carnegie Mellon and MetroLab improve the city of Pittsburgh and make it a better and more innovative place. I'd love to take my parents somewhere when they come to visit and be able to say "that was built while I lived here". Really successful cities grow and their community grows, and I am so thrilled that Pittsburgh is continuing to do that.
The connection between technologies and specifically how they will improve cities is very ambiguous. Granted, this is an overview of what this collaboration seeks to accomplish. Right now this project seems too broad, with a kind of impractical "better all of mankind" mission. What constitutes a "smart city"? I feel like this article could have done much more to excite people about this project, and perhaps even gain more support, but the ambiguous and aloof wording ("industry collaboration", "information technologies", etc.) alienates readers.
Setting aside the problematic presentation of the program in this article, it will be interesting to hear (as I'm sure we will) how this project advances and develops in the near future. Backing from the MacArthur Foundation, as well as an unveiling at the White House make this a very high profile project with the potential to truly actualize a part of its "save the world" ideal.
Urban design is such a cool field! The difference between a city with mindful metropolitan design and one without is huge, and the quality of life improvements are worth the investment. Unfortunately, changing the way that a city flows and functions is a huge endeavor, especially if there's not already a good foundation to better but rather something to overhaul entirely, and it can dissuade investors and public agencies from undertaking such a large project.
Technology specifically is absolutely a great tool in making a city run more efficiently, especially when it comes to analyzing something like traffic patterns - be it by car, foot or public transportation - and coming up with a solution based on that data; figuring out what more is needed, where there can be less of this or that, etc..
It's very exciting to hear that this initiative exists with such strong backing, and that Pittsburgh is one of the cities that will be improved by intelligent metro design.
I am proud to say that I am part of a school that values giving back to local communities through collaborations with MetroLab, to help communities grow and build off one another. I realize CMU has huge endowment resources at their disposal, however seem like most universities (even CMU) are spending endowments by expanding there campus and building on preexisting programs. I was glad to see they are directing some spending to programs like this. It makes sense that while you can give students a great education, if the “real world” isn’t ready for them, what is the point. Not only will it help improve Pittsburgh, it could also inspire other corporations who see universities making a difference to be more inclined to do the same (especial if they have alumni within the company). The thing that I take away most from this article is that people are always will to donate money to worthy causes as long as feel passionate about the benefit that will be created. Good example--Bill Gates donated $50 million to build a new CS building,--why? Because CMU has the best CS program in the country.
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