New York City at night

Education Dive features an interview with NYU CUSP Professor Constantine Kontokosta. 

In 2012, New York’s then-Mayor Michael Bloomberg proposed colleges and universities around the world submit ideas for an applied science campus which would act as an engine of discovery and experimentation around the city’s resources.

Professor Constantine Kontokosta was part of the team which submitted a proposal to create the NYU Center for Urban Science and Progress.

“We were trying to leverage existing growing strengths in research and data science. The thought was to bring this data together and use it to improve city operations,” he said. “Cities are generating incredible amounts of data…and we couple that with social media data and other nontraditional data sources to better understand how a city functions; and policymakers can make decisions on how to improve quality of life.”