DATA-LIFE 2020

NYU-Politecnico di Milano Joint Program on Data Science

INTRO

DATA-LIFE is an interdisciplinary education experience involving students and professors from NYU-CUSP (Center for Urban Science and Progress of the New York University) and from DEIB/Design-POLIMI (Departments of Computer Science and Engineering and of Design of Politecnico di Milano).

Six selected students, three from NYU and three from Politecnico di Milano, will work collaboratively to solve data science problems, under the supervision of a team of professors from both universities; problems will cross the disciplines of data management, machine learning, data analysis, statistics and mathematics, data visualization and user experience design. Students will craft their solutions by developing the methodology and then the software.

This joint venture will provide an exciting project work to students in applied data science, with emphasis on the problems of society.

INTRO

PARTICIPATING INSTITUTIONS

APPLICATION AND BENEFITS

POLIMI

NYU

POLIMI CONTACTS

DATA SCIENCE LAB @POLIMI

Fashion In Process @POLIMI

DENSITYDESIGN LAB @POLIMI

NYU CONTACTS

CUSP @NYU

PARTICIPATING INSTITUTIONS

NYU - CUSP

New York University’s Center for Urban Science and Progress (CUSP) is an interdisciplinary research center dedicated to the application of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics in the service of urban communities across the globe. Using New York City as our laboratory and classroom, we strive to develop novel data- and technology-driven solutions for complex urban problems. CUSP’s research and educational initiatives seek to improve city services; optimize decision-making by local governments; create smart urban infrastructures; address challenging urban issues such as crime, environmental pollution and public health issues; and inspire urban citizens to improve their quality of life.

CUSP offers a Master of Science in Applied Urban Science and Informatics, empowering our students with the knowledge and technical expertise to make cities around the world more productive, livable, equitable, and resilient.

POLIMI

The master school in Computer Science and Engineering and the master school in Communication Design of Politecnico di Milano share the mission of creating qualified professionals, capable of understanding, monitoring and mastering the pressing needs of a continuously evolving society. The two schools offer master programs that produce several hundreds of top-quality graduates yearly.

The two schools are increasingly engaged in promoting interdisciplinary educational experiences with mixed teams of students; the interaction between engineers and designers produces very powerful forms of innovation, thanks to the mix of information technology and sound computational and mathematical foundations from one side, and creativity, design thinking and effective interaction design from the other. Both schools are engaged in new programs and courses centered on data science, which includes data-driven management, analysis, and visualization, with a problem-solving approach to training.

FOCUS OF THE PROJECT

The project focuses on the analysis of the social response in terms of impact, visibility and localization of popular, city-scale events on social media platforms. The project takes the two Fashion Weeks of Milano and New York as exemplary cases. The aim of the project will be to understand the role of fashion brands, events, and attendees, studying their impact on city life and possible similarities or differences between the social reactions of the two cities.

This collaborative initiative focuses on two key areas:

the development of methods for analyzing social media data
the development of software design, web design and business development

The project aims at defining a high-level model, a method, and a set of practices that support representation live, city-scale events in terms of dynamics of citizens, visitors, and event participants. The project will analyze how the urban ecosystem is impacted by such events, thus enabling data-driven decision making processes and delivering added value to city stakeholders, including citizens, tourists and visitors, public bodies, and businesses.

PROJECT TIMELINE

The project will be scheduled along the following phases:

31 January - 7 February 2020: Polimi faculty and students travel to NY to kick-off the project at CUSP.
16 March - 20 March 2020: NYU faculty and students travel to Milan.
February to July: Student teams interact to develop their project under the osmosis of the capstone course, jointly tutored by Polimi and NYU faculty.
End of July: Final presentation of results take place simultaneously in Milan and NY.

APPLICATION AND BENEFITS

POLIMI

This program will select students currently attending the second year of the Master (Laurea Magistrale) of Politecnico di Milano, two from Information Engineering and one from Design. Applicants should have obtained at least 40 CFU during their first year of Master studies, with an average grade above 25/30. Applications must be sent by email to Laura Caldirola (laura.caldirola@polimi.it) within the strict deadline of December 3, 2019.

The application must include as attachments: an up-to-date record of exams, the English proficiency certificate, a CV (including a description of experiences of programming and of group projects); and a motivation letter explaining the candidate’s interest in this educational opportunity.

Students may be interviewed by the selection committee. Selected students must attend the two full-immersion periods of January-February in NY and of March at Politecnico. They will autonomously organize their travel and their local accommodation; Politecnico will reimburse their main expenses (accommodation and flight) based on receipts. In addition to the full-immersion period, they are expected to work throughout the semester by using the format of the Capstone Course, by interacting with professors of Politecnico and NYU. They are expected to deliver a public presentation of their results at the end of the program.

NYU

The Data-Life program is being offered as a part of the NYU – CUPS Capstone course, so students signing up for this program must commit to taking this course during the spring semester.

Students are required to be on campus and participate in program activities with peers from Politecnico in January. Students must be available to travel to Milan for a one-week stay at Politecnico di Milano, Italy at the end of March 2020.

Students must commit to collaborating with peers at Politecnico throughout the entire spring semester and will be expected to deliver a public presentation of their results at the end of the program.

Applications should be submitted according to the Capstone Course rules.