DATA-LIFE 2022

An outlook into the post-pandemic future

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).

Eight selected students, four from NYU and four 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 CONTACTS

NYU CONTACTS

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

COVID-19 has affected our lives in unprecedented ways, in many personal, professional, and educational aspects. This impacted both our daily plans and logistics, as well as our perception of the world and of the future. A lot of data is available about COVID-19 impacts and many data-driven studies have been conducted for understanding the associated dynamics at the medical, logistic, and organizational levels. However, fewer studies concentrated on the perceptions, feelings, and emotions involved in these changes.

The project will combine quantitative data coming from open data, social media, and other sources, together with ad-hoc analysis, crowdsourcing, and gamification practices, to collect data and understand the perception of people about the present and future of the pandemic. It will look into the post-pandemic future, trying to understand how things are going to change and how people may react to different alternative policies and decisions at different levels. Possible perspectives to be explored include: educational opportunities, university life, city life and dynamics, professional life, family life, government decisions (mandates, regulations, lockdowns).

The study will be conducted in the cities of New York and Milano, both severely affected by COVID-19, both having lived long and painful lockdown periods, but both nowadays showing important signs of reactions, with a strong revival in social life, cultural events, and desire to return to normality. The project will highlight many aspects of similarity but also many aspects of diversity of the reaction to COVID-19 of the two cities.

Past years' projects are described in the respective pages of this site: 2020, 2021.

Other examples of projects from past years can be found on the CUSP web site.

PROJECT TIMELINE

The project will be scheduled along the following phases:

Beginning of Feb 2022: faculty and students kick-off the project jointly at CUSP in NYC, starting with a remote presentation on February 4th.
Feb to Jul 2022: Student teams interact to develop their project under the osmosis of the capstone course, jointly tutored by Polimi and NYU faculty.
May 23-27, 2022 (tentative): faculty and students set up an intensive joint work week at POLIMI. As a result of this work, students deliver a mid-term presentation. NYU students will travel to Milano for the week.
July 24-29, 2022: Final workshop and presentation of results take place in NYU. Italian students will travel to NYC for the final week.

(*) at the moment we assume that traveling and physical meetings will be possible, but the COVID situation will be considered ahead of each event.

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 by Nov. 12, 2021. The email must include as subject: "Application to Data-life 2022 + Name of the applicant + Faculty of the applicant (Design or Comp.Sci.)".

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. Design student must also attach a portfolio including experiences with data visualization and group projects; Proved experience with HTML, JS, digital prototyping is not required but welcome.

Notice that all the application material must be either attached or linked in the email, in the form of PDF files (possibly compressed). No relevant information shall be added directly in the email text.

Students may be interviewed by the selection committee. Selected students must attend the two planned full-immersion weeks. 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 (with possibility of a trip for a joint conclusion of the project, in case the COVID-19 emergency allows it).

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.

The selected students must attend the two planned full-immersion weeks. 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 (with possibility of trips for joint work activities , if COVID-19 emergency allows it).

Applications should be submitted according to the Capstone Course rules.