Urban Analytics (fall 2021). The course will have a sizable reading component and will include light programming / GIS assignments (~8 labs) and exposure to how big data is used, collected, etc. in the built environment through case study readings. There is no project, but will be two small quizzes. Topics will include GPS traces, mobility analysis, activity space delineation, call detail record (CDR) analysis, points of interest (POIs) capture and analysis, data classification/ segmentation, social media analytics, NLP and Twitter data, image segmentation, sensor-collected data, citizen science/VGI/crowdsourced data, demographic indexes, etc. No prerequisites are needed.
This is an example syllabus.
| DATE | TOPIC | LAB (Thursdays) | READING (discuss on Tuesdays) | DUE (Thursday @ 5) |
| Aug 24 – 26 | What is Urban Analytics? | Walking trip: Creating an Index | none | none |
| Aug 31 – Sep 2 | Introduction Papers + In Class Activity | Intro to R (optional) | Introduction | Assignment 1: Index |
| Sep 7 – 9 | Bike Sharing (leader) | CitiBike | Bike Sharing | Intro to R |
| Sep 14 – 19 | Points of Interest (leader) | POIs I: Yelp Data Analysis | Points of Interest | Assignment 2: CitiBike |
| Sep 21 – 23 | Restaurants + GWR | POIs II: Chainness of POIs and GWR | Restaurants | none |
| Sep 28 – 30 | Movement & CDRs (leader) | Networks and Regions | CDRs / Regions | Assignment 3: POIs |
| Oct 5 – 7 | Guest Speaker: Trajectories | Activity Spaces (Contact Tracing) | Movement | Assignment 4: Networks and Regions |
| Oct 12 – 14 | No class (fall break) | Optional Lab Help | none | none |
| Oct 19 – 21 | Guest Speaker, Diyi Yang, NLP | Twitter: Mapping Keywords | none | Assignment 5: Activity Spaces |
| Oct 26 – 28 | Text (leader) | Project Work: Creating a Plan, Finding Data | Text | Assignment 6: Twitter |
| Nov 2 – 4 | StreetScape (leader) | Google Street View: Detecting Elements | StreetScape | Assignment 7: GSV |
| Nov 9 – 11 | Environmental Capture (leader) | Sensors: Environmental Sensors-Thermal | Environmental | Project Idea |
| Nov 16 – 18 | Geoprivacy (leader) | Project Work- In class help | Geoprivacy | Assignment 8: Environmental Sensors |
| Nov 23 | Project Work- In class help | No class (Thanksgiving) | none | none |
| Dec 2 – 4 | Guest Speaker, Subhro Guhathakurta, Ethics | Ethics (leader) | Ethics | none |
| Dec 7 | Project Work- In class help | No class (Exams) | none |