MIT Launches China Urban Research Program

MIT (the Massachusetts Institute of Technology) has launched an urban research and innovation program, which aims to advance city life in China through a range of academic and entrepreneurial activities.

The new China Future City Lab (created with university, corporate and governmental partners) will support a wide range of basic research in China, investigating many aspects of urban social and economic life. It will be led by Siqi Zheng (pictured), MIT Urban Studies Associate Professor, and will house a program known as the MIT-Tsinghua Future City Innovation Connector (FCIC), which will aim to identify innovative concepts and technologies that could be implemented across China. In addition, the program will engage with Chinese cities that will serve as 'living labs' or testing sites, where MIT researchers will be able to examine their urban-focused ideas and innovations.

Richard Lester, Associate Provost of MIT, comments: 'Our intention is to bring the best of MIT to China, and the best of China to MIT, and I know the China Future City Lab will be a key building block of that strategy. China's urbanization is of enormous intellectual and practical interest to the MIT community, to our faculty, to our students, across a wide range of disciplines'.

Earlier this year, MIT was involved in the launch of the MIT-IBM Watson AI Lab, funded by a $240m investment from IBM.

Web site: www.mit.edu .