The Centre for Urban Science & Engineering (CUSE) at IIT Bombay, established in October 2012, is an interdisciplinary Centre for research, teaching, and development of skilled human resources development with the primary mandate of improving the quality of urban life.
The Centre combines science and technology with sustainable, equitable, and human-friendly design to deliver innovative and holistic services to improve the lives of rapidly urbanizing population in the developing world.
The Centre’s research activities focus on understanding urban issues and evolving new products and solutions related to housing, transport, water management, energy efficiency, urban informatics, health, governance, urban poverty, and citizen science while mitigating the post effects of natural disasters and climate change.
The Centre, located in the urban metropolis of Mumbai, aims to establish links with various institutes within India and abroad that are addressing urban challenges. The Centre’s mission is to be a globalized institution that would enable interactions among researchers, offer educational programs, encourage faculty and student exchanges, and help learn from diverse contexts to make cities of the world, especially the developing world, more liveable.
GOAL: IMPROVING QUALITY OF URBAN LIFE
Cities can be the fountainheads for innovation and growth if their citizens can be provided facilities to enjoy a decent quality of life. Once the necessities such as accommodation, water, and food are fulfilled, quality of life greatly depends on factors such as accessibility to education, health, recreational facilities, and a sense of safety and security in day-to-day life.
Accessibility to clean and safe public spaces, community gardens, and safe streets for children and elderly alike, helps to build confident and creative communities. Less commute times, pollution- and noise-free environment, and work-life balance are indicators of quality of life.
This Centre aims to establish the quality of life indicators and identify methods to promote them sustainably, through collaborative research and data analysis.
INTEGRATED APPROACH
Urban issues traverse a vast range of disciplines. The Centre’s core strength is in bringing together multiple disciplines and addressing various urban challenges holistically. For sustainable growth of the Centre and creation of innovative urban solutions, interactions and collaborations with researchers and faculties from various departments at IIT Bombay, other world class universities, central, state and local government bodies, stakeholders in business and advocacy groups and global governments, are desired and encouraged.
The Centre has over 30 associate faculty members from various IIT Bombay disciplines, including Civil Engineering, Computer Science Engineering, Electrical Engineering, Energy Science & Engineering, Environmental Science & Engineering, Humanities, Industrial Design, Operations Research and School of Management. Hence, the Centre conjoins multiple research and educational urban-related activities that are already happening at IIT Bombay.
One hallmark of this Centre is its focus on citizen science. The Centre will engage in community outreach to disseminate information regarding various aspects of urban life and how various systems such as housing, land use, transportation, water, public health, etc. are interrelated and co-dependent on how people use such systems. The Centre aims to conduct research to educate and spread awareness among communities to tackle the urban challenges from grassroots levels and facilitate technological advances. The integrated approach of all the stakeholders (institutions, departments, governments, people) will enable the development of unique innovative solutions, for solving urban challenges of the developing megacities and promote sustainable future growth.