Aalto University and MIT Media Lab wish to use Aalto University Otaniemi campus and its surroundings as a Living Lab to test and evaluate urban innovation. To foster a mutually beneficial collaboration, MIT and AU have initiated a cooperation on the creation of the City Science Lab @ Aalto (CSL@Aalto), a research project with the City Science Initiative at the MIT Media Lab.

The mission of CSL@Aalto is to conduct basic and applied research, development and innovation related to design and technology for cities, with an emphasis on the deployment, testing, and evaluation of urban innovation in the Otaniemi area around Aalto University as a Living Lab. Interdisciplinary research projects will be coordinated with development and innovation activities at Aalto University and the City Science Initiative at the Media Lab.

The purpose and deliverable of CSL@Aalto is to develop CityScope Aalto, a city planning simulation tool tailored for the use of Aalto University Campus Services, based on the CityScope simulation tool (including software and physical components, such as sensors) developed by MIT. CityScope enables the different parties to co-design the area so that the cross effects of the different wishes can be discovered and the mixing of functions can be orchestrated, which is applied in Otaniemi when planning entrepreneurship and housing and developing biodiversity.

Group X (Professors Antti Ahlava, Jarmo Suominen, Anssi Joutsiniemi) as a focus group at Aalto University Department of Architecture together with Aalto University Campus Servicies will develop the project in collaboration with MIT Media Lab.

Find the project press release here.