1. Master in City Sciences at UPM A practical case of an interdisciplinary educational program in the field of urban studies
Dr. Sergio Ramos
Associate Lecturer. Facultad Ciencias Económicas y Empresariales – UNED.
Innovation & Venture Lab Manager. Master in City Sciences – UPM.

2. URBAN FUTURE

3. Why not another Smart City Program?
A city that monitors and integrates conditions of all of its critical infrastructures, including roads, bridges, tunnels, rails, subways, airports, seaports, communications, water, power, even major buildings, can better optimize its resources, plan its preventive maintenance activities, and monitor security aspects while maximizing services to its citizens.
A city “connecting the physical infrastructure, the IT infrastructure, the social infrastructure, and the business infrastructure to leverage the collective intelligence of the city”
A city “combining ICT and Web 2.0 technology with other organizational, design and planning efforts to dematerialize and speed up bureaucratic processes and help to identify new, innovative solutions to city management complexity, in order to improve sustainability and livability”
“The use of Smart Computing technologies to make the critical infrastructure components and services of a city – which include city administration, education, healthcare, public safety, real estate, transportation, and utilities – more intelligent, interconnected, and efficient”
The new intelligence of cities, then, resides in the increasingly effective combination of digital telecommunication networks (the nerves), ubiquitously embedded intelligence (the brains), sensors and tags (the sensory organs), and software (the knowledge and cognitive competence).
“Understanding Smart Cities: An Integrative Framework”, 2012, 45th Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences,
pp , IEEE Computer Society 3 I
MCS Case Study. Dr. Sergio Ramos

4. 50% 75% Urban society growth 2010 2050 I 4
MCS Case Study. Dr. Sergio Ramos

5. The City as the neuralgic center
INNOVATION
SOCIETY
CULTURE
ECONOMY
… and many others 5 I
MCS Case Study. Dr. Sergio Ramos

6. Questions? A holistic vision for a complex problem
Main challenges for a city in the XXI century
Cities improving the citizen’s quality of life today?
Goals and objectives of a city with its citizenship
How can these goals be layered or prioritized?
The human dimensions of the XXI century city?
Services that citizens should receive from a city
The citizen’s obligations with the city
The new city-citizen-stakeholder interaction
Can new technology help in this purpose? 6 I
MCS Case Study. Dr. Sergio Ramos

7. Stakeholders involved
Who are the professionals answering the questions?
Interdisciplinary people and authorities needed
to manage it
Which services
should be addressed first and what for?
Sociologists & technicians role
in this new
challenge
Appropriate players
& policies for this
new challenge
How should citizens
be involved in a new
city formulation? 7 I
MCS Case Study. Dr. Sergio Ramos

8. URBAN EDUCATION

9. Traditional education: Isolated Topics9 I
MCS Case Study. Dr. Sergio Ramos

10. Reality is interconnected10 I
MCS Case Study. Dr. Sergio Ramos

11. MCS as an answer UNIVERSIDAD POLITÉCNICA DE MADRID I
School of
Civil Engineering
Research Center for Digital Homes
School of
Industrial Engineering
School of
Telecomm
Engineering
School of
Architecture
UNIVERSIDAD POLITÉCNICA DE MADRID 11 I
MCS Case Study. Dr. Sergio Ramos

12. New city topics and views from world-class experts. Academy & Industry
MCS. The format
Classes
Seminars
Short courses of self-contained subjects where problems and existing and potential solutions are presented by professionals
Foundation subjects on different issues of cities: Technologies, facilities, services, processes, rights, etc
On how known cities and service providers implement their solutions to solve situations and problems
Advised personal work city or consulting firm) developing a specific issue of a city
New city topics and views from world-class experts. Academy & Industry
Conferences
Visits
Thesis 12 I
MCS Case Study. Dr. Sergio Ramos

13. Educating professionals for the XXI century city
Stakeholders involved in the training as trainers and trainees
Academia, Industry, Policy makers, Regulators, Users
What fields, services and technologies *? Among others …
Waste and Air Quality
Transport and Mobility
Energy and Environment
Urban Planning
New and Retrofit architecture
Health and Education
Governance and Democracy
Safety and Security
Utilities: water, fuel, smart-grids ...
Big Data and ICT
Internet of Thing
Commerce and Business
*see Global City Indicators Facility (GCIF) 13 I
MCS Case Study. Dr. Sergio Ramos

14. The content: a bottom-up feasible city approach
City physical profile & size
City Components (Morphology)
City Objectives
(Individual & Social)
City Services & Policies
The citizen Quality of Life
City physical profile & size
Demography, climate, economy, …
City Components/Needs (Morphology)
Housing, Work, Transport…
City Objectives (Individual & Social)
Basic supplies, Culture, Democracy, …
City Services & Policies
Technology, Health, Education, …
The Citizen. Quality of Life
Economy, Justice, Government, … 14 I
MCS Case Study. Dr. Sergio Ramos

15. MSC: main AREAS I City sciences basics Ict & next generation networks
Ecological urbanism
Urban design
Society & governance
energy
Transport & mobility
Environment & sustainability
Innovation & ENTREPRENEURIAL MANAGEMENT
Economy & business 15 I
MCS Case Study. Dr. Sergio Ramos

16. OVERCAMING BARRIERS 16 I
MCS Case Study. Dr. Sergio Ramos

17. Overcoming barriers: enabling factors and methods (I)
Tools or methods/
time
Methodological
Linguistic
Knowledge production
Time
Cultural and
Social
Funding
Politics
Structural/
Institutional* (Lyall and Meagher, 2008)
Design of proposal
Reduced team of leading proponents – Entrepreneurial approach
Builiding consensus on the city sciences concept
Drafting a map of core areas, subjects, links and interdependences
Lean Startup approach: build, measure, learn
Leading team to generate traction within the academic and professional community
Leading team own seed money to explore the concept
Involving the key person at University (President)
Supporting a more ambitious approach of UPM in the field of Cities, being the MCS only an initiative
Funding (access to funding)
Discount on the management fee for UPM
UPM President changed, no longer discounts applicable…
Other programs claiming for similar support..
Process
Selection of areas and core coordinators responsible for builiding their own syllabus and selecting professors
General objectives settled by coordinators.
Professors with freedom to design, discuss and reorient. 17 I
MCS Case Study. Dr. Sergio Ramos

18. Openness, transparency, leading team of risks takers…
Overcoming barriers: enabling factors and methods (II)
Tools or methods/
time
Methodological
Linguistic
Knowledge production
Time
Cultural and
Social
Funding
Politics
Structural/
Institutional* (Lyall and Meagher, 2008)
Dissemination/
implementation
City Sciences as a wider concept thand smart cities
Builiding on the city sciences concept through a communicationplan
Direct contacts and interviews with stakeholders
Evaluation
Concept gaining momentum… Competitors emerging...
Great program so far, from the point of view of students
Continuation
From an entire master program to shorter specialization courses
New research area to develop: Cities as entrepreneurial ecosystems
No more UPM support on discounts
Looking for new partnerts for 2017
Crosscutting issues
Openness, transparency, leading team of risks takers… 18 I
MCS Case Study. Dr. Sergio Ramos