IIT-Bombay starts a new school for urban science

A new Centre for Urban Science and Engineering (C-USE) was inaugurated on Monday by Prithviraj Chavan, chief minister of Maharashtra at Indian Institute of Technology Bombay (IIT Bombay) campus. Speaking on the occasion, Chavan, remarked, "Rapid urbanization has lead to a plethora of challenges and problems. One of the issues faced by future urban cities would be how to design policies for urban planning taking into account science, technology, social, pscyhological, environmental, financial and other aspects into consideration. A Centre like C-USE can play a pivotal role in this regard."


Appreciating the establishment of this Centre at IIT Bombay, he also urged the brains behind C-USE to, "Create manpower and train people in modern town planning, devise a livable index and parameters of living and offer better technological solutions for solid waste management and waste water treatment, among others."

Earlier in the day, while welcoming the audience, IITB director D Khakhar said, "Just like the city of Mumbai, IIT Bombay has also grown manifold, not only in terms of inhabitants but also the breadth of expertise we have. It is but natural for a Centre like this to come up in IIT Bombay. The objective behind C-USE is to look at the challenges faced by the urban cities of India and of the developing world in a holistic manner and focus on integrating science and technolgoy alongwith social science and planning to provide solutions to those challenges." He added that the new Centre will do both research as well as provide educaiton required for preparing future mangers of cities. It will also offer training programmes to those already in jobs, in the related domains.

C-USE at IIT Bombay endeavours to be an interdisciplinary centre for research, teaching and skilled manpower development with the primary mandate of improving urban quality of life.

The Centre aims to combine science and technology with sustainable, equitable and human-friendly design to deliver innovative and holistic services to improve the life of the rapidly urbanizing population in the developing world. "The research activities of the Centre will focus on new products and solutions related to housing, transport, water management, energy efficiency, urban informatics, health, governance, urban poverty and citizen science while mitigating the effects of natural disasters and climate change," informed Prof. Krithi Ramamritham, Head, C-USE, IIT Bombay.

Renowned Urban Planning consultant Vidhyadhar Phatak delivered the keynote address on "Disciplinary Lenses and Objective of City" at the occasion. He said, "According to the 11th Five-Year Plan of 2007, our cities have to be livable, inclusive, bankable and competitive. Thus, we need to look at cities and services in a more comprehensive fashion."

C-USE is interlinked to many departments, Centres and groups at IIT Bombay, besides being a member of the international consortium called Centre for Urban Science and Progress (CUSP), based in New York, US. The institute is also a part of MAGEEP (McDonnell Academy Global Energy and Environment Partnership) - a consortium of 28 universities and corporate partners working together in Energy, Environmental and Sustainability research, education and operations.

The Centre intends to start a PhD program in January 2014. It is also working towards developing a postgraduate program in consultation with urban experts around the world. These courses will cover urban domains such as transportation, land use, urban design, water, food, public health, urban informatics and governance, among others.