Applied Urban Science and Informatics, M.S.
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About the Program | Admission Requirements | Curriculum | Our Students
Want to change the world?
Start with your city.
As a mission-driven center, NYU’s Center for Urban Science + Progress is focused on making cities more equitable, resilient, accessible, and responsive, and improving quality of life overall.
The MS in Applied Urban Science and Informatics will provide you with the opportunity to take part in this mission by engaging in the interdisciplinary study of urban science and applying technical skills to problems facing cities all over the globe. You will learn to formulate questions about your surroundings, and then how to answer those questions using large data sets.
Make your mark across urban landscapes—with uniquely curated expertise
Like any modern city, urban science is a dynamic, multi-faceted, and highly interconnected field. It brings together the rigor and precision of data science, computer science, and statistics, and combines it with sociological frameworks about economic, community, and personal wellbeing. Using New York City as a living laboratory, CUSP students develop a distinct skillset that blends these perspectives and allows them to see urban environments in a new way.
Admission Requirements
Your academic and professional experience should demonstrate rigorous academic training and a passion for problem-solving in an urban context. We look for students from ALL disciplines who would like to apply quantitative skills to pressing social issues. We recommend that applicants have some familiarity with:
- Single-variable calculus
- Basic programming (Python and R)
- Statistics and probability
- Geographic information systems and
- Spatial analytics
- Basic computer science
Find out more about Admission Requirements.
CUSP Experiential Scholarship
NYU Tandon Bridge to Applied Urban Science and Informatics
Curriculum
CUSP students take required core courses and a non-credit lab to form the foundation of their MS in Applied Urban Science and Informatics.
Required Courses (18 credits)
Throughout the core, students develop a balanced understanding of data science, informatics, statistics, probability, urban management, and communication that underpins the rest of their academic experience. Required courses include:
- Introduction to Applied Data Science
- Applied Data Science
- Innovative City Governance OR Civic Analytics and Urban Intelligence
- Machine Learning for Cities
- Urban Science Intensive I
- Urban Science Intensive II
- Data Governance, Ethics and Privacy (0 credits)
Elective Courses (18 credits)
Customize your education with specialized CUSP electives in data science, domain applications, and civic analytics through elective courses.
Through electives, students apply their foundational knowledge to topics such as climate change, disaster risk analysis, public health, sustainability, criminal and social justice, transportation, and more. Past electives offered have included:
- Complex Urban Systems
- Urban Spatial Analytics
- Data Visualization
- Large Scale Data Analysis
- Urban Sensing
- Data-Driven Methods for Policy
Students may take up to two courses (6 credits) of non-CUSP electives from other schools across NYU, including but not limited to other Tandon programs, the Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences, Stern School of Business, Wagner School of Public Service, and Tisch School of the Arts.
Experiential Learning
CUSP students learn to work with data at all stages of the data lifecycle from acquisition to visualization. You’ll gain knowledge about cities by using robust and live data in class projects, applied research activities, and partnering with companies and NYC agencies addressing existing urban challenges.
Capstone Projects
During the 6-credit Urban Science Intensive sequence, you will work with a city agency, an industry partner, entrepreneurs, or faculty researchers to address a specific research question and unlock the potential of big data to make global cities better.
Global Data Dive
Participate in our annual Data Dive, an optional immersion program in one of the leading smart cities around the world: London. This week-long hackathon infuses a global perspective into the ability to link data science with the public good.
Vertically Integrated Projects (VIP)
Vertically Integrated Projects (VIP) are multi-year, multidisciplinary projects that emphasize innovative and research-active education. Each VIP team has large-scale and multi-faceted objectives in research, design, entrepreneurship, and/or community outreach & service. All NYU students are welcome to apply and enroll in a VIP course.
Our Students
Fall 2023 Cohort
Students
Average age
Female
Undergraduate Degrees
- 51% Bachelor of Science
- 24% Bachelor of Arts
- 6% Bachelor of Economics
- 4% Bachelor of Engineering
- 15% Other
Undergraduate Majors
- 15% Mathematics
- 11% Computer Science
- 11% Finance
- 11% Economics
- 11% Urban Planning & Architecture
- 7% Business
- 6% Information Systems
- 28% Other
CUSP welcomes students from a wide variety of educational backgrounds. The information above represent the degrees earned and majors studied by the Fall 2023 cohort. If your field of study does not fit into these categories, that’s okay! We look for students who demonstrate quantitative skills and a passion for urban-relate topics. If you have questions about your qualifications, feel free to reach out to cusp.education@nyu.edu.
Alumni Outcomes: See where our graduates get jobs!
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Maurizio Porfiri
Anton Rozhkov
Analaura Tostado
MS in Applied Urban Science and Informatics, 2022