A hiring process that bridges disciplines and propels research
It’s now widely accepted that diverse, multidisciplinary teams achieve better outcomes and solutions to both scientific and societal problems and that the more diverse a collaborative team is in terms of backgrounds and perspectives, the better the outcome.
Our new Urban Science and Engineering Cluster, for example, allows researchers to work in the greatest living urban lab in the world, and with more than 70% of the world’s population expected to reside in cities by midcentury, their work has never been more important. Their areas of research span data science; machine learning and artificial intelligence; the security, resiliency, and privacy of cyber physical systems and networks; sensors, connectivity, and networking, including the Internet of Things; infrastructure and construction; smart energy and intelligent transportation systems; and much more.
Members of the cluster are appointed jointly between the Center for Urban Science and Progress (CUSP), Civil and Urban Engineering (CUE), Computer Science and Engineering (CSE), Electrical and Computer Engineering (ECE), and Technology, Culture and Society (TCS), and they’re working together to innovate and improve every component of the world’s cities.
Cluster hiring is the process of bringing in multiple new faculty members to one or more departments based on their shared, interdisciplinary research interests. When clusters are established, the channels for collaboration are built right in, allowing faculty to initiate joint research, become involved in a greater variety of projects, and contribute to vital fields of inquiry and the intersections between them.
It also gives young candidates who have not yet developed a firm disciplinary specialty — and who thus might not be considered under a traditional approach — an opportunity to prove they can be dynamic, creative faculty researchers.
We’re dedicated to creating an academic environment that fosters inventiveness and experimentation in world-changing fields like AI, data science, emerging media, health, robotics, sustainability, and all things urban.
