Global Data Dive

1. Are buildings' energy efficiency performance affected by certain features, or any other exogenous environment factors? 
   For example, how do factors like the age of housing stock, building materials, roofs, and construction styles affect energy efficiency ratings in different boroughs? What policy initiatives have different London Boroughs introduced to improve the energy efficiency of domestic properties? Are there disparities in energy efficiency ratings that could exacerbate fuel poverty in certain boroughs? To what extent can innovations in construction, such as green building materials and energy-efficient design, be used to improve the energy efficiency of homes in different boroughs.
    
2. Are urban parks or trees really playing a role promoting citizens' physical or mental health? 
   For example, how do urban parks improve environmental sustainability and contribute to biodiversity in cities? What is the impact of urban parks on improving air quality, and how does this benefit respiratory health? How do green spaces in urban areas help reduce stress, anxiety, and depression?
    
3. How the climate risks (e.g., flood, heatwave) affect urban liveability? Could greenspace (e.g., parks) or trees help out?
   For example, how do parks manage stormwater and help mitigate the effects of urban flooding? How do parks help reduce urban heat island effects, and how might this contribute to better health outcomes in heat waves? How can parks be integrated into urban planning to create more liveable, sustainable, and healthy cities? Can trees help London adapt to extreme weather events, such as heatwaves, floods, and heavy rainfall? What role do trees play in reducing surface runoff and preventing urban flooding? What economic benefits do trees bring to local businesses/retails in terms of attracting customers and increasing sales?
    
4. How can urban transportation modes better support sustainable economy development in metropolitan cities? 
   For example, how will the air quality alongside the road network improve towards 2030 sustainability goals (i.e., PM2.5, PM10, NOx), with predicted future mobility scenarios? How will it then pose influences on local banks and retails site selections?
    
5. How does urban waste management contribute to cities' sustainability goals towards 2030 and 2050? 
   For example, what role do waste-to-energy (WTE) facilities play in managing urban waste, and how effective are they in reducing landfill use? How effective is urban recycling in reducing waste sent to landfills, and what barriers exist to improving recycling rates among boroughs? What roles do smart waste management technologies, such as IoT sensors and data analytics, play in optimizing waste collection and disposal in cities at a local scale?

For each of the five challenges below, the tasks are to:

1. Wrangle and understand the data structure.
    
2. Analyze the data and find key messages.
    
3. Design a clear compelling data presentation for an end-user.

Participants may vary the context and secondary datasets used to address questions that most interest you as a group, in consultation with the mentors and using research in the literature. Across all questions, groups will be asked to produce the technical outcome and an outcome suitable for communicating to the public. The public communication element may be visual or text, or both, but should assume little or no mathematical knowledge.

Dr. Yijing Li, Acting Director of CUSP London King’s College London (KCL)
Dr. Peter Baudains, CUSP London Research Software Engineer (KCL)
The Crown Estate
Professor Tyler Woebkenberg (M.S. in Applied Urban Science and Informatics Alum, Class of 2017)

The outline below reflects the schedule for New York City-based participants from CUSP at NYU Tandon. All programming will take place on the 13th Floor Learning Commons and a final showcase on Monday, February 23, 2025 will be open to the public. 

Tuesday, February 18, 2025

• 7:45 – 11 AM ET
  NYC-based students join remotely for:
  • Talks from CUSP London, Academics and Partners
  • Teams and facilitator introductions
  • Warm-ups, teammate introductions
  • Team Brainstorming, and individual assignments allocated within each team

Wednesday, February 19, 2025

• 8 – 11 AM ET
  NYC-based student teams report on descriptive statistics, working independently of London-based teams. 

Thursday, February 20, 2025

• 9 – 11 AM EST
  NYC-based students teams report on data insights, working independently of London-based teams. 

Friday, February 21, 2025

• 7:30 – 11 AM EST
  All participating groups deliver their final presentations, and winners are announced.

The 2024 Global Data Dive was hosted by CUSP London between February 20-23, 2024. Students from CUSP at NYU Tandon participated virtually from New York City on the challenge which considered urban data variables in the domains of transport, safety, air quality, and health in London, Newcastle, and New York City. Students from King’s College London, University College London, the University of Glasgow, Imperial College London, NYU, and NYU Abu Dhabi participated and worked with partners including TfL, the Department of Transport, Westminster City Council, Newham Council, London Ambulance Service, AccuCities, WSP and the Bicycle Association of Great Britain.

Data Dive Challenges:

• Analysis of spatial, temporal, and spatiotemporal correlations between congestion, safety, air quality, or health
• Longitudinal analysis of urban variables
• Inter-city and inter-continental comparisons

Jury

• Nick Holliman, Director of CUSP London, King’s College London 
• Rita Borgo, Reader in Data Visualisation, King’s College London
• Hannah Bougdah, Senior Insights and Reporting Manager, Safety Health and the Environment, Transport for London (TfL) 
• Peter Baudains, CUSP London Research Software Engineer, King’s College London 

Five participating CUSP student teams included:

• Iman Cumberbatch, Amari Garrett, Emanuel Simmons, Sneha Tirchy Shekar, Yushan Li, Tanisha Dighe, and Connor Xu 
• Akanksha Patil, Godfried Junio, Ismail Rashad, Koyel Das, Swati Sharma, Vinayak Saxena, Zheyan Chen 
• Xueliang Yang, Feiyang Ren, Jiayi Weng, Weilai Xu, Franklin Tang, Xiaoyue Zhang
• Amy Xian, Qingyuan Feng, Mingchuan Ma, Linuode Ye, Siyu Miao, Zihan Xu 
• Madison Buchholz, Soohyun Bae, Jiyun Cho, Irene Huang, Yanchi Jin, Junyi Li, Yuan Zhou

The 2023 Global Data Dive was hosted by CUSP London between February 21-24, 2023. Students from CUSP at NYU Tandon participated virtually from New York City on the challenge. For the event, student teams and mentors from King’s College London, University College London, Glasgow University, CUSP at NYU Tandon, and Curtin University worked with external partners including AccuCities 3D City Models, NHS NE London ICB, Ansell & Bailey Architects, Helix Data Innovation, and WSP.

The Best Overall Prize was awarded to a student team from CUSP at NYU Tandon that included Yue Yang, Lantian Zhang, Yifan Zhang, Junru Song, and Xiaohe Yin.

Data Dive Challenges:

• Clustering: Do common mental health problems like depression and anxiety cluster in particular geographical areas across the UK?
• Prevalence: Are serious mental health problems such as psychosis-schizophrenia and bipolar affective disorders more prevalent in urban built areas?
• Physical Environment: What physical features of the built environment (i.e. green space, air pollution levels, street intersections, 'neighborhood walkability', etc.) are associated with common mental health conditions and/or serious mental health conditions?
• Social Environment: What social features of the environment (population density, social disorganization, etc.) are associated with common mental health conditions and/or serious mental health conditions)?
• Correlation: Do mental health issues correlate with known physical health issues?

Two participating CUSP student teams included:

• "Walking the city: Analysis of NYC’s built environment on mental health" by Akshay Shetty, Shantanu Anikhindi, Ajayrangan Kasturirangan, Marcia Lucia Cornejo, Vickram Peter, Sharvari Deshpande, and Anshika Gupta. View the presentation here and the GitHub repository here.
• "Does the distance to subway stations affect a person's mental health?" by Yue Yang, Lantian Zhang, Yifan Zhang, Junru Song, and Xiaohe Yin. View the presentation here.

The 2022 Global Data Dive was hosted by CUSP London between April 4-7, and included student teams from  King’s College London, University of Warwick, University College London, Newcastle University, and CUSP at New York University. Experts from the transport planning and mobility engineering consultancy Systematica mentored New York City-based students throughout the event.

Data Dive Challenges:

• Participation: How could information derived from reoccurring residents surveys reflect localized “inclusive participation” in questions of urban wellbeing?
• Prosperity: Is it possible to derive forensic estimations on the economic performance for future years, using London’s Economics COVID-19 Labor Market Analysis and related datasets, to make further recommendations?
• Planet: London Local authorities have developed Reduction and Recycling Plans (RRPs); each borough also worked out the respective Waste Reduction and Recycling Plan, to contribute to the Mayor’s London-wide targets of cutting food waste by 50% per person and achieving 65% municipal waste recycling by 2030. How could the optimal model(s) be suggested among boroughs based on their local features and household waste recycling data?
• Place: How can the built environment, especially street greenery, exert positive effects on residents’ health and well-being? Are there any applicable measures to improve the environment further towards better influences on local health?
• Peace: Can we conduct enhanced analytics into the topic of hate crime, including both historic trends as well as the future; diving into some boroughs to reveal new insights; and exploring the links between recorded hate crime and potential reasons?

The 2021 Global Data Dive was hosted by CUSP London between March 15-19, and included student teams from King’s College London, CUSP at New York University, University of Warwick and University College London, University of Leeds, University of Glasgow.

Data Dive Challenges:

• What is the potential for micro-mobility and e-bikes to transform urban mobility in UK cities?
• How has Covid-19 impacted rail demand differently across different areas of London, and how might demand evolve in the future?
• Will future commuter travel in London be more or less active?
• What transport-related initiatives have international cities taken to make themselves ready for the future of urban mobility, and how do we compare them? 
• How has cycling-relevant street infrastructure changed in London and what might this suggest for future support for cycling in the city in future?
• What are the best ways to improve air quality in London through transport changes? 
• How has London’s driving behavior changed from the past to post-Covid? 
• How is micro-mobility usage changing over time in different UK towns? 

Jury

• Dr. Simon Miles, Director of CUSP London King’s College London
• Professor Mark Kleinman, Professor of Policy
• Thomas Stone and Howard Wong, Representatives from Transport for London