2025 Inaugural Harvard Urban AI Conference
Shaping Equitable Cities with AI Innovation
April 19 2025
Harvard University Science Center Hall C
Harvard University Science Center Hall C
Panel I
Advanced Geospatial AI for
Policy Advising
Policy Advising
Urban development policies rely on extensive data sources from the urban fabric,
yet methods and frameworks to obtain detailed, fine-grained insights from these
data are often limited. Geospatial AI offers powerful opportunities to bridge this gap,
enabling better data gathering and analysis methods of existing urban conditions as
well as forecasting future growth. This panel will explore cutting-edge applications
of geospatial AI, examine current urban planning needs, and discuss how these
geospatial AI innovations will inform better urban policies on issues like sustainability,
mobility and equity.
Panel II
AI-Informed Urban Production
The built environment is heavily shaped by urban production processes—design,
planning, and real estate development. Emerging AI software and workflows bring
powerful new capabilities to these practices, influencing urban forms, optimizing
city layouts, and enhancing sustainability, livability, and economic value. This panel
will explore how AI-driven methods are transforming urban production practices and
redefining how we conceptualize, plan, and evolve our cities.
Panel III
Urban AI, the Future?
This culminating panel brings the conference to a thoughtful conclusion by inviting
panelists to define Urban AI through their unique professional lenses. Panelists will
share firsthand insights on the opportunities, risks, and challenges they navigate in
this emerging field. Our discussion will explore the technical innovations, cultural
shifts, and political considerations that Urban AI introduces, while examining new
collaborative frameworks that can unite diverse practitioners across disciplines to
shape more intelligent, equitable and responsive cities.
Speakers
Maurice Cox
Emma Bloomberg Professor in Residence of Urban Planning and Design
Harvard Graduate School of Design
Maurice D. Cox is Emma Bloomberg Professor in Residence of Urban Planning and Design at the Harvard Graduate School of Design. Prior to joining the GSD faculty, Cox was Director of Planning and Development for the City of Detroit between 2015-2019 and Commissioner of Planning and Development for the City of Chicago between 2019-2023, where he focused on the adaptive challenges facing contemporary urban revitalization. Cox is an urban designer acclaimed for his ability to merge architecture, design, and politics in pursuit of design excellence and the equitable development of cities.
Fabio Duarte
Associate Director
MIT Senseable City Lab
Fábio Duarte is the Associate Director and Principal Research Scientist at MIT Senseable City Lab. Duartehas published in Nature Cities, Nature Sustainability, and Science Robotics. His most recent book is Urban Play: Make-believe, technology and space, published by MIT Press.
Michael Lawrence Evans
Director of Emerging Technology
City of Boston
Michael Lawrence Evans is the Director of the Office of Emerging Technology at the City of Boston. He leads the City's exploration and adoption of new technology to support more responsive and equitable services. Previously, he directed Boston's Mayor's Office of New Urban Mechanics and led their civic technology portfolio. He also sits on the board of the Open Mobility Foundation and the advisory council for Northeastern University's Boston Area Research Initiative. Michael cut his teeth as a design technologist at Stamen Design and Code for America, where he was a member of their inaugural class of fellows in 2011 and served as a Google Summer of Code mentor.
Santiago Garces
Chief Information Officer
City of Boston
Santiago "Santi" Garces, driven by early experiences in his native Bogotá, Colombia, has dedicated his career to make government work better for people through technology, process, and design. As the Chief Information Officer (CIO) for the City of Boston. Santi served CIO in South Bend and Pittsburgh. Santi was named a Rising Star by Route Fifty, Executive of the Year by LocalSmart, and has received several awards for his work. A former Schmidt Futures International Strategy Forum Fellow, he is a Data-Smart Fellow at Harvard Kennedy School, and a Senior Fellow with the Burnes Center at Northeastern and the GovLab, working with Beth Noveck to enable Al applications for social impact. He also serves as a US representative to UN-Habitat as an expert on People-Centered Smart Cities. Santi co-founded the innovation and talent incubator nonprofit, enFocus, in South Bend . He served as a co-founding board member of the MetroLab Network.
Ramon Gras Alomà
Co-Founder and CEO
Aretian | Urban Analytics and Design
Ramon Gras (Harvard'18, MIT'15, BarcelonaTech'10) is the CEO and Founder of Aretian Urban Analytics and Design, and Urban Design Researcher at Harvard University. Originally hailing from Barcelona, Ramon specializes in urban design, city science, architecture, civil engineering, and knowledge economy. Aretian develops Masterplan projects and software solutions to shape urban design and knowledge economy strategies around the world, from Boston and Lund, Sweden to São Paulo, Barcelona, and Cape Town.
Andrew Haas
Program Co-Director
Architectural Association New York
Andrew Haas is a designer and educator whose work explores the evolving relationship between technology and the built environment. As Founding Director of the A Visiting School New York, he co-leads a design programme focused on computational urbanism and modular fabrication as tools for speculative architectural and urban futures. His professional experience includes roles at leading firms such as ZHA, BIG, KPF, and SOM, contributing to projects at the intersection of advanced modeling, computational design, and digital fabrication. He currently teaches at Pratt Institute and has held academic roles at Harvard GSD, the Architectural Association, and Tsinghua University, among others.
Gia Jung
Technical Lead
Google Earth
Gia Jung is a Technical Lead at Google Earth Al, combining expertise in artificial intelligence, computational design, and spatial technologies. Prior to Google, she led research engineering at Spacemaker Al (now Autodesk Forma), where she developed Al-powered solutions for urban planning, and worked in research engineering at Delve by Sidewalk Labs (now Earth Design). Gia holds a Master of Architecture from Harvard GSD, where she received the Digital Design Award for her innovative integration of Al systems into architectural practice.
Valérie Lechêne
Assistant Director
The New School Urban Systems Lab
Valerie Lechêne is Assistant Director at the New School's Urban Systems Lab, advancing research in Al-driven climate risk modeling, urban nature-based solutions, and community co-production. At the Lab, she supports initiatives like ClimatelQ, which provides open-access hyperlocal climate risk data, and the NATURA Global Roadmap for Urban Nature-based Solutions. A GSAPP M.Arch'17 alumna, Valérie co-authored the book The Organizer's Guide to Architecture Education (Routledge, 2024) and the policy roadmap A Just Transition for the Building Sector. Her documentary Architecture Workers Organizing for Change will be featured at the 2025 Venice Architecture Biennale, with full release later this year.
Antoine Picon
G. Ware Travelstead Professor of the History of Architecture and Technology
Harvard Graduate School of Design
An engineer, architect, and historian, Antoine Picon is Professor of the History of Architecture and Technology at Harvard Graduate School of Design. He is a member of the French Academy of Technology and the French Academy of Architecture. He works on the history of the relations between the built environment and technologies. He has published extensively on this subject. Among his recent books: Smart Cities: A Spatialised Intelligence (2015), The Materiality of Architecture (2021), and Natures Urbaines: Une Histoire Technique et Sociale, 1600-2030 (2024).
Andres Sevtsuk
Associate Professor of Urban Science and Planning
MIT
Andres Sevtsuk is an Associate Professor at MIT's Department of Urban Studies and Planning, leading the City Design and Development program and the City Form Lab. His research focuses on the influence of urban form on sustainable travel behavior and on public qualities of built environments--urban ground floors, main streets, and amenity location patterns. He has developed multiple software tools to model pedestrian activity in cities, recently involving Ai tools to map both sidewalks an social interactions that take place on sidewalks in cities around the world. He is also the author of Street Commerce: Creating Vibrant Urban Sidewalks published by Penn Press (2020).
Snoweria Zhang
Computatioanl Designer
Goolge Earth
Snoweria Zhang is an architect, artist, and mathematician. She is currently a computational designer on Google Earth and an adjunct assistant professor at the Columbia Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation. Her work focuses on the intersection of technology and urbanism. She is a licensed architect and practices in New York.
Siqi Zhu
Director of Planning & Urban Technology
Sasaki
Siqi is the Director of Planning & Urban Technology Associate Principal Planner at Sasaki. He brings a unique blend of expertise in planning, urban technology, and urban innovation to assist cities, developers, and institutions in tackling their most critical and strategic urban development challenges. His work in Urban Technology revolves around the design and implementation of purposeful, responsible, and value-aligned technology applications in cities, with a focus on promoting sustainability, resilience, engagement, and value creation.
Conference Schedule
9:30 - 9:50
Check-in at the registration desk
1 Oxford St, Cambridge, MA 02138
10:00 - 10:15
Opening Remark
Haozhuo Yang, Han Na Kim, Tony Juncheng Yang (HUAI team)
10:15 - 10:45
Keynote Lecture
Antoine Picon (Harvard GSD)
10:45 - 11:45
Panel I: Advanced Geospatial AI for Policy Advising
Ramon Gras Alomà (Aretian)
Fabio Duarte (Senseable City Lab @ MIT)
Gia Jung (Google Earth)
Valérie Lechêne (Urban Systems Lab @ The New School)
Moderator: Han Na Kim
11:45 - 13:00
Lunch
*sandwiches will be provided
13:00 - 14:00
Panel II: AI-Informed Urban Production
Andres Sevtsuk (City Form Lab @ MIT)
Snoweria Zhang (Google Earth)
Siqi Zhu (Sasaki)
Andrew Haas (Architectural Association New York)
Moderator: Haozhuo Yang
14:00 - 14:20
Coffee & Connect
*please enjoy coffee and connect with the event attendees
14:20 - 15:20
Panel III: Urban AI, the Future?
Michael Lawrence Evans (City of Boston)
Santiago "Santi" Garces (City of Boston)
Antoine Picon (Harvard GSD)
Moderator: Haozhuo Yang, Han Na Kim
15:20 - 15:50
Closing Remarks
Maurice Cox (Harvard GSD)
15:50 - 17:00
Reception
*Join us at the Science Center arcade for drinks and bites