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BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20251204T113000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20251204T123000
DTSTAMP:20260418T111135
CREATED:20251027T155112Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20251027T155112Z
UID:5514-1764847800-1764851400@cs3-erc.org
SUMMARY:SLC Monthly Meeting December 2025
DESCRIPTION:Monthly meeting for the CS3 Student Leadership Council (SLC). \nThis is a CS3 internal meeting.
URL:https://cs3-erc.org/event/slc-monthly-meeting-december-2025/
LOCATION:Zoom
CATEGORIES:SLC
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://cs3-erc.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/SLC-24-25-GROUP-1-scaled.jpg
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20251110T160000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20251110T170000
DTSTAMP:20260418T111135
CREATED:20251027T154847Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20251029T143203Z
UID:5513-1762790400-1762794000@cs3-erc.org
SUMMARY:CS3 Industry Speaker Series: Dr. Patrick Alrassy
DESCRIPTION:Join the Center for Smart Streetscape (CS3) Student Leadership Council (SLC) for an engaging session in our Industry Speaker Series\, featuring leaders at the forefront of smart cities\, transportation innovation\, and urban technology. This event offers students and researchers the opportunity to learn from professionals shaping the future of intelligent infrastructure and to explore pathways for collaboration\, internships\, and career growth within the evolving smart streetscape ecosystem. \nAbout Our Speaker\nDr. Patrick Alrassy is a Staff Research Engineer at Meta’s Super Intelligence Lab\, where he works on new Generative AI Evaluation frameworks. He specializes in building evaluation benchmarks for large language models across domains such as STEM\, law\, finance\, and creative reasoning. Dr. Alrassy holds a Ph.D. in Civil & Engineering Mechanics from Columbia University\, and an affiliate to Columbia’s Smart Cities Center\, where his research advanced smart cities and large-scale telematics data for safer road networks. His prior work spans spatial AI\, autonomous systems\, particularly self-driving cars in the startup space. \nThis event is open to all Columbia University\, Florida Atlantic University\, Lehman College\, and Rutgers University Students.
URL:https://cs3-erc.org/event/cs3-industry-speaker-series-dr-patrick-alrassy/
LOCATION:Hybrid
CATEGORIES:SLC
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/png:https://cs3-erc.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/Flyer-for-Nov-10-Event.png
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20251105
DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20251108
DTSTAMP:20260418T111135
CREATED:20251027T155511Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20251029T143132Z
UID:5515-1762300800-1762559999@cs3-erc.org
SUMMARY:CS3 Fall Retreat
DESCRIPTION:The Center for Smart Streetscapes (CS3) will host its Fall Retreat for CS3 students\, faculty\, and staff. \nThis is a CS3 internal event.
URL:https://cs3-erc.org/event/cs3-fall-retreat/
LOCATION:Tarrytown\, New York\, Tarrytown\, New York
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/heic:https://cs3-erc.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/IMG_2985-1-scaled.jpg
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20251030T140000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20251030T160000
DTSTAMP:20260418T111135
CREATED:20251027T154000Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20251027T154000Z
UID:5505-1761832800-1761840000@cs3-erc.org
SUMMARY:CS3 Smart Crosswalk Button Co-Design Workshop #3
DESCRIPTION:The Center for Smart Streetscapes (CS3) will host the next segment of our co-design workshop series focused on adapting use-cases for a Smart Crosswalk Button application. The goal of the prior workshops were to introduce the project and identify key issues\, then to introduce a prototype for the button. This session will incorporate community\, government\, and industry perspectives to continue developing recommendations for improvements to the button application. \nThis is an invite-only event. If you are interested in attending a workshop or learning more about CS3’s community engagement process\, please contact our team at streetscapes@columbia.edu.
URL:https://cs3-erc.org/event/cs3-smart-crosswalk-button-co-design-workshop-3/
LOCATION:Harlem\, NY\, United States
CATEGORIES:Community
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://cs3-erc.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/4M4A0285-scaled.jpg
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20251030T113000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20251030T123000
DTSTAMP:20260418T111135
CREATED:20251027T154530Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20251027T154530Z
UID:5507-1761823800-1761827400@cs3-erc.org
SUMMARY:SLC Monthly Meeting October 2025
DESCRIPTION:Monthly meeting for the CS3 Student Leadership Council (SLC). \nThis is a CS3 internal meeting.
URL:https://cs3-erc.org/event/slc-monthly-meeting-october-2025/
LOCATION:Zoom
CATEGORIES:SLC
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://cs3-erc.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/SLC-24-25-GROUP-1-scaled.jpg
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20250328T120000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20250328T130000
DTSTAMP:20260418T111135
CREATED:20241211T171614Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20250320T184328Z
UID:4235-1743163200-1743166800@cs3-erc.org
SUMMARY:CS3 Monthly Research Exchange
DESCRIPTION:The Center for Smart Streetscapes (CS3) Student Leadership Council (SLC) presents the CS3 Monthly Research Exchange! At each CS3 Monthly Research Exchange\, we hear from researchers about their latest findings on the future of smart city technology. Attendees will have the opportunity to engage with other CS3 students and faculty at partner institutions\, provide feedback to the student presenters\, and collaborate on future research. \nLunch will be provided. Presenters to be announced. \nThe CS3 Monthly Research Exchanges are internal and open only to CS3 affiliated students\, faculty\, and staff. If you are interested in learning more about the research happening at CS3\, please contact our team at streetscapes@columbia.edu.
URL:https://cs3-erc.org/event/cs3-monthly-research-exchange-12/
LOCATION:Hybrid
CATEGORIES:SLC
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/png:https://cs3-erc.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/3.28.25-TBA-CS3-Monthly-Research-Exchange-e1742496186922.png
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20250221T120000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20250221T130000
DTSTAMP:20260418T111135
CREATED:20241211T171355Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20241211T171355Z
UID:4232-1740139200-1740142800@cs3-erc.org
SUMMARY:CS3 Monthly Research Exchange
DESCRIPTION:The Center for Smart Streetscapes (CS3) Student Leadership Council (SLC) presents the CS3 Monthly Research Exchange! At each CS3 Monthly Research Exchange\, we hear from researchers about their latest findings on the future of smart city technology. Attendees will have the opportunity to engage with other CS3 students and faculty at partner institutions\, provide feedback to the student presenters\, and collaborate on future research. \nLunch will be provided. Presenters to be announced. \nThe CS3 Monthly Research Exchanges are internal and open only to CS3 affiliated students\, faculty\, and staff. If you are interested in learning more about the research happening at CS3\, please contact our team at streetscapes@columbia.edu.
URL:https://cs3-erc.org/event/cs3-monthly-research-exchange-11/
LOCATION:Hybrid
CATEGORIES:SLC
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/png:https://cs3-erc.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/2.21.25-TBA-CS3-Monthly-Research-Exchange-e1733937223365.png
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20250127T090000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20250127T120000
DTSTAMP:20260418T111135
CREATED:20250109T200106Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20250109T200106Z
UID:4569-1737968400-1737979200@cs3-erc.org
SUMMARY:CS3 Teacher Professional Development Workshop
DESCRIPTION:Join the Center for Smart Streetscapes (CS3) for a half-day workshop designed to connect NYC educators with cutting-edge research in smart streetscape technologies. Learn about CS3’s innovative work\, explore the Summer Research Experience for Teachers (RET) program\, and brainstorm ways to bring these ideas into your classroom. Optional lab tours at Columbia University will showcase the latest in urban tech research. Don’t miss this chance to grow as an educator and inspire your students with real-world STEM applications! \nEvent Details:\n📅 Date: Monday\, January 27\, 2025\n🕗 Time: 9AM – 12PM\n📍 Location: Columbia University (specific location shared upon registration) \nLunch will be provided! \nThis workshop is invite-only. If you are interested in attending this workshop or learning more about CS3’s Research Experience for Teachers (RET) program\, please contact our team at streetscapes@columbia.edu.
URL:https://cs3-erc.org/event/cs3-teacher-professional-development-workshop/
LOCATION:Columbia University
CATEGORIES:Education
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/png:https://cs3-erc.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/1.27.25-CS3-Teacher-Professional-Development-Workshop-e1736452771962.png
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20250117T120000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20250117T130000
DTSTAMP:20260418T111135
CREATED:20241211T171034Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20241211T171034Z
UID:4223-1737115200-1737118800@cs3-erc.org
SUMMARY:CS3 Monthly Research Exchange
DESCRIPTION:The Center for Smart Streetscapes (CS3) Student Leadership Council (SLC) presents the CS3 Monthly Research Exchange! At each CS3 Monthly Research Exchange\, we hear from researchers about their latest findings on the future of smart city technology. Attendees will have the opportunity to engage with other CS3 students and faculty at partner institutions\, provide feedback to the student presenters\, and collaborate on future research. \nLunch will be provided. Presenters to be announced. \nThe CS3 Monthly Research Exchanges are internal and open only to CS3 affiliated students\, faculty\, and staff. If you are interested in learning more about the research happening at CS3\, please contact our team at streetscapes@columbia.edu.
URL:https://cs3-erc.org/event/cs3-monthly-research-exchange-10/
LOCATION:Hybrid
CATEGORIES:SLC
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/png:https://cs3-erc.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/1.15.25-TBA-CS3-Monthly-Research-Exchange-1-e1733937005785.png
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20250107T180000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20250107T200000
DTSTAMP:20260418T111135
CREATED:20241220T204732Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20241220T204732Z
UID:4401-1736272800-1736280000@cs3-erc.org
SUMMARY:Community Partners in Residence Kick-Off Meeting
DESCRIPTION:Join the Center for Smart Streetscapes (CS3) as we kick off the 2025 Community Partners in Residence (CPR) program! We will review what was learned from the 2023-2024 CPR cohort\, present projects based on CPR feedback\, and outline opportunities for continued engagement through community co-design methods. \nCPR workshops are invite-only. If you are interested in attending a workshop or learning more about CS3’s community engagement process\, please contact our team at streetscapes@columbia.edu.
URL:https://cs3-erc.org/event/community-partners-in-residence-kick-off-meeting/
LOCATION:Harlem\, NY\, United States
CATEGORIES:Community
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://cs3-erc.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/4M4A0130-1.jpg
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20241115T120000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20241115T130000
DTSTAMP:20260418T111135
CREATED:20241211T164146Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20241211T164146Z
UID:4212-1731672000-1731675600@cs3-erc.org
SUMMARY:CS3 Monthly Research Exchange
DESCRIPTION:The Center for Smart Streetscapes (CS3) Student Leadership Council (SLC) presents the CS3 Monthly Research Exchange! At each CS3 Monthly Research Exchange\, we hear from researchers about their latest findings on the future of smart city technology. Attendees will have the opportunity to engage with other CS3 students and faculty at partner institutions\, provide feedback to the student presenters\, and collaborate on future research. \nLunch will be provided. \nStudent Presenters:\nEge Ozguroglu\nPhD Student\, Columbia University\nResearch Thrust 2: Situational Awareness \n\nAbstract: We introduce pix2gestalt\, a framework for zero-shot amodal segmentation\, which learns to estimate the shape and appearance of whole objects that are only partially visible behind occlusions. By capitalizing on large-scale diffusion models and transferring their representations to this task\, we learn a conditional diffusion model for reconstructing whole objects in challenging zero-shot cases\, including examples that break natural and physical priors\, such as art. As training data\, we use a synthetically curated dataset containing occluded objects paired with their whole counterparts. Experiments show that our approach outperforms supervised baselines on established benchmarks. Our model can furthermore be used to significantly improve the performance of existing object recognition and 3D reconstruction methods in the presence of occlusions.\n\nPierre Tholoniat\nPhD Student\, Columbia University\nResearch Thrust 3: Privacy\, Security\, and Fairness \n\nAbstract: As major browsers phase out third-party cookies\, emerging advertising APIs offer an opportunity to improve web privacy. We first present Cookie Monster (published at ACM SOSP ’24)\, a system that enhances existing advertising measurement APIs from major tech companies with more efficient differential privacy (DP) budgeting. By using an individual form of DP\, our approach enables more accurate private measurement queries compared to traditional DP implementations. Cookie Monster lays the foundations for on-device privacy-preserving systems\, with applications beyond advertising: in this talk\, we propose an analogy between web and smart city privacy\, and sketch how insights from our paper can help shape a robust privacy architecture for smart cities.\n\nThe CS3 Monthly Research Exchanges are internal and open only to CS3 affiliated students\, faculty\, and staff. If you are interested in learning more about the research happening at CS3\, please contact our team at streetscapes@columbia.edu.
URL:https://cs3-erc.org/event/cs3-monthly-research-exchange-9/
LOCATION:Hybrid
CATEGORIES:SLC
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/png:https://cs3-erc.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/11.15.24-CS3-Monthly-Research-Exchange.png
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20241018T120000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20241018T133000
DTSTAMP:20260418T111135
CREATED:20241211T163912Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20241211T163912Z
UID:4204-1729252800-1729258200@cs3-erc.org
SUMMARY:CS3 Monthly Research Exchange
DESCRIPTION:The Center for Smart Streetscapes (CS3) Student Leadership Council (SLC) presents the CS3 Monthly Research Exchange! At each CS3 Monthly Research Exchange\, we hear from researchers about their latest findings on the future of smart city technology. Attendees will have the opportunity to engage with other CS3 students and faculty at partner institutions\, provide feedback to the student presenters\, and collaborate on future research. \nLunch will be provided. \nThis month we will learn about the societal impacts of smart streetscapes and how trust is established and maintained. They will present two approaches: bottom-up through community engagement and top-down through government and policy. Click October 2024 research exchange for the presenters’ bios and abstracts. \nPresentations will be followed by an information session on the CS3 VALIDATE Accelerator Program (learn more here). \nThe CS3 Monthly Research Exchanges are internal and open only to CS3 affiliated students\, faculty\, and staff. If you are interested in learning more about the research happening at CS3\, please contact our team at streetscapes@columbia.edu.
URL:https://cs3-erc.org/event/cs3-monthly-research-exchange-8/
LOCATION:Hybrid
CATEGORIES:SLC
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/png:https://cs3-erc.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/10.18.24-CS3-Monthly-Research-Exchange.png
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20240917T120000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20240917T130000
DTSTAMP:20260418T111135
CREATED:20241211T163307Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20241211T163307Z
UID:4198-1726574400-1726578000@cs3-erc.org
SUMMARY:SLC Fall Welcome Session
DESCRIPTION:The Center for Smart Streetscapes (CS3) Student Leadership Council (SLC) presents the Fall Welcome Session! CS3’s mission is to forge livable\, safe\, and inclusive communities through real-time\, hyper-local streetscape applications built on advancements in edge-cloud technology\, wireless-optical engineering\, visual analytics\, computer security\, and social science. \nJoin us to learn about the unique opportunities available to students at CS3\, such as: \n\nUndergraduate and Graduate Research\nMentoring for Education Programs\nInternships and Industry Connections\nCommunity Engagement\nLeadership Development\n\nLunch will be provided. \nIn-Person Locations at CS3 Partner Institutions: \n\nColumbia University\nLehman College\nRutgers University\nFlorida Atlantic University\nUniversity of Central Florida
URL:https://cs3-erc.org/event/slc-fall-welcome-session/
LOCATION:Hybrid
CATEGORIES:SLC
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/png:https://cs3-erc.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/Spring-Welcome-Session-2024-2.png
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20240521T180000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20240521T200000
DTSTAMP:20260418T111135
CREATED:20241210T225529Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20241211T164313Z
UID:4147-1716314400-1716321600@cs3-erc.org
SUMMARY:Community Partners in Residence (CPR) Program - Meeting 12
DESCRIPTION:On Tuesday\, May 21\, 2024\, the NSF Center for Smart StreetScapes (CS3) held its twelfth/final Community Partners in Residence (CPR) workshop to conclude the first cohort. The session began with Ester Fuchs presenting a summary document called the ‘Harlem Community Needs Assessment’ created by coding data (presentation discussions\, breakout sessions\, questions\, and surveys) that emerged from all previous CPR working sessions and surveys.  This resulted in 3 categories of focus: 1= General Community Needs; 2 = StreetScape Community Needs; and 3 = Community Engagement & Education Needs.  There were also specific areas of focus within each of the 3 categories using language provided by the CPRs themselves.  While the first 2 focused on areas we expected to emerge in these discussions\, ie\, public safety\, accessibility\, sanitation\, public health\, economic opportunity\, etc\, this process showed that Community Engagement and Education needs also emerged as an important category/need from the workshop conversations – these included the need for education to understand technology and the research\, among this group.   \nAndrew Smyth then addressed the group by thanking everyone for their participation and commitment to this project. He noted the challenges inherent in this work\, and that this was only the beginning.  The CS3 research team had been given ideas as to the kinds of things they should be thinking about before the CPR component began to help prioritize which challenges needed more focus and time\, how to present issues\, etc.  This project is ultimately not only about technical issues\, it is about rolling research out to the community together\, trying to anticipate all the challenges\, win over the government\, etc. He noted the brainstorming sessions were really useful for the researchers with 4 main unexpected takeaways: 1 – we have a real opportunity for us to celebrate & support the cultural identity & history of Harlem; we can do this with AR/VR\, overlaying history\, accompanying with music\, etc\, but we need to drill down specifics and we must; 2 – elements for elderly & people with disabilities to navigate the city\, we have researchers focused on this already but we need to do this with more detail and greater clarity about what to work toward and fight off; 3 – CS3 can potentially assist in equitable and effective policing; we can collaborate in this area beyond targeting and profiling\, etc; 4 – Street chaos issues\, traffic congestion\, double parking\, delivery bikes\, bike lane implementations\, bus lanes\, etc; these things came up frequently and CS3 should pick an exact collaboration in these areas and run with it to respond well.  This list is not scientific\, but seems obvious. He added that CS3 can be helpful in training and educational programs\, which is not a streetscape solution that we had previously thought of\, but are opportunities that can be given to the community. Lastly\, what are the next steps for each CPR?  We thought there might be a CPR alumni group – perhaps stay together in active ways (ie\, mentorship)\, or less active (receiving the CS3 newsletter).  CPRs are CS3’s most in-tune partners at this moment. We have projects coming up this summer with seniors and students and other opportunities to engage\, if desired\, and CS3 wants to activate more with this group outside of this room. We also discussed an Ad hoc Community Review Board – perhaps a subset of CPRs that would help inform applications and locations for this work to deploy.  \nBarbara picked up the discussion by saying that she loves Harlem and feels like Harlem is never fully understood\, people on the outside see it but don’t always understand what they are looking at\, and so it is important that we can bring this work out of this room.  We have identified needs\, learned a lot from scientists\, and researchers learned a lot from us\, but how do we start matching all this up?  We need to discuss how you all can stay involved.  We don’t want to make assumptions\, because right now even you are on the outside looking in\, and we need to make sure we can stay connected emotionally\, hold onto the knowledge we learned/that the CPRs articulated.  She listed the following questions & suggestions: CS3 develops programs with CPRs and matches organizations with them; institutional knowledge is very valuable -we can form a CPR Council of (former) members to serve as our most knowledgeable resources in the community since we do not want to start over\, how do we keep this group engaged – build into NSF structure?; Are there opportunities for this group to interact with Cohort 2 – at their opening reception?; bringing the knowledge to the greater Harlem Community – Harlem is big and cohort 1 is our only Ambassador group so far and we only have 1 Jessica Elliot to voice for the entire East Harlem section\, how do we scale?; perhaps we create community engagement evaluators & watchdogs\, where Cohort 1 serves as eyes & ears that now has a relationship with CS3 and CS3 trusts them.   \nBarbara played a video the 125th St BID & the HOPE Center created about keeping Harlem’s streets clean with neighborhood youth as messengers – it was a fun\, social\, 1-minute campaign that was a lighter touch with effective outcomes.  It engaged the community beyond people who have degrees and have been recruited into a program\, because CS3 also has to also meet the people where they are and where the work gets done. This could be done by activating competitions among youth and inspiring neighborhood people to make communications for CS3. Barbara also discussed ideas for outreach to a 2nd CPR Cohort\, noting there should be representatives from community boards in every cohort (same individuals or not)\, we need to examine discussions around the hot topics and how we can elevate those in discussion with cohort 2 like aging in place\, more discussions around business\, disabilities\, which new groups we should add.  She asked each CPR to state what they want to see happen next.  There was concern expressed about transferring this project to a private company; a question about how CS3 can more deeply engage CPR groups with government partners; discussion about how CS3 plans to message about this project and what may be expected from community boards; the value of consistent & universal talking points for CS3 to provide to CPRs/stakeholders to share in the community; there were numerous references made to the importance of inclusion: of a variety of disability representation – all have different needs and experiences\, community based organizations\, business\, youth\, seniors\, cultural groups\, and multilingual participants. \nWhen polled\, every CPR wanted to stay involved going forward.  With that\, the meeting concluded with Ester thanking Lynda Hamilton for managing these workshops behind the scenes and creating CPR Certificates of Completion\, which Andrew and Barbara presented to each CPR with photos\, and a group photo\, followed by the closing reception and dinner catered by Dinosaur Barbeque. \nCPR workshops are invite-only. If you are interested in attending a workshop or learning more about CS3’s community engagement process\, please contact our team at streetscapes@columbia.edu.
URL:https://cs3-erc.org/event/community-partners-in-residence-cpr-program-meeting-12/
LOCATION:Harlem\, NY\, United States
CATEGORIES:Community
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://cs3-erc.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/11/4M4A0136-scaled.jpg
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20240514T180000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20240514T200000
DTSTAMP:20260418T111135
CREATED:20241210T224741Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20241210T224741Z
UID:4144-1715709600-1715716800@cs3-erc.org
SUMMARY:Community Partners in Residence (CPR) Program - Meeting 11
DESCRIPTION:On Tuesday\, May 14\, 2024\, the NSF Center for Smart StreetScapes (CS3) held its eleventh Community Partners in Residence (CPR) Program workshop. The session was moderated by Sharon Sputz\, which was the last one focusing on highlighting their work in the Harlem community as well as insightful two presentations from the industry side. The presentations during this session would include Sharon Sputz\, Industry Outreach Lead CS3\, and Andrew Smyth\, Principal Investigator & Chair\, CS3\, Misato Hattori\, Senior Business Development Manager\, NEC Corporation of America\, Yonette Lewis\, CPR\, Director of Operations\, Harlem Independent Living Center\, Angela Dews\, CPR\, Political Retiree\, Journalist\, Novelist\, Environmental Activist\, Gus Chalkias\, CPR\, Coordinator\, Computer Center for Visually Impaired People.  \nSharon Sputz initiated the session with opening remarks and passed the first presenter over to Andrew Smith\, who presented about GridMatrix\, AI software for critical facility optimization and visual analytics which pulls out traffic information using existing cameras. He showed two case studies\, one of which saves lives with existing cameras to prevent accidents and hazards\, respond to accidents\, reduce response times\, and rank most dangerous intersections\, while another case enabled existing cameras to track emission to improve air quality.  \nThe second presentation was delivered by Misato Hattori from NEC which has provided cash register technology\, phone and internet technology\, and biometrics technology. First she presented 5G network technology at smart intersection for road safety which uses cameras to analyze the risks\, showing the video of a case study in Hawaii\, where NEC worked with a local high school to brainstorm ideas on how to improve safety. She also discussed disaster preparedness and city resilience\, mentioning the importance of mutual support across neighbors which accounted for 80% of how the citizens were rescued in the great earthquake in Japan in 1995 compared to public support or self-help accounting for only 20%. Inspired by this survey\, she concluded that mobile digital tools could help with evacuation plans and support volunteers.  \nMoreover\, William Kenworthey from HOK\, a design firm\, presented their project to integrate design into the streetscape in Mexico City which brings cultural elements into public space using art. \nThen the session moved to the presentations by CPRs\, starting with Yonette Lewis\, one of CPRs about Harlem Independent Living Center\, a disability-focused organization that advocates for community change and empowers people to be independent. This organization is community based\, non-residential\, non-medical\, peer approach to services while their programs and services encompasses benefits advisements and advocacy\, youth services\, deaf/hard of hearing services\, and transitional support. The Transitional Support Program included housing services for mentally ill or substance abusers (HRA 2010e) and medicaid enrollment assistance\, and finding an accessible home in the community\, according to her.  \nThe second CPR presentation is delivered by Angela Dews\, Political Retiree\, Journalist\, Novelist\, Environmental Activist. Sharing her personal narrative to age in Harlem\, she mentioned that landmarks have changed overtime\, being hard to navigate home. Concerning what seniors need to step out of isolation\, she raised six elements – “accessibility\,” “bike lanes and bus lanes\,” and “curb nuts and ramp bumps\,” “park safety\,” “preservation\,” “utilities.”  \nAnother CPR\, Gus Chalkias\, Coordinator\, Computer Center for Visually Impaired People\, gave a final presentation of this session. Starting with his feeling of his isolation as a blind person\, feeling alone in a crowd\, avoided when walking with a cane or ignored\, he has worked with Helen Keller Services for the blind\, which teaches people how to use technology in their day to day lives as well as professional education at NYU for engineering students about assistive technology.  He introduced some accessibility including accessibility tools in iPhone which can do voiceover to read what is on the screen and flick through the apps systematically\, “Seeing AI” app which reads printed material and paper money\, and “Be my eyes” which can take a picture and use AI to describe what’s in the room. He concluded his presentation with the message that those tools should be also available on the street to everyone.  \nThe session then moved to the break-out groups discussion. There were several learnings shared by CPRs such as the importance of inclusivity with aging in place and proactive approach to landscape and spending\, and the need of blind accessible technology.  \nCPR workshops are invite-only. If you are interested in attending a workshop or learning more about CS3’s community engagement process\, please contact our team at streetscapes@columbia.edu.
URL:https://cs3-erc.org/event/community-partners-in-residence-cpr-program-meeting-11/
LOCATION:Harlem\, NY\, United States
CATEGORIES:Community
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://cs3-erc.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/PXL_20240514_2250350742-scaled.jpg
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20240507T180000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20240507T200000
DTSTAMP:20260418T111135
CREATED:20241210T224251Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20241210T224251Z
UID:4142-1715104800-1715112000@cs3-erc.org
SUMMARY:Community Partners in Residence (CPR) Program - Meeting 10
DESCRIPTION:On Tuesday\, May 7\, 2024\, the NSF Center for Smart StreetScapes (CS3) held its tenth Community Partners in Residence (CPR) Program workshop. The session was moderated by Barbara Askins and would include presentations from James Gunn\, Technical Project Manager of NYC Office of Public Safety\, and Seth Contreras\, Policy Advisor for Innovation of NYC Department of Transportation. The workshop would again include input from CPRs – Maxine Gillies\, Lead Career Coach at STRIVE and Cicely Harris\, Chair of Community Board 10 would highlight their community work.   \nAfter opening remarks by Barbara Askins\, James Gunn began the workshop with an introduction of the mission of NYC Office of Public Safety (OPS)\, emphasizing the statement that “public safety is a prerequisite to our prosperity.” OPS is led by Phil Banks\, and its staff serve as strategic advisors to the police department. The office also supports various agencies\, such as the FDNY\, Office of Criminal Justice to proactively address the safety concerns as is illustrated in the three pilot projects he would go on to highlight. FUSUS facilitates small businesses and retail outlets to voluntarily opt in to share their security camera video feeds with the NYPD\, giving local precincts real-time access as another layer of crime prevention and safety in stores. ONCAM provides video management software offering 360-degree viewing for investigations at a cheaper price. Additionally\, NYC BE SAFE aims to alter the current negative public perception on safety despite the decreasing trends in crime by introducing innovative approaches and resources in public safety. \nThe second government agency presentation was delivered by Seth Contreras\, providing an overview of the  responsibility of NYC Department of Transportation\, which includes managing streets\, sidewalks\, bridges\, bike routes\, and more\, with its $1 billion budget and $20 billion capital program. He highlighted initiatives aimed at improving pedestrian safety and connectivity\, such as median and curb extensions\, and transit signal priority at intersections for bus drivers\, which lengthens the green light and shortens the red\, resulting in improved route speeds and safety throughout NYC’s 2 thousand intersections. The department is also piloting innovative programs like Smart Curbs involving various technologies to manage freight access\, parking\, and micro hubs. Additionally\, the department is planning e-bike battery charging pilots to offer outdoor battery charging technology for delivery workers and ebike users since the city had previously banned e-bikes\, which resulted in an influx of underground sales of poorly made and dangerous products. \nFollowing the series of presentations by the city government\, CPR\, Maxine Gillies presented on the work STRIVE does to build professional skills and empower individuals for career success since its founding in 1984 in East Harlem. Offering comprehensive job readiness training including its digital skills\, coaching\, and placement services primarily within the construction and healthcare sectors\, STRIVE caters to diverse populations including recent immigrants\, returning citizens and homeless individuals\, as well as youth. In fact\, Maxine was introduced to STRIVE as a recent immigrant and after going through their program\, was later recruited as an employee.  With 14 sites across various locations\, She concluded her presentation by mentioning that CS3 could help STRIVE to reimagine its service delivery by integrating more technology into its educational programs\, and offering new tech internship and industry partnership opportunities for STRIVE to offer its clients.  \nThe final presentation was made by CPR Cicely Harris\, Chair of Community Board 10.  Cicely introduced highlights of its central Harlem neighborhood including the 125th Street BID\, Apollo Theater\, and two historic districts with demographics of a fairly high educational attainment but also a higher unemployment rate compared to Manhattan and the rest of NYC. The main concerns of this community as noted in their annual District Needs Assessment included housing\, crime & public safety\, and health and human services. She concluded her presentation with suggestions about how CS3 could help these issues\, including technology that promotes safety and security but also identity protection\, and providing the community’s youth population with paid tech internships and inclusion in these types of roundtable discussions.  \nAfter the presentations\, the session moved to the break-out groups discussion. CPRs shared their learnings\, which included a similarity of concerns represented in community district needs across all the community boards\, a discussion on the impact and risk of technology to quality of life\, and the potential of some of the city government pilot programs presented – ie\, pedestrian safety\, sanitation\, flooding issues\, and trash monitoring. They also suggested that city agencies collaborate more when it comes to using/sharing technology\, installing e-bike chargers at gas stations\, and reassessing the viability of bike paths.   \nCPR workshops are invite-only. If you are interested in attending a workshop or learning more about CS3’s community engagement process\, please contact our team at streetscapes@columbia.edu.
URL:https://cs3-erc.org/event/community-partners-in-residence-cpr-program-meeting-10/
LOCATION:Harlem\, NY\, United States
CATEGORIES:Community
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END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20240419T120000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20240419T130000
DTSTAMP:20260418T111135
CREATED:20241211T162741Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20241211T162741Z
UID:4194-1713528000-1713531600@cs3-erc.org
SUMMARY:CS3 Monthly Research Exchange
DESCRIPTION:At each CS3 Monthly Research Exchange\, faculty and student researchers in the field of smart urban planning will take the stage to share their latest findings\, breakthroughs\, and urban projects. \nJoseph Fioresi\, Ph.D. Student at the University of Central Florida \n\nJoe is a 2nd year Ph.D. student at the University of Central Florida (UCF) studying Computer Vision under Dr. Mubarak Shah. His main focus is on video understanding tasks\, with an emphasis on learning useful representations under privacy and fairness constraints. He currently serves as the UCF representative on the CS3 Student Leadership Council.\nPresentation Abstract: Exploring various forms of bias and privacy concerns in video-level computer vision tasks\, proposing methods to reduce the problematic biases and private information usage.\n\nCaspar Lant\, Ph.D. Student at Columbia University \n\nCaspar is a second-year PhD student at CS3 under PI Henning Schulzrinne. Before coming to Columbia\, Caspar was a Fulbright fellow in Taiwan working on distributed environmental sensor systems. Caspar’s research interests include urban data\, machine learning\, and networking.\nPresentation Abstract: As the roadway becomes increasingly networked with the emergence of autonomous and electric vehicles\, intersection scheduling will move from study-based estimates of traffic conditions to real-time queuing problems with complete information. So far\, pedestrians (lacking built-in network hardware of their own) are excluded from this development. Caspar will present a transformer-based approach to predicting pedestrian behavior at intersections using GPS data.\n\nThe CS3 Monthly Research Exchanges are internal and open only to CS3 affiliated students\, faculty\, and staff. If you are interested in learning more about the research happening at CS3\, please contact our team at streetscapes@columbia.edu.
URL:https://cs3-erc.org/event/cs3-monthly-research-exchange-7/
LOCATION:Hybrid
CATEGORIES:SLC
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/png:https://cs3-erc.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/4.19.24-CS3-Monthly-Research-Exchange-1.png
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20240416T080000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20240416T170000
DTSTAMP:20260418T111135
CREATED:20241127T144407Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20241211T165326Z
UID:1265-1713254400-1713286800@cs3-erc.org
SUMMARY:CS3 Innovation Summit 2024
DESCRIPTION:Agenda \n\nKeynote Address and “Fireside Chat” (9:15 AM – 10:00 AM) watch recording\nPanel: Privacy & Security in Smart Streetscape Technology (10:00 AM – 10:45 AM) watch recording: Rachel Cummings\, Data Privacy Researcher at Columbia University and Sal Stolfo\, Machine Learning & Security Researcher at Columbia University\, will discuss translating data privacy and security research into accepted standards and policy with Kenji Yoshihira\, Director of US Ecosystem Innovation at NEC Laboratories America\, Inc and Ruben Beltran\, Chief of Information Technology\, NYPD.\nStudent Pitch Session 1 (11:05 AM – 11:25 AM)\nState-of-the-Art Lightning Talks: Applications\, Computer Vision\, Digital Twins\, & Testbed Infrastructure (11:25 AM – 12:25 PM) watch recording: Smart streetscape applications with Brian Smith\, Director of the Computer-Enabled Abilities Laboratory (CEAL) at Columbia University; Computer vision with Carl Vondrick\, Computer Vision and Machine Learning Researcher at Columbia University; Digital twins with Sharon Di\, Travel Behavior & Transportation Systems Researcher at Columbia University; and testbed infrastructure from Jason Hallstrom\, CS3 Deputy Director and Chief Research Officer at Florida Atlantic University.\nAccelerator Demo Day (1:25 PM – 2:55 PM)\nStudent Pitch Session 2 (3:15 PM – 3:35 PM)\nPanel: How Urban Testbeds Drive Innovation (3:35 PM – 4:20 PM) watch recording: CS3 Director & Principal Investigator\, Andrew Smyth\, will discuss urban testbeds as drivers for community engagement and co-design with Barbara Askins\, President & CEO of 125th Street Business Improvement District in Upper Manhattan (Harlem)\, New York City\, Christopher Roog\, Executive Director of the Community Redevelopment Agency for the City of West Palm Beach\, Florida\, Paul Rothman Director\, Smart Cities + IoT @ NYC Office of Technology and Innovation and William Kenworthey\, Principal & Regional Leader of Planning & Urban Design\, HOK.\nIndustry Advisory Board Reception & Meeting
URL:https://cs3-erc.org/event/cs3-innovation-summit-2024/
LOCATION:Center for Smart Streetscapes\, 2276 12th Ave\, New York\, NY\, 10027\, United States
CATEGORIES:Community,Public Sector
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END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20240402T180000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20240402T200000
DTSTAMP:20260418T111135
CREATED:20241210T223347Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20241210T223347Z
UID:4132-1712080800-1712088000@cs3-erc.org
SUMMARY:Community Partners in Residence (CPR) Program - Meeting 9
DESCRIPTION:On Tuesday\, April 2\, 2024\, the NSF Center for Smart StreetScapes (CS3) held its ninth Community Partners in Residence (CPR) Program workshop. The session was moderated by Barbara Askins. The focus of this week’s workshop continued to include input from the CPRs to highlight their work in the Harlem community. Presentations given by Jessica Elliott\, the Vice Chair of Manhattan Community Board 11\, Walter Alexander\, member of Manhattan Community Board 9\, and Dr. Lena Green\, Executive Director of HOPE Center in First Corinthian Baptist Church. \nAfter opening remarks by Barbara Askins\, Jessica Elliott introduced the region serviced by Manhattan Community Board 11. CB11M encompasses East Harlem\, including areas north of 96th Street and east of 5th Avenue\, broken up into eleven sections/committees. Section meetings are held monthly\, and the Board also convenes Board-wide meetings. Buildings in the area generally consist of residential units stacked upon retail storefronts\, and despite ongoing projects\, such as the development of a “green street” for water retention and shoring up the riverside area for protection against rising sea levels\, the community is generally dissatisfied. Because of this\, the entirely volunteer-run Community Board would like to see greater collaboration between the various districts\, stakeholders\, and the broader community to better address issues faced by the East Harlem area. One step the Board has taken is to field a community feedback survey\, which revealed that the majority of complaints involved public safety\, land use\, and human services. Using these results\, the Board has already taken steps to create programs to address major community concerns\, such as producing the East Harlem Earth Day Conference with hopes to raise awareness for environmental justice causes and create a “cascade effect” to more broadly improve the quality of life in the region. The 2nd Annual Earth Day event would take place in a few weeks at the Museum of the City of NY and everyone in the room was invited. \nThe second presentation of the evening was delivered by Walter Alexander\, a member of Manhattan Community Board 9. MCB9 encompasses the area north of 110th Street and west of Morningside Park. Of note regarding the population are the facts that 43.9% are educated\, 11.5% are over 65 years of age\, 3.8% are unemployed\, and 20.2% are impoverished. Similarly to CB11M\, MCB9 consists of committee sections\, which also include three task forces\, and monthly meetings held by all the sections. The three neighborhood districts are Hamilton Heights\, Manhattanville\, and Morningside Heights\, and each district hosts a variety of community events. Currently\, one project the Community Board is attempting to address is the renovation of the RKO Hamilton Heights Theater\, which has fallen into disrepair and remained derelict for some time. Walter discussed his personal connection to the theater\, in addition to stating that consultation with engineering students from the City College and Columbia University has begun. Walter also made a point to discuss the issues senior citizens face concerning technology accessibility\, both in terms of lacking availability of free wi-fi and tech products\, along with gaining an ease of use. In addition\, the health center at 125th Street and Amsterdam has been slated for demolition without the expressed consent of the people living in the area. The relocation of services to a nearby area would be very unfortunate\, but a reasonable consolation. \nFor the final CPR presentation of the evening\, Dr. Lena Green\, Executive Director of The HOPE Center Harlem\, introduced her organization and its goals. The HOPE Center is a first-of-its-kind mental health center operating within a church – First Corinthian Baptist Church. It offers a breadth of programs that assist the local community\, including church-based counseling\, an in-house clinician\, and initiatives to address stigma surrounding mental health and personal betterment. The Center operates on a cyclical model of engagement\, involving surveys\, assessments\, and community feedback. To-date the Center’s impact includes a successful suicide prevention program for Latino students sponsored by NIKE and “Snapshot\,” a photography program for storytelling in partnership with JHP. Their current challenges include further addressing stigma\, housing insecurity\, undocumented population members\, business impact\, substance abuse\, and access to funding. Ideally\, The HOPE Center would like to see more tech integration in the form of 24 hour availability for things like suicide prevention chat services\, safety devices\, and translation services. Additionally\, Dr. Green expressed concerns regarding the regulation and ownership of data and privacy. \nFollowing the series of CPR presentations\, Prof. Brian Smith\, Assistant Professor of Computer Science at Columbia University and CS3 Researcher (and frequent attendee at these CPR Workshops)\, provided a brief update on the state of his research. Incorporating direct feedback received during CPR Workshop sessions\, Brian put forth the contents of a paper draft which would use AR technology to enhance the history of Harlem with a variety of education opportunities. Namely\, he and his students have been working on ideas to use QR codes on landmarked buildings\, providing people with snapshots of that building throughout time and annotating them on a map. As well as the option to indicate buildings that once stood in spots on a map/grid that were historically important but may no longer be standing in modern times. They have also been exploring the possibility of taking photos of buildings in order to animate them or show which shops they contain\, inspired by examples of “talking” paintings. He concluded his presentation by reminding the audience of the importance of their contributions to CS3’s mission and asked for ideas regarding how CS3 could help better shape the conversation surrounding emerging AI technologies and their applications. \nIn the ensuing discussion\, the CPRs warmly encouraged Brian and other CS3 researchers to openly acknowledge their conversations with Harlem community members\, especially given their previous hesitation to be engaged in such interactive dialog. They also suggested that actual imagery of Harlem be included in the research paper\, which would better attach it to each location. The CPRs also agreed that they would be willing to branch out into the community and get more feedback; their unique position allows them to serve as credible messengers between the researchers and the broader Harlem community. Researchers were encouraged to come to CPRs’ organizations and talk to staff and constituents directly\, as well. CPRs were likewise suggested to visit certain labs\, with Brian offering the opportunity to tour his lab. The final concern of the evening before adjournment was that it would be generally valuable if more CS3 researchers would accept the invitations to attend these CPR workshop sessions to engage with the community as Brian has demonstrated his commitment to do. \nCPR workshops are invite-only. If you are interested in attending a workshop or learning more about CS3’s community engagement process\, please contact our team at streetscapes@columbia.edu.
URL:https://cs3-erc.org/event/community-partners-in-residence-cpr-program-meeting-9/
LOCATION:Harlem\, NY\, United States
CATEGORIES:Community
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://cs3-erc.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/PXL_20240124_0008250262-scaled.jpg
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20240322T120000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20240322T130000
DTSTAMP:20260418T111135
CREATED:20241211T162520Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20241211T162520Z
UID:4188-1711108800-1711112400@cs3-erc.org
SUMMARY:CS3 Monthly Research Exchange
DESCRIPTION:At each CS3 Monthly Research Exchange\, faculty and student researchers in the field of smart urban planning will take the stage to share their latest findings\, breakthroughs\, and urban projects. \nGaurav Jain\, Ph.D. Student at Columbia University \n\nGaurav Jain is a Ph.D. candidate in the computer science department at Columbia University\, advised by Prof. Brian A. Smith in the Computer-Enabled Abilities Lab (CEAL). His research lies at the intersection of Human-Computer Interaction\, Computer Vision\, and Accessibility. Gaurav’s work focuses on developing AI-driven interactive systems that augment blind and low-vision people’s access to visual experiences. He has developed systems that embed AI within street intersections for independent and safe outdoor navigation for blind pedestrians. Gaurav’s work also introduces new approaches for navigation assistance\, studying how technology can enable blind people to explore unfamiliar environments. Additionally\, he has contributed to digital media accessibility\, developing systems that generate audio representations for sports broadcasts\, enabling blind viewers to visualize the action by themselves.\nPresentation Abstract: Leveraging street cameras to support precise outdoor navigation for blind pedestrians.\n\nAlon S. Levin\, Ph.D. Student at Columbia University \n\nAlon S. Levin received a B.Eng. in Electrical Engineering (magna cum laude) in 2020 and a M.Eng. in Electrical Engineering in 2021\, both from The Cooper Union. His research interests are in full-duplex wireless\, compressed sensing\, PHY layer algorithms\, and cognitive radio.\nPresentation Abstract: We present a set of experiments utilizing wideband real-time adaptive full-duplex (FD) radios\, demonstrating simultaneous transmission and reception on the same frequency channel. Each FD radio consists of a paired antenna interface\, a switched-capacitor delay-line-based configurable Radio-Frequency Integrated Circuit (RFIC) that implements Self-Interference Cancellation (SIC)\, an FPGA that optimizes the RFIC configuration in under 1.1 seconds and can adapt to environmental changes in under 0.3 seconds\, and a Software-Defined Radio (SDR) transmitting OFDM-like packets. We demonstrate a real-time adaptive FD radio that achieves the SIC necessary to reach the noise floor across a wide bandwidth of 100 MHz\, enabling a FD wireless communication link.\n\nThe CS3 Monthly Research Exchanges are internal and open only to CS3 affiliated students\, faculty\, and staff. If you are interested in learning more about the research happening at CS3\, please contact our team at streetscapes@columbia.edu.
URL:https://cs3-erc.org/event/cs3-monthly-research-exchange-6/
LOCATION:Hybrid
CATEGORIES:SLC
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/png:https://cs3-erc.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/3.22.24-CS3-Monthly-Research-Exchange.png
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20240319T180000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20240319T200000
DTSTAMP:20260418T111135
CREATED:20241210T220104Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20241210T225820Z
UID:4119-1710871200-1710878400@cs3-erc.org
SUMMARY:Community Partners in Residence (CPR) Program - Meeting 8
DESCRIPTION:On Tuesday\, March 19\, 2024\, the NSF Center for Smart StreetScapes (CS3) held its eighth Community Partners in Residence (CPR) Program workshop. The session was moderated by Ester Fuchs. The focus of this workshop was to “flip the script” of session flow by having CPRs begin to present the focus areas of the work they do in the Harlem community as well as their perspectives on where there may be opportunities for improvements through tech. The session’s presentations highlighted the work of Curtis Archer\, the President of the Harlem Community Development Corporation (HCDC) as well as Janet Rodriguez\, Founder and CEO of SoHarlem after opening remarks by Ester Fuchs. \nCurtis Archer\, President of HCDC opened with a description of the mission\, vision\, and overarching goals of HCDC. He emphasized the scope of HCDC being an agency that is tasked with strengthening the Upper Manhattan communities through effective and accessible community revitalization programs and initiatives focusing on small business services\, community development\, and weatherization. A subsidiary of New York State’s Empire State Development\, HCDC is responsible for the areas including East Harlem\, Central Harlem\, West Harlem\, and Washington Heights and has a broad influence across the community. Curtis highlighted the work of the agency in helping to support small businesses through webinars\, certification assistance as well as financial and technical trainings. Further\, economic development initiatives include the Community and Economic Revitalization Support Program (CERSP) which provides grant funding in support of projects and programs including tourism\, direct community services and economic development\, and minority & women-owned business support . The grants range from twenty-five to forty thousand dollars and beyond depending on the size of the recipient organization and were in part established as give-backs through contributions from Columbia University during their expansion into Manhattanville. In 2023\, the CERSP program received numerous applications and approved over $707\,747 in grant funding. \nCurtis also detailed the influence of the corporation\, both historically and currently\, in real estate development such as the recent renovation and grand opening of the Victoria Theater on 125th Street\, which is owned by HCDC. Of late\, HCDC has been focused on providing heating and cooling conversion help for low to moderate income families through new appliances\, insulation\, lighting\, heaters\, etc. Beyond weatherization there are also efforts\, building on the previous history of real estate development by the corporation\, to convert more properties into affordable housing or new office space. It was noted that HCDC’s recent focus has shifted heavily towards supporting small businesses and developing the local economy. When asked about the future and impact of technology in this space\, he was quick to note that the impact of Artificial Intelligence (AI) is one that is of particular interest to HCDC and local small businesses. He’s excited about the possibilities that AI can provide to small businesses and looks forward to further connections between the research community and all the businesses in which HCDC holds interest\, such as the new Victoria Theater. \nFollowing Curtis Archer’s presentation was a discussion by Janet Rodriguez\, the Founder and CEO of SoHarlem\, which is a 501c3 organization she founded in 2011 with a focus on creating equitable opportunities for community members working at the intersection of the arts and economic development inits surrounding communities of Central Harlem\, West Harlem\, Washington Heights\, and the South Bronx\, . The organization serves as an incubator for creative entrepreneurs by providing affordable spaces and access to the necessary equipment for artists particularly those in the fashion industry. Beyond helping to develop the next generation of fashion brands\, SoHarlem offers apprenticeships\, skill-based workshops for underemployed community members\, and external community engagement through pop-up events and local shopping opportunities. Janet’s hope is that the CS3 program and technology in general can help to increase visibility and awareness of SoHarlem in the community. In particular\, an ability to generate greater awareness of SoHarlem’s program outside of its building\, where it is not at the street level but on the third floor\, will encourage more community members – especially those with disabilities- to find their way in and participate in all the available programming. \nCore programs of SoHarlem include the aforementioned entrepreneurial incubation program\, which provides local designers with space to practice and develop their craft; and the Designer Apprenticeship Program\, which gives individuals the resources they need to break into the fashion industry and build careers. SoHarlem also offers a Creative Economy Training Institute\, which seeks to teach unemployed and underemployed Harlem residents new\, marketable sewing skills and place them in jobs locally. Aside from these core programs\, SoHarlem also participates in public art programs\, including a joint mural project which involved a local church and artist Manu Vega\, a “Street Park Rangers” program which seeks to educate children on the importance of environmental health and caring for street tree installations\, and some art programs such as a cultural tourism program with expert guidance and a partner curriculum\, as well as programs for previously incarcerated women. SoHarlem has also experimented with entering the retail space\, conducting a 4-month-long experimental showroom in the Malt House building next door. It was noted that spreading awareness for the program on the street level has been challenging due to the obscured nature of being housed on an upper floor. Currently\, SoHarlem also operates a small retail shop for individual shoppers within its incubation space called Shop SoHarlem. Janet emphasized that all of these programs aim to more deeply connect SoHarlem as an integrated resource for a variety of the many needs within its service area which is vital to its mission\, as opposed to allowing the organization to simply become an arts organization which is somewhat insulated in its purpose. SoHarlem’s successes are demonstrated by the roster of successful artists affiliated with the incubator\, including Gladys Perez\, Blue Olive\, Valerie Deas\, and Milan. Results from regular SoHarlem impact surveys also suggest that the organization is perceived to have helped the community greatly with its opportunities in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. This is despite SoHarlem’s relatively constrained budget of <$1M per year. \nUpon conclusion of both Curtis and Janet’s presentations\, the CPRs dispersed into break-out sessions with CS3 researchers and staff in the room all participating in this session. Many CPRs agreed with Janet’s assessment that visibility and awareness for businesses suffer if they are not located directly at the street level. Which calls for a need for all buildings that house businesses above street-level and that provide accessibility features\, to increase their promotional efforts to any pedestrians who may want to enter if only they were aware of all that was inside. To this end\, some suggested the implementation of more digital signage and informative mobile applications. In addition\, some suggested that they would all benefit from sharing information about their individual organizations and companies between each other. \nThe next presentation was delivered by Cristian Capotescu\, Associate Director of The Trust Collaboratory at Columbia University and CS3 affiliate. He presented on the MyStreetScapes Summer Research Institute for High School Seniors\, a summer program launched by CS3’s public interest technology thrust. Students who participate are trained in the social sciences and work hand-in-hand with CS3 engineers in new technologies. They also participate in the development of a neighborhood survey and report on interactions between technology and the citizens of West Harlem. As of the time of this presentation\, the program was recruiting for its second summer cohort seeking a maximum of 15 students. Local high school students\, with a preference for those in Harlem schools\, were encouraged to apply. The CPRs were immediately receptive to the idea\, suggesting improvements such as having the students visit places further out in Harlem’s footprint and having them encounter some of the more pressing community issues beyond West Harlem\, as long as logistics could permit. CPRs also suggested that the students should also join community board meetings as part of their education\, to which Cristian responded enthusiastically. CPRs agreed to assist in sharing the information with their networks. \nFernanda Martinez\, Workforce Development Manager at CS3\, delivered the final presentation of the session. The CS3 Research Experience for Teachers (RET) is a paid summer research experience for K-12 STEM teachers who work in NYC. The goal is to help these teachers learn the fundamentals of technology with a streetscape focus\, learn more about culturally inclusive pedagogy\, and to allow teachers to bring new knowledge back to their students\, often in the form of a lesson plan. Eligibility extends to math- or science-certified US citizens or permanent residents teaching at public middle or high schools in NYC\, with a particular preference for teachers in the Harlem area. Again\, CPRs were immediately receptive to the idea\, and agreed to share this information with their networks. Two new CPR presenters were selected to present at the next meeting\, and the session adjourned. \nCPR workshops are invite-only. If you are interested in attending a workshop or learning more about CS3’s community engagement process\, please contact our team at streetscapes@columbia.edu.
URL:https://cs3-erc.org/event/community-partners-in-residence-cpr-program-meeting-8/
LOCATION:Harlem\, NY\, United States
CATEGORIES:Community
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://cs3-erc.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/PXL_20240124_004437512-scaled.jpg
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20240305T180000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20240305T200000
DTSTAMP:20260418T111135
CREATED:20241210T201223Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20241210T201223Z
UID:4091-1709661600-1709668800@cs3-erc.org
SUMMARY:Community Partners in Residence (CPR) Program - Meeting 7
DESCRIPTION:On Tuesday\, March 5\, 2024\, the NSF Center for Smart StreetScapes (CS3) held its seventh Community Partners in Residence (CPR) Program workshop. The session was convened and led by Barbara Askins\, president & CEO\, 125th Street BID and Senior Advisor to CS3. The focus of this week’s workshop was on using AI-enabled systems to monitor and warn residents of environmental issues such as urban flooding. In a change of format\, the latter half of the workshop was dedicated to presenting the needs of a CPR-associated organization\, the 125th Street BID. \nAfter opening remarks by Barbara Askins\, Marco Tedesco\, Professor of Columbia University\, Climate Impact LLC\, and CS3 Researcher\, presented on flooding response using cameras and AI with a focus on developing a community-based approach. Prof. Tedesco began the presentation by establishing the importance of flood preparedness within the United States and globally\, flooding is the most costly climate-related disaster by human lives claimed and economic damage. He emphasized the dangers posed by flooding in an urban setting\, making a point to mention that mud and debris can mix into the water to make a flood more hazardous. However\, he pointed out the fact that those most slowly evacuated\, tend to be the most socially vulnerable due to a lack of resources and organizational incentive. While satellites and computer models are not optimal for capturing urban flooding at the scales needed for early warning and post-disaster management\, clouds can blind satellites\, models require a lot of data to construct. After explaining about these backgrounds\, he raised a question: why is it important to collect data on urban flooding? He posited that it aids in the development of early warning systems\, enables more accurate post-damage estimates (e.g.\, by helping inform parametric insurance policies\,) helps delegate resources via more effective policy making. Also\, data collection helps track the emergence of certain health-related issues and document the resilience of individual communities. In particular\, the ubiquity of cameras\, whose numbers are increasingly used on the streetscape with approximately 70M in use as of 2018\, can be leveraged to collect data and monitor flooding. Marco introduced an AI-based flood monitoring system which detects flooding and measures water levels using camera feeds so this can be used to monitor which areas and MTA stations suffer from flooding most often\, and to which degree of severity. He concluded his presentation by highlighting the importance of educating communities on the dangers of flooding. \nFollowing Professor Marco’s presentation\, CPRs engaged in a discussion about the potential for this technology and its applications within the Harlem streetscape. Topics included coping with rising sea levels\, interior drainage projects\, and the increasing resilience of certain communities post-Hurricane Sandy. The CPRs also touched on the urgent need to improve public education surrounding flood preparedness and the environmental dangers of storm water runoff. \nCPRs proceeded to breakout sessions and discussed the contents of Prof. Tedesco’s presentation. Many participants commented on their newfound awareness of the frequency and severity of flooding\, particularly within the New York City area. Several seemed excited regarding AI systems for tracking flooding\, and there was common agreement that people\, particularly those in vulnerable communities\, should be prepared or made aware about the dangers that flooding poses. Some suggested issues that could be solved using the technology presented – enhancing awareness of flooding\, determining where greenspaces should be built to hold and clean water runoff\, and marking out the best locations to designate as evacuation centers in the event of a major flood. There was a pervasive sentiment that more funding and expertise should generally be dedicated to an issue as pressing as flooding. \nFinal remarks delivered by Prof. Tedesco made note of issues with using commercial cubesats for urban flood detection\, as well as the development of auditory notification systems to assist people with vision impairments become aware of ongoing flood events. He concluded with a friendly offer to lend his support for events to educate the public on the dangers of flooding. \nThe next presentation was delivered by Barbara Askins\, President and CEO of the 125th Street BID. Ms. Askins presented on the specific needs of the 125th Street BID and what the organization hopes to gain from the application of novel streetscape technology. Ideally\, the technology would “activate the streetscape\,” providing expanded opportunities for pedestrians and shoppers along the street’s business district to express themselves and become immersed in the area’s heritage. Now would be an especially appropriate time\, given the recent expansions of several retail drivers–namely Whole Foods and AMC Theaters–into the region. Efforts already underway include interactive “smart” trees\, adorned in lights and speakers\, which try to bring people out onto the streets at night as a deterrent to criminal activity. \nHowever\, several issues still plague the area and make drawing customers–in particular visiting customers–to the street difficult\, such as drug use and dealing\, unregulated street vending\, and vandalism. This leads into Ms. Askin’s main point: is there any technology that can help alleviate these problems or engage pedestrians and expand 125th Street’s entertainment and cultural impact? Digital signage could provide locations dedicated to pedestrian engagement\, and the aforementioned smart trees are undergoing modification to integrate internet-based interaction\, as well as methods to deter people from vandalizing them. \nA brief discussion amongst the CPRs followed the presentation. Suggestions to improve the situation on 125th Street included exploring ideas similar to a “window-swap” or “golden shipping container.” The former refers to a system of cameras connecting locations through the internet which allow visitors to see the alternate location’s streetscape\, while the latter is in reference to a program which sets up golden shipping containers with a screen and camera inside to show the view from a twinned container in another city elsewhere in the world and vice versa. \nThe workshop concluded with the selection of two new community presenters for the next meeting\, as well as a brief discussion on distribution of materials of the Accelerator program. \nCPR workshops are invite-only. If you are interested in attending a workshop or learning more about CS3’s community engagement process\, please contact our team at streetscapes@columbia.edu.
URL:https://cs3-erc.org/event/community-partners-in-residence-cpr-program-meeting-7/
LOCATION:Harlem\, NY\, United States
CATEGORIES:Community
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://cs3-erc.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/PXL_20231206_010010522-scaled.jpg
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20240220T180000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20240220T200000
DTSTAMP:20260418T111135
CREATED:20241210T191430Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20241210T191430Z
UID:4088-1708452000-1708459200@cs3-erc.org
SUMMARY:Community Partners in Residence (CPR) Program - Meeting 6
DESCRIPTION:On Tuesday\, February 20\, 2024\, the NSF Center for Smart StreetScapes (CS3) held its sixth Community Partners in Residence (CPR) Program workshop. The session was convened and led again by Ester Fuchs\, Chief Social Impact Officer of the CS3 and Professor of International and Public Affairs and Political Science at Columbia University. The focus of this week’s workshop was on the subjects of public safety\, emergency response\, and individual privacy as it pertains to the deployment of streetscape technology. \nAfter opening remarks by Ester Fuchs\, Mubarak Shah\, Chair Professor in University of Central Florida\, Director at the Center for Research in Computer Vision\, Situational Awareness Research Lead\, CS3\, presented a summary of his research on the use of “computer vision situational awareness” in order to interpret and identify actions that occur in an image or a video. He discussed that the aim of classifying human actions can take several forms such as activity recognition\, that is\, classification of human actions and their application in the real world to situations\, and anomaly detection\, recognition when someone is behaving abnormally or an accident occurs. However\, he acknowledged that along with development of this technology are the twin drawbacks of privacy and bias; it’s important to protect the privacy of those being captured on camera as the majority of the time their actions are benign\, while the accuracy of an activity recognition program suffer from bias in its ability to identify certain actions based on the traits of the subjects in the video. Specifically\, bias is caused largely by the system learning false associations between subject attributes and behavior and could be combated by using more materials to better inform the program. Mubarak highlighted that the future direction of the team is to continue to work to resolve the issues of privacy and bias. \nFollowing Professor Mubarak’s presentation\, CPRs posed questions centered around the potential of computer vision situational awareness for public safety\, such as “What if we don’t want the identity of shoplifters to remain anonymous?” and “How does this converge with the law and help to combat recidivism?” He clarified that if there should be something where the police wanted the video\, it can be revealed\, ideally while the privacy of people who are not doing anything illegal is preserved. In response to concerns about malicious training data\, he explained that the idea of this research is to make systems more robust against these kinds of attacks by producing a system that looks at the activity of the individual and not the person’s physical characteristics. \nThe second presentation was delivered by Andrew Smyth\, Professor of Civil Engineering and Mechanics at Columbia University\, Principal Investigator & Chair of the CS3\, offering a use case from his prior work where additional camera technology and machine learning can be used to improve city services beyond the current capabilities. Initiated in 2021 as response times became increasingly slower\, his project aimed to optimize the FDNY EMS response operations using historical data from the 1.1 million hospital transport emergencies that occur per year. The typical decision for the dispatch is to send the patient to the nearest hospital based on location and issue as identified through “critical care codes” using a static computerized map\, while the location choices do not take into account traffic patterns or times of day/week. He demonstrated that new routing patterns developed using data analytics demonstrate a crucial one minute improvement to routing times\, though they are not currently being used by the city. Without having access to the Google Maps data\, having more accurate/real-time data through cameras would go a long way to advancing response times\, which ideally could operate streetlights or change traffic patterns to assist. Andrew concluded his presentation by introducing his second aspect of the project focusing on pandemic hospital load balancing where streetscapes camera data can be used to route patients to alternative hospitals when the nearest option is at-capacity. \nCPRs reacted to Andrew’s presentation with questions such as “How does level of trauma impact response times?” and “How do street alterations such as planters\, bike lanes\, etc. impact response times?“ He clarified that the ambulance will take different approaches to how they move on the street based on the level of care needed and that the more data there is the more it can accommodate changes to the street\, and we can collect some forms of data in real-time from Streetscape-level cameras. \nThe meeting then moved into breakout sessions\, where CPRs shared ideas\, feelings and questions about public safety\, emergency response\, and individual privacy. As for new learning from today’s presentations\, many showed their awareness of bias issues around computer vision applications and concerns about privacy when collecting data. Moving to the discussion to identify practical problems on the streetscapes that you think might be addressed through this kind of research\, there were many suggestions using real-time data from CPRs such as finding alternative routes for emergency vehicles and during festivals\, the most appropriate hospitals\, putting those ideas in application for consumer use. \nCPR workshops are invite-only. If you are interested in attending a workshop or learning more about CS3’s community engagement process\, please contact our team at streetscapes@columbia.edu.
URL:https://cs3-erc.org/event/community-partners-in-residence-cpr-program-meeting-6/
LOCATION:Harlem\, NY\, United States
CATEGORIES:Community
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://cs3-erc.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/PXL_20231206_0046224752-scaled.jpg
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20240216T120000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20240216T130000
DTSTAMP:20260418T111135
CREATED:20241211T162126Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20241211T162126Z
UID:4174-1708084800-1708088400@cs3-erc.org
SUMMARY:CS3 Monthly Research Exchange
DESCRIPTION:At each CS3 Monthly Research Exchange\, three faculty and student researchers in the field of smart urban planning will take the stage to share their latest findings\, breakthroughs\, and urban projects. \nSevin Mohammadi\, Ph.D. Student at Columbia University \n\nPresentation Abstract: Sevin will present her ongoing and completed research\, which converges to enhance urban mobility and operation by leveraging data and advanced machine learning techniques. The main focus of her presentation will be enhancing Emergency Medical Services response in urban environments through data-informed decision-making and policy optimization.\n\nAdditional presenters to be announced. \nThe CS3 Monthly Research Exchanges are internal and open only to CS3 affiliated students\, faculty\, and staff. If you are interested in learning more about the research happening at CS3\, please contact our team at streetscapes@columbia.edu.
URL:https://cs3-erc.org/event/cs3-monthly-research-exchange-5/
LOCATION:Hybrid
CATEGORIES:SLC
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/png:https://cs3-erc.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/2.16.23-TBA-CS3-Monthly-Research-Exchange-1.png
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20240206T180000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20240206T200000
DTSTAMP:20260418T111135
CREATED:20241210T190431Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20241210T190431Z
UID:4083-1707242400-1707249600@cs3-erc.org
SUMMARY:Community Partners in Residence (CPR) Program - Meeting 5
DESCRIPTION:On Tuesday\, February 6\, 2024\, the NSF Center for Smart StreetScapes (CS3) held its fifth Community Partners in Residence (CPR) Program workshop. The session was convened and led once again by Ester Fuchs\, Chief Social Impact Officer of the CS3 and Professor of International and Public Affairs and Political Science at Columbia University. The focus of this week’s workshop was on the subjects of security\, privacy\, and fairness as they pertain to emerging streetscape technology. \nRoxana Geambasu\, an assistant professor of computer science at Columbia University\, opened the session by addressing privacy\, fairness\, and transparency issues in streetscape technologies. She acknowledged the significant potential of these technologies but also highlighted risks such as compromised sensors\, potential hacker attacks\, and the misuse of city data. Geambasu proposed a comprehensive approach to enhance security\, privacy\, and fairness through community engagement\, emphasizing the need for a programming framework for future streetscape applications. \nThe presentation delved into the tradeoff between accuracy and privacy in real-time data feeding to streetscape applications\, introducing the concept of “anonymization” as the first level of data protection. This process involves edge computers for object detection and tracking\, providing real-time anonymized data to applications. Geambasu acknowledged the drawbacks of anonymization\, leading to the discussion of an advanced protection level that involves sharing noisy aggregates over the dataset instead of raw data. This method prevents accurate reconstruction of individual entries\, striking a balance between privacy and meaningful tradeoffs for streetscape applications. Geambasu concluded by emphasizing the crucial role of effective researcher-community engagement in navigating this tradeoff\, providing specific and actionable guidance. \nFollowing Prof. Geambasu’s presentation\, the floor was opened to the CPRs for questions. Participants seemed primarily concerned with the security and ownership of data\, with a majority of questions being devoted to ascertaining who would control the data generated by smart streetscape infrastructure\, as well as how demands to access the data by third parties would be handled. In addition\, CPRs floated questions regarding the anonymization of data and protection of individual privacy. Prof. Geambasu’s responses generally served to assure CPRs that data security and anonymization would occur as soon as possible within the pipeline\, minimizing risk for people being observed. CPRs were also informed of the existence of Columbia University’s independent internal review board for the project. \nThe second presentation by Salvatore Stolfo\, a computer science professor at Columbia University\, highlighted current security challenges\, including the risks associated with compromised IoT sensors and edge server hacking. He emphasized the need for policies and transparency in handling data collected by third parties and underscored the importance of further research on AI failures. The CPR survey results revealed concerns about data misuse\, particularly with companies\, and discomfort with technologies like facial recognition and AI. Stolfo also discussed the community’s interest in understanding how the technology is engaged with community application and how they can be abused. Stolfo emphasized the significance of finding the right tradeoff\, acknowledging the benefits of technology in preventing crimes and terrorist attacks. He presented ongoing research addressing the protection of physically deployed sensors and the overall system\, including centralized command and control for managing security technology and self-protecting streetscape security systems. Additionally\, he highlighted research efforts focused on AI failures and trustworthiness to enhance identity authentication\, scene analysis\, and situation awareness accuracy. \nAfter Prof. Stolfo’s presentation\, CPRs raised questions regarding the accuracy of facial recognition technology when used on people with darker skin and in a crowd setting\, as well as the identification of legitimate data. Their concerns were acknowledged\, with Prof. Stolfo reassuring the audience that facial recognition technology is rather robust in certain contexts. He admitted that there are ongoing difficulties in applying the technology to finding a subset of individuals within a set of many faces\, and also warned participants of the difficulties in discerning legitimate software from malicious imitations. He also acknowledged the possibility that a well-intentioned actor may accidentally cause harm to a system. \nThe meeting transitioned into breakout sessions\, where the groups of CPRs shared today’s insights facilitated by CS3 staff. A prevalent concern raised by the majority was the privacy risk associated with valuable data\, even if being anonymized. They expressed the need for a deeper understanding and discussion regarding the tradeoff between privacy and functionality of data. Facilitators initiated discussion on challenges of the streetscapes impacted by privacy security and transparency. In active discussions\, CPRs highlighted the demand for protective measures for physical technology\, transparency in politics and procedures\, and the trustworthiness of the systems. They emphasized the importance of decentralized control of data acquisition\, addressing environmental and contextual biases in facial recognition\, and mitigating the risk of hackers maliciously controlling streetscapes. Additionally\, there was a collective awareness of the significance of education required to find a balance between functionality and privacy\, with CPRs proposing discussion among community reporters on TV and at community board meetings to further address this issue. \nCPR workshops are invite-only. If you are interested in attending a workshop or learning more about CS3’s community engagement process\, please contact our team at streetscapes@columbia.edu.
URL:https://cs3-erc.org/event/community-partners-in-residence-cpr-program-meeting-5/
LOCATION:Harlem\, NY\, United States
CATEGORIES:Community
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://cs3-erc.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/PXL_20240207_001315288-scaled.jpg
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20240129T120000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20240129T130000
DTSTAMP:20260418T111135
CREATED:20241210T233131Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20241210T233131Z
UID:4164-1706529600-1706533200@cs3-erc.org
SUMMARY:CS3 Spring Welcome Session
DESCRIPTION:The Center for Smart Streetscapes (CS3) presents the Spring Welcome Session! We will be introducing the engineering research center’s goals and discussing the unique opportunity to engage with the Center for Smart Streetscapes\, its Student Leadership Council\, and upcoming events for the year. Lunch will be provided. \n\nStudents of all majors are welcome\nFaculty & Staff are encouraged to join\n\nIn-Person Locations: \n\nColumbia University\nLehman College\nFlorida Atlantic University\nUniversity of Central Florida
URL:https://cs3-erc.org/event/cs3-spring-welcome-session/
LOCATION:Hybrid
CATEGORIES:SLC
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/png:https://cs3-erc.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/Spring-Welcome-Session-2024-4.png
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20240123T180000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20240123T200000
DTSTAMP:20260418T111135
CREATED:20241210T181807Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20241210T182036Z
UID:4076-1706032800-1706040000@cs3-erc.org
SUMMARY:Community Partners in Residence (CPR) Program - Meeting 4
DESCRIPTION:On Tuesday\, January 23\, 2024\, the NSF Center for Smart StreetScapes (CS3) held its fourth Community Partners in Residence (CPR) Program workshop. The session was convened and led once again by Ester Fuchs\, Chief Social Impact Officer of the CS3 and Professor of International and Public Affairs and Political Science at Columbia University. Topics covered this week included applying modeling and simulation techniques to improving streetscape safety\, as well as expanding the opportunities for dialogue between community members and technologists to better guide the progress of the initiative. \nAfter opening remarks by Ester Fuchs\, Sharon Di\, an Associate Professor in Civil Engineering and Engineering Mechanics affiliated with Columbia University\, discussed the potential in improving urban traffic management systems using “digital twins” of locations within the city. Prof. Di began by discussing the state of current urban traffic management systems\, including an overview of conventional induction loop and camera-based approaches. Said conventional approaches are limited in precision and predictive ability. By comparison\, future approaches could include the use of a “digital twin:” a replica of a location of interest\, such as an intersection or subway station\, that has been virtually reconstructed. Objects detected in the real world could be brought into the simulation\, and their vectors of motion could be more accurately modeled and predicted. This has promising implications for accident avoidance and accessibility for impaired persons\, particularly when combined with low-latency compute technologies. \n“Digital twins” would also have applications in discovering new ways to improve the accessibility of city locations. They would allow the more precise study of mobility patterns within twinned locations\, providing crucial data for both urban planners and researchers involved in the development of assistive technologies. The technology involved in their creation could also help with modeling driving patterns\, allowing those displaying symptoms of dementia and similar disorders to be contacted and provided with appropriate care as soon as possible. These applications grow in importance as the average age of the New York City population continues to trend upwards. \nFurthermore\, “digital twins” could help protect the privacy of individuals benefiting from the technology\, as they could be produced using purely sensor-based implementations\, instead of relying on high-resolution camera captures. \nFollowing Professor Di’s presentation\, CPRs posed questions primarily focused on technological accuracy\, such as “How does this project consider animals and jaywalkers?” and “How will you address people illegally crossing the road?” It was clarified that the project exclusively focuses on humans\, and addressing specific cases poses an ongoing challenge\, balancing safety and efficiency. \nThe second presentation\, delivered by Brian Smith\, Associate Professor of Computer Science at Columbia University\, concerned itself less with any one particular technological innovation\, but rather focused on how to approach technology design\, and encouraged the CPRs to more deeply engage and exchange proactively with the technologists working on the CS3 project. This presentation broadly outlined the “Three Needs” of technology design: inclusion\, community\, and information. “Inclusion” includes ensuring the accessibility and useability of technology\, including providing real benefit to the people who interact with it. Relaying information from computers to people\, regardless of ability\, is an important aspect of this tenet. “Community” refers to the ability of technology to facilitate interpersonal interaction\, particularly in in-person settings. One example given was ongoing research into using augmented reality to move experiences along the streetscape into learning about historic locations. Another example included communal entertainment screens at city bus stop shelters. Finally\, “information” regarding some of the novel ways of moving information from computers to people in a more general sense than what was mentioned in “inclusion.” For instance\, using the LinkNYC kiosks\, city employees are able to relay information regarding weather\, history\, and community events in a highly localized fashion and in real time. \nFollowing the presentation\, CPRs inquired about the technical capability of detecting errant behavior\, including scenarios like a car swerving towards people. The researchers explained that the computers only detect behaviors that have come to be learned as errant. Regarding coordination with accessibility consultants and disabled individuals\, Prof Smith emphasized his history of working in close relationships with blind communities\, specifically\, where many tech opportunities exist to support individuals and communities with different lived experiences. \nThe meeting then moved into breakout sessions\, where CPRs shared ideas\, feelings and questions about technological advances in cities\, such as sensors and AR. They expressed the need for increased accessibility for the visually impaired\, flexibility\, and responsiveness to human needs\, and encouraged collaboration with tech engineers. As for practical problems on the streetscape that might be addressed through the presented research\, specific suggestions from CPRs focused on safety improvements\, including detecting and warning against oncoming poor/unsafe driving habits\, informing the public about street hazards\, and identifying areas for infrastructure improvement\, and a desire to see AR incorporated into Harlem’s cultural streetscape to specifically recall historical sites and figures that once existed throughout the neighborhood that should remain actively accessible via technology among the current streetscape so as never to be forgotten. \nCPR workshops are invite-only. If you are interested in attending a workshop or learning more about CS3’s community engagement process\, please contact our team at streetscapes@columbia.edu.
URL:https://cs3-erc.org/event/community-partners-in-residence-cpr-program-meeting-4/
LOCATION:Harlem\, NY\, United States
CATEGORIES:Community
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://cs3-erc.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/PXL_20231206_005208852-2-scaled.jpg
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20240116T180000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20240116T200000
DTSTAMP:20260418T111135
CREATED:20241210T175343Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20241210T175706Z
UID:4066-1705428000-1705435200@cs3-erc.org
SUMMARY:Community Partners in Residence (CPR) Program - Meeting 3
DESCRIPTION:On Tuesday\, January 16\, 2024\, the NSF Center for Smart StreetScapes (CS3) held its third Community Partners in Residence (CPR) Program workshop. This meeting was originally scheduled for January 9th\, but had to push to the next week due to a snowstorm in NYC on the 9th. \nOnce again convened and led by Ester Fuchs\, Chief Social Impact Officer of the CS3 and Professor of International and Public Affairs and Political Science at Columbia University\, the purpose of this workshop was how 5G bandwidth\, latency\, and density capabilities meet situational demands\, while protecting privacy and community trust; and Exploring next-generation wireless network design\, edge-cloud coordination\, and real-time optimization infrastructures. \nThe session began with a presentation by Jorge Oritz\, Assistant Professor of ECE at the Rutgers School of Engineering and Streetscape Apps Lead for CS3\, who overviewed the potential for a new generation of wireless communication technology to further CS3’s goals. He began by reiterating broad objectives of the project\, namely\, to improve the livability of Harlem as defined by the criteria of “safety” and “inclusivity.” “Safety” refers to the level of access residents have to critical services such as traffic monitoring and first response infrastructure\, while “inclusivity” encompasses the degree to which the streetscape can facilitate interactivity between its community members. He then continued to introduce the advantages of new 5G and Wi-edge computing systems\, as pertains to their applications in streetscape improvements. Firstly\, they allow for low-latency transmission and processing\, meaning deployed computer systems can communicate with each other more rapidly on-site. Secondly\, they may be used within a hyper-local scope\, such as a single intersection\, allowing for a notably higher degree of camera and sensor precision. These properties were then demonstrated via a video of a blind individual using a mobility assistance system to cross an intersection. In the video\, the subject gestured to the system before being directed using a personal navigation application. Cameras picking up the subject’s gesture were able to identify and subsequently allow the system to direct the person within a matter of seconds via an installed app on their phone. Concerns by CPRs regarding the potential vulnerability of someone visibly using the system and thereby marking his or herself as a target for bad actors were assuaged by being informed of a new model being developed so as to detect and identify individuals in need of assistance without any overtly visual cueing needed whatsoever. \nThe session then continued with a presentation by Gil Zussman\, Vice Chair of the Electrical Engineering Department at Columbia University and Wi-Edge Research Lead for CS3. Prof. Zussman focused on introducing the purpose and capabilities of the COSMOS test bed\, a section of Harlem between Columbia University and City College of New York’s campuses denoted by the FCC for wireless technology experimentation. He provided a brief overview of the various “nodes” being deployed for use in experiments\, including antennae deployed atop the roof of Columbia’s Mudd building on 120th Street and Amsterdam Avenue\, and other camera clusters across the COSMOS area. The purpose and intent of the COSMOS area is to be more of a testbed that provides capabilities to various researchers—remotely or otherwise—to run experiments using this new class of technology\, such as the aforementioned crosswalk demonstration. Importantly COSMOS itself is not designed to provide a solution to any one specific research question\, i.e. it does not serve as a public safety\, health\, or surveillance mechanism in and of itself. Aside from the main area\, COSMOS also includes small\, indoor systems within controlled settings that are similarly for-rent to researchers. The project also includes a K-12 education kit. \nThere were questions from the CPRs on how this project could work alongside the citizens on the streets within the COSMOS area\, given existing hostility towards telecom companies which have purchased rooftops for their own network infrastructure\, in addition to public concerns regarding the health and safety implications of 5G networking. Prof Zussman addressed these questions by assuring that any rooftops being used for this project are all already owned by Columbia (in part due to a lack of budget to purchase additional rooftop space)\, and that the wavelengths of light in question are generally safe for use in human-oriented contexts. The ubiquity of Wi-Fi and cell service demonstrates this. \nOnce presentations concluded\, the CPRs were given time to collaborate and reflect via breakout sessions & whiteboards facilitated by the CS3 CPR Comm Engagement staff. The CPRs then reconvened to report back to the room. Overall\, many expressed that they had learned much pertaining to how the technology could be used\, in no small part due to the videos\, examples\, and layman’s explanations provided during the presentations. They were also reassured by CS3’s intentions to explore similarly in international initiatives\, and by the fact that Columbia is collaborating with a number of universities on this project\, though it is still in its early stages. \nWith this in mind\, there were still several concerns left unaddressed. CPRs mentioned that educating the public on these types of technologies would be critical for their adoption as things stand. Questions on how the technology could be compromised\, either digitally or physically\, were also common amongst all 3 breakout groups. In addition\, they mentioned wanting to expand the use cases for edge computing and mm-wave enabled technologies to address public safety concerns\, such as cyclist-originating traffic incidents\, the need to create a true translational language for all of the science and tech for regular citizens to be able to fully understand\, and the need to bolster historical education efforts with the opportunity that AR presents\, given Harlem’s collective identity. There were also the expected information privacy concerns. \nThe workshop concluded with Prof. Fuchs informing everyone that a deck with a data sample from the pre-workshop survey that all CPRs completed prior to the start of these sessions would be shared and discussed in more detail at the next session. \nCPR workshops are invite-only. If you are interested in attending a workshop or learning more about CS3’s community engagement process\, please contact our team at streetscapes@columbia.edu.
URL:https://cs3-erc.org/event/community-partners-in-residence-cpr-program-meeting-3/
LOCATION:Harlem\, NY\, United States
CATEGORIES:Community
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://cs3-erc.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/PXL_20240116_232859067-scaled.jpg
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20231205T180000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20231205T200000
DTSTAMP:20260418T111135
CREATED:20241210T172959Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20241210T180313Z
UID:4058-1701799200-1701806400@cs3-erc.org
SUMMARY:Community Partners in Residence (CPR) Program - Meeting 2
DESCRIPTION:On Tuesday\, December 5\, 2023\, The NSF Center for Smart StreetScapes (CS3) held its second Community Partners in Residence (CPR) Program workshop. Ester Fuchs\, Chief Social Impact Officer of the CS3 and Professor of International and Public Affairs and Political Science at Columbia University convened the workshop and moderated the discussion. She opened the conversation with an overview of the role of CPRs at the Center and invited everyone to introduce themselves. Lynda Hamilton\, the CPR Community Engagement Manager organized the workshop and has been working closely with community partners to ensure that the CPR program has effective community representation. As a result\, since the first meeting\, the CPR list has grown to include 2 more members of the Harlem community. \nAfter introductions\, Andrew Smyth\, Center Director & Principal Investigator\, kicked off presentations by providing an overview of the research being conducted at the Center. He highlighted that the mission is to create livable\, safe\, and inclusive communities through real time\, hyper-local streetscape applications. As opposed to macro-level research\, the Center focuses on local level innovation built through partnerships to improve live on streetscape for all. There are five current focus areas including\, road safety\, public safety\, assistive technology\, the future of outdoor\nwork\, and hyper-local environmental sensing. The community engagement fostered within the CPR program will serve as the mechanism for inspiration to influence these focus areas. \nFollowing Andrew was a presentation by Jennifer Laird\, Assistant Professor in the Department of Sociology at Lehman College and Deputy Director of Inclusive Education. Jennifer outlined the workforce development and K-12 education programs that CS3 has developed including the Research Experience for Teachers (RET) program which gives local high school teachers the opportunity to do research over the summer and bring that experience back into the classroom during the school year. Additionally\, CS3’s My Streetscape Summer Research Institute gives local high school juniors and undergraduate students mentoring opportunities in engineering research as well as the social sciences by offering hands-on training in the lab and social science research in the community. Both programs offer participants a stipend as part of the process. CS3 hopes that the CPR program can facilitate recruitment for these programs from their networks\, fostering a virtuous\, and immediate\, cycle of impact. Registration and more information about opportunities found through these links: \nTeachers – https://cs3-erc.org/research-experience-for-teachers/\nHigh School Students – https://cs3-erc.org/my-streetscape-summer-research-institute/\nUndergrad Students – https://cs3-erc.org/research-experiences-for-undergraduates/ \nNext\, Sharon Sputz\, Industry Outreach Lead of CS3 and Executive Director of Strategic Programs at Columbia’s Data Science Institute provided background on CS3’s business partnerships\, the value it provides to CS3’s research\, and opportunities & memberships available for participants. \nLastly\, Barbara Askins\, President & CEO\, 125th Business Improvement District\, and Senior Advisor for CS3 offered an overview and goals of the partnership with the community. She emphasized the need to be able to educate the community\, bringing together the technology and the community. She also noted that there is immense potential for harnessing the energy of Harlem\, to think differently about how to engage with the community\, how to bring in their perspective\, and how to apply the technology to the real world. There are great opportunities to learn from both sides\, so the partnership isn’t just a one way street. Ideally\, by the end of the experience the researchers will be able to incorporate Harlem’s identity into the tech\, not just the tech into Harlem. \nAfter presentations concluded\, the CPRs had an opportunity to offer their own insights. First by filling out a one-page survey about what such a partnership might look like; and then by breaking into 3 groups of 4 people each to discuss what the program will have to do to ensure the partnership is impactful. From the breakout groups\, the insights were shared with the larger group. CPRs connected with one another\, offering perspectives from the slice of the community they represented and filled several white boards with ideas. The activity was insightful\, engaging\, and fun! Themes from the discussion that were shared by each group included: having a safe place to express fears and concern\, meeting the community where they are at\, listening and building trust\, transparency\, and developing ongoing communication. A deeper review of the ideas\, initial thoughts\, and hopes expressed by the CPRs in the survey will be conducted by the CS3 team and shared in a future meeting. \nCPR workshops are invite-only. If you are interested in attending a workshop or learning more about CS3’s community engagement process\, please contact our team at streetscapes@columbia.edu.
URL:https://cs3-erc.org/event/community-partners-in-residence-cpr-program-meeting-2/
LOCATION:Harlem\, NY\, United States
CATEGORIES:Community
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BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20231117T120000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20231117T130000
DTSTAMP:20260418T111135
CREATED:20241210T232729Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20241210T232729Z
UID:4161-1700222400-1700226000@cs3-erc.org
SUMMARY:CS3 Monthly Research Exchange
DESCRIPTION:At each CS3 Monthly Research Exchange\, three faculty and student researchers in the field of smart urban planning will take the stage to share their latest findings\, breakthroughs\, and urban projects. \nAriana Galindo\, Undergraduate Student at Florida Atlantic University \n\nPresentation Abstract: This project investigates the development of scalable data processing tools for large-scale spatiotemporal data.\n\nDimitris A. Pados\, Professor and I-SENSE Fellow at Florida Atlantic University \n\nPresentation Abstract: We examine the problem of dynamically optimizing arbitrary multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) wireless waveforms in potentially heavily utilized frequency bands with applications to near-field (or far-field) autonomous machine-to-machine communications. We look at the problem from the point of view of spectrum sharing and autonomous interference avoidance. In this context\, we seek the transmitter beam weight vector and the pulse code sequence that maximize the signal-to-interference-plus-noise ratio (SINR) at the output of the maximum SINR joint space-time receiver filter. We derive two novel model-based solutions: (a) Disjoint\, space first (transmit weight vector) then time (pulse code sequence) waveform optimization and (b) jointly optimal transmit weight vector and pulse code sequence optimization (a mixed integer programming problem.) The proposed formally derived algorithmic solutions are studied in extensive simulations under varying waveform code length\, near-field/far-field and spread-spectrum/non-spread-spectrum interference\, in light and dense interference scenarios. The findings highlight (a) the effectiveness of the described methods compared to static conventionally designed optimal-receiver MIMO links and (b) the remarkable ability of the joint space-time optimized waveforms to avoid heavy interference.\n\nNavid Salami Pargoo\, Ph.D. Student at Rutgers University \n\nPresentation Abstract: In this talk\, join me on a journey into transformative assistive technologies for the visually impaired\, crafting a synergy between interactive AI agents and the smart streetscape. Discover our innovative strides in machine learning\, deep learning\, computer vision\, and sensing\, forming the heartbeat of this human-centric AI agent. I will show how they harmoniously integrate into streetscapes\, enhancing safety\, inclusivity\, and enriched urban interactions.\n\nThe CS3 Monthly Research Exchanges are internal and open only to CS3 affiliated students\, faculty\, and staff. If you are interested in learning more about the research happening at CS3\, please contact our team at streetscapes@columbia.edu.
URL:https://cs3-erc.org/event/cs3-monthly-research-exchange-4/
LOCATION:Hybrid
CATEGORIES:SLC
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