The Metropolis Initiative advances
urban technological innovations
that make cities more sustainable,
resilient, and equitable.

VISION: The Metropolis Initiative envisions a future where researchers and cities collaborate to actively develop, use, and integrate innovations and technologies to chart pathways towards a set of desired societal outcomes. Some of society’s pressing outcomes include making urban systems more resilient in the face of natural and human-made disasters and shocks, more sustainable in using resources, more socio-economically equitable, and simply more pleasant, secure, and accessible places to live in.

GOALS: Anchored at the School of Engineering and Applied Science, the Metropolis Initiative connects and supports researchers from many disciplines across engineering, natural and social sciences, humanities, architecture, and policy. We strive to catalyze and support interdisciplinary research bringing together many of Princeton’s world-class programs and its vibrant urban science community to reimagine a better future metropolis in the U.S. and worldwide.

ACTIVITIES: The initiative creates community at Princeton by hosting a seminar series, an annual research symposium and offering a graduate fellowship and faculty seed grants.

Interdisciplinary Research in Real World Cities

Led by Professor Anu Ramaswami, the initiative is working on three distinctive projects that connect interdisciplinary research with real-world urban challenges across the globe.

-Climate action and heat stress mitigation in Chennai, India

-Flagship report of the United Nations’ International Resource Panel on Decarbonizing Urban Metropolitan Regions with Climate Resilience, Health and Equity

-NSF-MeitY: Piloting A Multi-Attribute Urban Sensing Technology for Sustainable Cities in U.S. and China