Urban Technology at University of Michigan week 232
Welcoming Batch Four
New year, new cohort. This week we welcomed the fourth batch of urban technology undergraduates. Four separate cohorts, all in one room! This was the first time we had first-years and seniors in one room together, and it brings our headcount to about 150 students. Half a dozen student organizations were there also, all with UT students in leadership, and two founded by UT students. It was also the first time for me to send an orientation email to students that began with, “welcome to your final semester.” In just a few months those seniors will graduate and the most important “first” will be behind us. W-h-o-a.
💬 Hello! This is the newsletter of the Urban Technology program at University of Michigan, in which we explore the ways that data, connectivity, computation, and automation can be harnessed to nurture and improve urban life. If you’re new here, try this short video of current students describing urban technology in their own words or this 90 second explainer video.
🌱 Embodying Day One
We’ve conceptualized the UT degree from the beginning as a student experience, making this a giant exercise in service design which, to tell the truth, can sometimes be maddening because at a big university like U-M it’s not always possible to design the experience as fully as we would like to. The thing most under our control is the curriculum, which points toward learning outcomes and identifies the courses that will deliver upon those promises, but the curriculum doesn’t say much about what it feels like to be a student in our degree.
Charlie, Mariah, and I have built our a pretty strong calendar of communications and events as places where we provide additional context, nudges, and really try to inculcate a culture and demonstrate a kind of openness for the students. One of these touchpoints is an email that goes out to each cohort tailored to the semester they are entering. I have presently resisted signing as Gossip Girl, but that’s pretty much what these emails are (minus the snark and rumors): a narration of what’s happening and what to look forward to in the semester.
We also use the welcome lunches as a touchpoint that lets us welcome people into a community. A stock bit of advice from faculty at the start of a learning journey is “every second counts,” and for us this concept is embodied in the “count up” timer that has been tick-tick-ticking since the very first moment of the very first class. 1098 days was the status when I showed a live feed at our lunch. It’s up to 2001 days and untold seconds by now.
The culture within our degree is also materializing. Last year UT senior Devin Vowels designed a shirt for UT students depicting an anthropomorphic traffic cone. The front actually says “urban technology” so the connection is a little more clear, but the back features the image below. The drawing is something of an inside joke among the cohort and it has puzzled some of the younger students (and faculty 🙋) who are not in on the joke. But here’s what I have come to love about it: jogging traffic cones are a visualization of the city itself come to life, and that’s exactly what urban technology should do to a place.
Adding bits to atoms is so often framed as “smarts” but what those smarts culminate in is stuff moving in new ways, making new experiences possible. Personally, I’d like to see a lot fewer cars, so I imagine these cones running off into oblivion, not needed in the fully walkable metropolises of tomorrow and able to enjoy an early retirement.
But here’s another layer of meaning that came to me when I was preparing for the welcome lunch. These faces are also a handy depiction of the college journey: bewildered first-years, excited sophomores, wild juniors, and chill seniors.
Welcome, class of 2028!
These weeks: Falafel with 150 friends, helping faculty get courses off to a good start, working on papers, hiring committee meetings and so many emails, signage, and…. a holiday in there somewhere. Congestion pricing! 🙌 🏃🏃🏃🏃🏃🏃🏃🏃🏃🏃🏃🏃🏃🏃🏃🏃🏃🏃🏃🏃🏃🏃🏃🏃🏃🏃🏃🏃🏃🏃🏃🏃🏃🏃🏃🏃🏃🏃🏃🏃🏃🏃🏃🏃🏃🏃🏃🏃🏃🏃🏃🏃🏃🏃🏃🏃🏃🏃🏃🏃🏃🏃🏃🏃🏃🏃🏃🏃🏃🏃🏃🏃🏃🏃🏃🏃🏃🏃🏃🏃🏃🏃🏃🏃🏃🏃🏃🏃🏃🏃🏃🏃🏃🏃🏃🏃🏃🏃🏃🏃🏃🏃🏃🏃🏃🏃🏃🏃🏃🏃🏃🏃🏃🏃🏃🏃🏃🏃🏃🏃🏃🏃🏃🏃🏃🏃🏃🏃🏃🏃🏃🏃🏃🏃🏃🏃🏃🏃🏃🏃🏃🏃🏃🏃🏃🏃🏃🏃🏃🏃
Requiescat in pace, Nicolas Nova.