| Introduction The
Great Cities Urban Data Visualization (GCUDV) Program and Laboratory
is the newest among CUPPA research centers. It came into existence
on July 1st, 1998. Associate Dean Albert Schorsch III
was instrumental in conceptualizing the initial vision and research
directions for the GCUDV Program and Lab. Schorsch worked with
former Dean Wim Wiewel, senior faculty within CUPPA, and with
some units across campus to secure permanent university funding
for the lab.
Evolution from 1997 to 2001
In October 1998, soon
after the establishment of the center, a working group came together
to develop a strategic plan for the center and set goals for the
five-year period (1999 – 2003). The minutes of that strategic
planning retreat reflect the working group’s emphasis and
desire to create something new, not just another program
or project. The group sought to build a learning community that
would allow different disciplines (for example architecture, urban
planning/design, geography) to come together through the common
medium of information technology. The lab would become a place
where high quality, innovative research could take place without
the imposition of traditional disciplinary boundaries. Cognizant
of UIC’s urban mission and the ideals of engaged research,
the GCUDV program and lab used the following core values to shape
its efforts:
- Public data should be accessible to
the public;
- Information technology should reduce
barriers between citizens and public institutions;
- Interdisciplinary research among scholars
is essential to make effective contributions in complex urban
and regional environments; and,
- Collaborative university-community partnerships
should break down barriers between public and expert cultures
and produce true partnerships and inform research
By 1999, the GCUDV lab had established itself in CUPPA B-15.
The program and lab acquired new hardware (e.g., 6 computers,
printer, digitizer, etc) and software (e.g., campus GIS license
for ESRI products in conjunction with other campus units), invested
in CUPPA faculty research (e.g., computer, peripherals), supported
students from UPP, the Electronic Visualization Laboratory (EVL),
Art and Design, Architecture, Mathematics and Statistics, Geography,
and Computer Science (CS) through research assistantships, and
contributed to campus wide projects and inter unit collaboration
through the acquisition of large datasets, and by supporting joint
projects with the Department of Architecture and the Library.
Several interdisciplinary funding proposals, including NSF proposals
were generated between 1998 and 2000.
After an international search, Michael Shiffer joined the faculty
and took over as the Director of GCUDV Program and Lab in January
2001. He established a collaborative research project “Making
the Chicago Transit Authority More Competitive in the 21st
Century” bringing together partners from Massachusetts Institute
of Technology (MIT), the Chicago Transit Authority (CTA), a consulting
firm URS, and UIC-GCUDV. This grant beginning 1/1/2001 to 6/30/2002
was instrumental in raising the profile of GCUDV among public
agencies in Chicago and at a national level.
Michael Shiffer went on leave from Fall 2001 to take the position
of Vice President for Planning and Development of the Chicago
Transit Authority at the request of civic leaders. Sue McNeil
(Director of UIC's Urban Transportation Center, UTC) then took
on the additional responsibility of managing the lab of Fall 2001.
Shiffer, Schorsch and McNeil facilitated the hiring of the new
Visiting Assistant Director. Dr. Laxmi Ramasubramanian was hired
to fill this position for a twelve-month period beginning January2002.
Dr. Ramasubramanian subsequently held the posts of Associate Director
and Research Assistant Professor, GCUDV, until August of 2004,
when she began full-time work as a faculty member at Hunter College,
New York City, while retaining a part-time position as Research
Assistant Professor at the UIC Urban Transportation Center.
In the Spring of 2004, Prof. Mike Shiffer resigned the post of
Director, GCUDV, and his tenure as UIC Urban Planning and Policy
(UPP) Faculty to work full-time indefinitely for the CTA. He remains
on 10% UPP faculty appointment as Clinical Associate Professor
and 0% Associate Professor, and continues to teach and advise
CUPPA students. In Fall of 2004, CUPPA Dean Robin Hambleton appointed
CUPPA Associate Dean Albert Schorsch to serve as Interim Director
of GCUDV, and the administrative relationship between GCUDV and
UTC ended, while the research partnerships and mentoring of students
with UTC and its director Prof. Sue McNeil continue.
Al Schorsch, III, summed up the challenges of the past several
years of GCUDV this way: "If Laxmi Ramasubramanian and Sue
McNeil had not stepped in on behalf of our students and the future
of GCUDV when Mike Shiffer was suddenly pressed into civic service
shortly after his arrival in Chicago from MIT, we would not have
had the marvelously positive results in terms of the teaching,
research, service, and experiences our faculty and students have
contributed. We congratulate Laxmi Ramasubramanian on her appointment
to the Hunter College faculty, and look forward to continuing
and future collaboration with her. We also thank Sue McNeil for
her dedicated and unending creative leadership and service, especially
to our students."
GCUDV Update
With Prof. Michael Shiffer’s resignation as the Director
of GCUDV to serve as Vice President for Planning and Development
of the Chicago Transit Authority, and with Prof. Laxmi Ramasubramanian’s
resignation as the Associate Director of GCUDV to join the faculty
of Hunter College in New York City, GCUDV faces what baseball
calls “a rebuilding year” for Academic 2004-5.
Both Prof. Shiffer and Prof. Ramasubramanian will continue part-time
faculty appointments at the UIC College of Urban Planning and
Public Affairs, the home of GCUDV, with Prof. Shiffer on the Urban
Planning and Policy (UPP) faculty and its clinical faculty, and
Prof. Ramasubramanian on the research faculty of the UIC Urban
Transportation Center. Both are available to advise CUPPA graduate
students. A number of other UIC and CUPPA faculty continue their
cooperation with the GCUDV lab. Max Dieber, UPP adjunct faculty
member and noted population projection modeler, can join in GCUDV
projects. Prof. Kheir Al-Kodmany, who has led a number of GCUDV
projects, is on sabbatical for Fall, 2004.
Because the large-scale visualization and analysis of urban data
requires the cooperating skills of experts in—
Computer Science
Data Analysis, Social Research, Policy Analysis
Database Management and Preservation
Demographics
Design, Animation, and Videography
Economic Geography
Engineering
GIS and Geography
Library Science
Planning
Public Administration
Public Finance
Web, 3D, and Virtual Reality Visualization
--Al Schorsch III is assembling a core staff of an architect/designer/planner,
a GIS and data expert, and a Web and VR visualization planner
to assist new faculty, students, and staff anticipated to be joining
GCUDV in the coming years. A core and growing group of now eight
GCUDV graduate students continues their association with the Lab
this 2004-5 academic year, and explores what Albert Schorsch has
called “the cracks between the software.”
Crystal Wilson, MUPP ’02, the first UIC Urban
Planning and Policy graduate student to apply Virtual Reality
applications in planning practice, a planning consultant, and
the author of an online manual on virtual reality for planners,
has been hired as part-time Visiting Assistant Director of GCUDV
starting 10/16/04. She has for two years previous served as Visiting
Research Editor with CUPPA and GCUDV.
Nidhi Vaid, MUPP ’04, an architect, designer,
and planner, anticipates returning to GCUDV in December of 2004
as Visiting Research Editor.
Another expert appointment, in this case in GIS
and data, is planned for early in 2005. Prof. Michael Shiffer
has agreed to advise GCUDV and to make presentations to GCUDV
students about recent innovations.
Crystal Wilson is presently leading GCUDV’s
development of a planning support skills curriculum wherein members
of the UDV team compile and present critical planning skills training
tutorials, which are adapted for use by CUPPA students, staff,
faculty, alumni, and public in preparation for the opening of
CUPPA’s new computing and professional education lab in
2006. These tutorials are then migrated to the GCUDV website for
more general use. Ms. Wilson also presently coordinates the building
of web pages containing the GCUDV project and data archives going
back to 1998.
When the new GCUDV core team is fully assembled
by January of 2005, GCUDV will make a further announcement about
its new research agenda.
10/19/04
Please contact schorsch@uic.edu
for further information.
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