The University of Miami’s School of Architecture, in collaboration with the Frost Institute for Data Science and Computing, held its ninth annual Smart Cities Miami conference on April 3–4. The event gathered prominent academics, urban planners, and policymakers to explore how technology, data analytics, and design innovation can contribute to more equitable, adaptable, and sustainable urban environments.
The conference opened with remarks from Dean Rodolphe el-Khoury and Dr. Sarbeswar Praharaj, who leads UM’s Urban Sustainability and Resilience Program. Keynote speakers included Jennifer Clark of Ohio State University and Nathalie Crutzen of the University of Liège, both of whom challenged participants to rethink the foundational questions behind smart city development and to embrace cities as complex, collaborative ecosystems for technological and social innovation.
Highlights included sessions on AI-driven urban design by Anthony Townsend (Cornell Tech) and presentations on human mobility mapping by Fabio Duarte (MIT). Local government voices from South Florida, alongside tech leaders such as NVIDIA, added grounded insights into real-world applications of urban tech for improving quality of life.
A closed-door academic workshop on day two gathered experts to co-develop content for an upcoming issue of the Journal of Urban Technology, further bridging academic thought with real-world impact.