NYC School of Data 2025

This panel will discuss the development of a multimodal urban planning simulation that will launch at the New York Hall of Science, in Queens, NY, in April 2025 as part of a new exhibition called CityWorks. The discussion will be of interest to anyone who is using open data to increase opportunities for city residents to reflect on and engage with the urban planning processes that shape their neighborhoods.

This simulation allows public audiences to use physical representations of different kinds of land use (schools, parks, and small and large commercial buildings) to make changes to three different types of NYC neighborhoods (residential, commercial and industrial), and to examine the impact of their changes on neighborhood traffic, flooding risk, and waste production. The simulation was created by a collaborative, interdisciplinary team of multimedia designers (Trivium Interactive), data scientists (Beta NYC’s Data Innovation Lab), and exhibit designers (New York Hall of Science).

After sharing the design, functionality, and goals of the simulation, the group will then discuss two key challenges: how to balance interpretability and data integrity in this simulation, and how to leverage public engagement with the simulation to create new opportunities for more equitable and inclusive participation in urban planning processes.

Join us for a conversation on using open data for community based organizations. In this lively panel we will consider big questions about local data.  This panel features Yuki Mitsuda from NYC Housing Preservation and Development, Kevin Lee, the director of data analytics from Breakinground, Inc and Angelica Bravo, the director of data, evaluation and learning from University Settlement. How can these organizations with limited data capabilities leverage open data infrastructure to help demonstrate success? Can open data be utilized more effectively to help meet communities needs? When should a community based organization turn to open data to support the development of new programming? These and other important open data questions will be considered.

In this panel, data engineers and data scientists on MTA's Data & Analytics team will answer your burning questions about the MTA, Data, and Analytics! Curious about how the open data MTA publishes makes it way to data.ny.gov? Interested in how bus speeds are calculated? Or maybe you just want to know more about what's it's like to work with data at America's largest transit agency? The session will be facilitated by Hannah Spierer, Senior Manager Policy & Coordination.

In this multi-specialist panel, doctoral students from the CUNY Graduate Center will discuss how access to, and the experience of, long-term housing in NYC has changed as a result of open data sources available in the city.

This will include a presentation by Sam O'Hana, doctoral candidate in English and Advising Fellow in Data Analysis and Visualization, who will discuss the publicly-available repositories of information (DHCR, HPD, DOB, DOF) that are necessary to challenge illegal deregulation of rent stabilized apartments in the city. He will share updates from a pending lawsuit against his landlord in the NYS Supreme Court.

We will also hear from Ian Williams, MSW, a doctoral student in Social Work with a background as a social worker involved in issues surrounding tenancy, governance structures and open source digital resources.

The third panelist will be Holden Taylor, doctoral candidate in English and Organizer for the Brooklyn Eviction Defense Tenant Union, who will present work relevant to his dissertation on the issue of housing, including the use of open data for tenant organizing.