Institute for Smart & Healthy Cities
Transforming Urban Environments
Jefferson’s Institute for Smart and Healthy Cities was created to support the research, innovation and education that is happening across the university focusing on transforming urban environments into smart and healthy cities. The institute is conceived as an aggregator and facilitator of transdisciplinary research and education across multiple disciplines driving the future of our cities and communities. Supported by data and smart technologies, Smart Cities is an emerging paradigm in the development of urban environments in an attempt to build more efficient, healthier and livable cities.
We’re changing the way we live, work, travel and learn for a healthier future.
- Understanding the entire city as a system and solving tomorrow’s most pressing problems: urbanization, public health, energy and transportation
- Making a direct impact at the community and city scale by researching the intersection of environmental conditions, housing, workplace, transit, public infrastructure and health
- Finding opportunities to further link the institute to our increasingly connected clinical systems
- Partnering with technology incubators to provide students access and support through the co-invention process
The Institute for Smart and Healthy Cities is a collaborative effort between the College of Architecture and the Built Environment, College of Population Health, and the Kanbar College of Design, Engineering and Commerce.
International Smart & Healthy Cities Symposium
Jefferson’s annual International Smart & Healthy Cities Symposium offers a platform for industry experts — academics, scientists, entrepreneurs and leaders in architecture, engineering, population health and city government — to discuss important topics within the built environment.
Research Areas
Urban Scale
- Characterize the interrelationship of urbanization, transportation and energy on population health.
- Analyze human behavior changes and the drivers for change though data-driven analysis, modeling, and simulation and visualization.
- Evaluate the research outcomes in statistical models to plan and predict future changes in the domains health, energy and transportation.
Building Scale
- Predict the effects of daylighting and natural ventilation on health outcomes in work, life and healing spaces.
- Develop new concepts for sustainability and net zero energy buildings and predict health benefits.
- Understand human behavior in relationship to building systems, space and environment.
Device Scale
- Characterize the connectivities and interfaces between the built environment and humans.
- Develop human centric building controls and management technology.
- Understand the interconnectivity between health data and environmental data, micro climate and air pollution.
Future Cities
Jefferson’s Institute for Smart and Healthy Cities is defining the framework to transform cities into more sustainable, healthy and connected communities. Starting with our own Center City and East Falls campuses, including hospitals, buildings and infrastructure, and the city of Philadelphia, the Institute will develop technologies and planning tools for large scale cities.
Sheba Medical Center
Jefferson faculty and students partnered with several institutions in Israel to explore and develop design solutions for the City of Health at Sheba Medical Center in Tel Aviv. The collaborative studio developed concepts for a new master plan for the medial campus. Students developed architectural designs based on population health studies, connected environments and new technologies, while focusing on aging in place and the development of an integrated community.
Institute for Smart & Healthy Cities Connects Three Colleges in Cross Disciplinary Effort
Jefferson's College of Architecture & The Built Environment, the Kanbar College of Design, Engineering & Commerce and the College of Population Health come together to develop cities in the face of climate change, social inequity, rapid urbanization and health disparities.
Related Academic Programs
Spanning across multiple disciplines and scales, this knowledge domain investigates the intersection of the built environment, population health and technology across a range of issues. Integrated in buildings and city systems, sensors and controls monitor all aspects of life and are set to transform the urban landscape.
This transformation will affect the entire city as a system and spans from buildings, transportation, environment, and infrastructure, to utilities impacting how we live, work and play in cities. The increased emphasis on multiple aspects of smart cities responds to current socio-economic and ecologic pressures such as climate change and air pollution.
The Institute for Smart and Healthy Cities is conceived as an aggregator and facilitator of transdisciplinary research and education that will drive the future of our cities using Philadelphia as a living laboratory.