Students from five universities across three continents joined a recent CUSP London to explore data-driven solutions to urban policy planning. Working with partners Transport for London (TfL), the annual Data Dive was run by the Centre for Urban Science and Progress (CUSP) London, in the Department of Informatics, King’s College London.

The students analysed data on traffic, bike use, air quality, health and road safety, working together to provide partner organisations with policy recommendations. The partners in attendance included TfL, the Department of Transport, Westminster City Council, Newham Council, London Ambulance Service, AccuCities, WSP and the Bicycle Association of Great Britain.

Every year CUSP London hosts a Data Dive, inviting students from King’s as well as universities in the UK and around the world. This year over 60 undergraduate and postgraduate students from King’s College London, UCL, the University of Glasgow, Imperial College London, NYU and NYU Abu Dhabi (NYUAD) joined in-person and virtually.

The event began with a series of inspiring talks delivered by representatives from academic experts and external partners such as TfL, ending with a talk from Professor Nick Holliman, Director of CUSP London. The students collaborated in teams to to tackle key urban challenges of their choice – using public data. The teams worked hard over the next four days, using some data that was provided alongside being encouraged to seek out further data themselves.

On the final afternoon the students gained valuable experience presenting their solutions on the challenges around transport, air quality and health faced by urban centres such as London.

‘Best Overall’ prize was awarded to the joint King’s College London, UCL and University of Glasgow team which offered insights into air inequality within disadvantaged areas of London.

Other questions tackled by the students included:

• Can we use traffic congestion as a means of predicting air quality?
• What is the relationship between air quality and cycling activities in London?
• How can we manage London’s conflicting goals of Vision Zero and cycling growth?
• How does traffic affect health outcomes?

CUSP London is a collaboration between King’s College London and New York University. It is a multi-disciplinary research centre that brings together researchers, businesses and government agencies, to apply data science and visual analytics to challenges in and for London.