In cooperation with the Politecnico di Milano and the MIT Senseable City Lab, the group spent nine intensive days learning about cutting-edge measurement technologies, collecting data on urban green spaces, and developing a comprehensive assessment of Milan’s parks.
Multi-dimensional research methodologies
While the project focused on air quality and pollutant exposure, the students’ interdisciplinary backgrounds allowed them to take a broader view of urban health. The three field work days covered park measurements along these dimensions:
- Air Quality: Detecting personal exposure through wearable environmental monitors, paired with physiological watches.
- Active Mobility: Analyzing sidewalk accessibility and users’ mobility patterns through AI-driven object detection algorithms.
- Green Infrastructure: Measuring urban green space quality via scalable and extensive survey-based comparison methodology.
- Livability: Conducting subjective survey-based measurement of satisfaction, gendered safety, and perceived air quality.
Translating field work to findings
Two days of fast-paced data analysis, visualization, and synthesis followed, concluding in a presentation to the client, Politecnico di Milano.
The preliminary results were telling: Air quality in parks was significantly worse on weekdays than on weekends and improved significantly in the later hours of the day compared to the morning rush hour. Women’s safety and nighttime security also emerged as major problems to equitable access to green spaces and their health benefits. Moreover, the students provided valuable input to optimize the research methodologies, which are still in their pilot testing phase.
“This project demonstrates how interdisciplinary students can collaborate with local stakeholders to contribute meaningfully to multidimensional research.”
Hannah Kleine (MSc MADE student)
Exploring the city
Between research activities, students attended the globally renowned Milan Design Week, experiencing the city at its most vibrant and creative. They engaged with local residents, Politecnico staff, and other students, offering a chance to explore Milan from a personal perspective. This helped them understand the local culture, architecture, and daily life. They even had a competition to see who could spot the worst-parked car.
MSc MADE student Hannah Klein looks back on the study trip and what she learned: "This project demonstrated how interdisciplinary students can collaborate with local stakeholders to contribute meaningfully to multidimensional research."