Data Lives of Cities
Tracing the history of urban data to rethink inequality, health, and opportunity.
In this masterclass, participants discuss lessons from the historical contextualization of urban data science, from W.E.B. Du Bois onward. How can we study human populations as they have migrated to cities, the systems they interact with, and how this organization results in inequality or prosperity in public health, economic development, institutional access, and sustainability? We will study historical cases and consider contemporary methods, such as GIS, computation, and community-engaged approaches like ethnography, to find new solutions to old problems.
Debanjan Roychoudhury
Debanjan Roychoudhury, Ph.D., is an Adjunct Faculty Member at the Center for Urban Science and Progress in the NYU Tandon School of Engineering. After completing his doctorate in sociology at the University of California, Los Angeles in 2022, Roychoudhury completed a Mellon Foundation Postdoctoral Fellowship with the Prison Education Program in the Faculty of Arts and Sciences at NYU in 2024. Combining a background in computational social science with historical archival data-storytelling skills, Roychoudhury uses GIS and ML to examine emerging patterns in urban policing and programmatic, community-based approaches to violence interruption and deterrence, translating complex analyses into actionable civic tech products. Dr. Roychoudhury is currently collaborating with New York City government agencies, nonprofit organizations, and the private sector to drive projects from scoping through delivery of intuitive, decision-ready data tools and comprehensive reports for diverse stakeholders. Roychoudhury primarily uses ArcGIS StoryMaps to present interactive dashboards and compelling visualizations, and is also developing applied ML tools, building reproducible pipelines, and scalable workflows that enable more effective, fairer justice outcomes. Dr. Roychoudhury studied GIS at UCLA Luskin School of Public Affairs and has prepared and combined numerous large administrative datasets for spatial analysis, and has also taught college courses to residents detained in correctional facilities and juvenile detention centers in New York State since 2022.