iCity co-investigator and OCAD University president Sara Diamond and colleagues published an article on the need for designers and artists to help spread data literacy by building intelligent interfaces.
Two examples of how researchers at OCAD University are contributing to this now are the iCity project and StudentMoveTO.
As reported in the Globe and Mail on August 22:
iCity led by Eric Miller, UTTRI’s research director, “is providing sophisticated data-analysis and visualization tools for transportation planning. These allow system managers and city planners to better see transportation networks, problems and outages. Other visualizations allow citizens to view proposals for development that could worsen or improve congestion. Actual data sets and simulations are being used to explore scenarios.
“StudentMove TO, was initiated by four university presidents in the Greater Toronto Area who commissioned OCAD University [University of Toronto, York University and Ryerson University] researchers to develop an overview of student transit and transportation habits and needs to help cities, planners, transportation planners and the universities themselves understand how students get to school. The resulting visualizations will help make better planning decisions about bike lanes, walking routes, transit and mobility between transit zones and modes.”