[{"jcr:title":"Insper’s partnership with MIT brings forth a special holiday course","cq:tags_0":"formato-de-programa:programas-avan-ados"},{"richText":"After teaching it in São Paulo with two field visits, Professor Adriano Borges Costa is getting ready to deliver the same content in the city of Cambridge, in September","authorDate":"15/09/2022 16h11","author":"Tiago Cordeiro","madeBy":"Por","tag":"formato-de-programa:programas-avan-ados","title":"Insper’s partnership with MIT brings forth a special holiday course","variant":"imagecolor"},{"jcr:title":"transparente - turquesa - vermelho"},{"themeName":"transparente - turquesa - vermelho"},{"containerType":"containerTwo"},{"jcr:title":"Grid Container Section","layout":"responsiveGrid"},{"text":"As a postdoctoral researcher at the Sustainable Urbanization Lab and at the Center for Real Estate in the Department of Urban Studies of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT),  [Adriano Borges Costa](https://www.adrianoborgescosta.com/)  began to strengthen ties between Insper and the American institution with the approval of a collaborative project within the scope of the  [MISTI-Brazil](https://misti.mit.edu/mit-brazil)  program. Now as a researcher at the  [Arq.Futuro Cities Lab](https://www.insper.edu.br/pt/pesquisa/centro-de-estudos-das-cidades)  and professor at Insper, the conversation between São Paulo and Cambridge, a city in the US state of Massachusetts, has been put into effect.   During the holidays in July, Professor Costa taught a 40-hour course to 22 students from the Advanced Program in Public Administration and from the undergraduate programs in Economics, Business Administration and Engineering. Given entirely in English, the course “Transportation Shaping Sustainable Urbanization: Connections with Urban Economics and Planning” is part of the Public Policy and Mobility threads. It will be given again in September at the MIT, with the presence of four Insper students.   “The aim of the course is to introduce students to how investments in urban mobility impact cities and how they can be used to foster more sustainable and convenient urban areas”, the professor explains.   In the classes, students understand how some of the relevant aspects of the cities we know can be explained by their transport systems, both current and past. Costa illustrates: “We talk about how central areas of European cities built before the age of the automobile are more accessible, dense and diversified; as for the low-density American residential suburbs, they have expanded with the massive increase in car use. We also tackle the relationship between the outskirts of São Paulo and the expansion of bus services”.   The course also introduces the theoretical foundation and empirical evidence to investigate how technological innovations in mobility can generate major urban transformations.   It is the first course focused on urban mobility policies given at Insper and it was visited by Pedro Moro, president of  Companhia Paulista de Trens Metropolitanos  (CPTM); Sérgio Avelleda, former president of São Paulo Metro and CPTM and former city secretary of transport; by Fábio Duarte, from MIT’s Senseable City Lab; and Laura Janka, from the Arq.Futuro Cities Lab at Insper.   Theory in Practice   The theoretical foundation was topped off by two field visits. “The goal was for students to validate in the city, the concepts covered in the classroom. For instance, the idea that mass transport promotes urban densification and real estate appreciation if the zoning allows it.”   The urban impacts of an extensive mobility infrastructure project can be witnessed in the tunnels and machines of the currently largest mobility infrastructure project in Latin America, the construction site of Line 6 of the subway that will connect the Northern São Paulo area to the city center.   As for the complexity of the institutional arrangements of urban mobility systems and the potential for public-private partnerships, they took form with the visit to the  João Dias  station. It is the outcome of a partnership between the CPTM and Brookfield  Incorporações , which has built the new station with an integrated commercial complex. “The result was a construction work that benefited the government, the private sector and the population that goes to, works and lives in that area”, Costa points out.   This way, students could recognize how urban transport has the power to shape the occupation of spaces, and how it can be used as a tool that leads to more convenient and sustainable cities. “Living in dense and diverse cities is currently the most sustainable way of living. And mobility plays a central role in promoting urban areas with those features”, Costa says.   New course   Starting in October 2022, Costa alongside Professor Bianca Tavolari will give the Data and Urban Policy course, for which registration is open. The aim is for attendees to use open data sources to learn how to handle geographic data to create maps and elementary spatial analysis related to the urban instruments presented.   Then, they will be able to identify and understand the main urban policy instruments; to critically analyze the role of data in the public debate about cities, and how the good use of territorialized information can foster dialogue around urban policies; they will be able to assess the implications and relevance of urban policy proposals based on a joint and supplementary reading of projects/laws and maps/territorial data, as well as to develop analysis of spatial data that have public relevance and can promote dialogue on urban policies."}]