Prototyping Urban Systems

What future urban systems should academia focus on?

Industry is essential for scaling the technologies that cities will ultimately adopt. But academic research plays a different role — imagining, prototyping, and testing ideas that are not yet viable for commercial development. City Science researchers pursue more radical innovation and explore what cities might need 10 or 20 years from now.

Research Focus

The City Science Center develops early-stage prototypes designed to challenge assumptions, reveal opportunities, and spark public dialogue. When the potential is clear, many of these ideas become the basis for spin-off companies that bring new tools into real-world use. Key areas of active prototyping include:

  • Mobility: Community-scale, shared-use systems. Lightweight, autonomous transportation systems. Examples include the PEV (Persuasive Electric Vehicle) and the MIT Autonomous Bicycle.

  • Housing: Hyper-efficient, transformable places of living. Responsive environments that adapt in real time to residents’ needs. Originating in the CityHome project, this research led to the creation of ORI Living, which is now commercializing transformable robotic furniture systems.

  • Sensing: Low-cost environmental sensors. Projects such as MITes (MIT Environmental Sensors) and TerMITes evolved into Butlr Technologies, which now delivers anonymous, real-time people sensing to provide new services.

  • Food: Gastronomy and Beyond.  This initiative reimagines food as a lens through which to address sustainability, urban innovation, and cultural identity—exploring how food systems, local traditions, and circular practices can drive more resilient, inclusive, and regenerative cities. 

Why It Matters

By building and testing prototypes, the City Science Center creates a bridge between speculation and reality. These projects identify critical gaps in how cities function and demonstrate viable solutions well before they reach commercial readiness.

MIT Persuasive Electric Vehicle (PEV) – an autonomous mobility on demand system to move people and deliver packages in urban communities (MIT City Science).