ADAPTIVE INTELLIGENCE

 ACTIVATING URBAN AI 

The 2025 Urban Tech Summit is set against a backdrop of growing global uncertainty—from governance and markets to climate risks, migration, and rapid technological change. These disruptions are reshaping the landscape for innovation in urban tech. The Summit will offer practical insights and examples of how researchers, companies, governments, and communities can continue to drive innovation amid these headwinds—and how urban tech can help cities do more with less as they prepare for the future.

Tickets are now on sale, follow the link below to get yours.

PROGRAM

SNAPSHOT

FOUR GRAND CHALLENGES

This year’s Summit will focus on four “grand challenges” that cities must act on to prepare for the hazards ahead.

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BUILD

AI-Accelerated Construction: Building Climate-Ready Cities

Cities face an urgent timeline to build and retrofit infrastructure for climate resilience. As construction costs rise and project timelines lengthen, the window for adapting our cities is closing. This Grand Challenge explores how AI can dramatically accelerate planning, design, permitting, and construction processes to prepare cities to adapt to a changing climate.

POWER

AI + Grid Resilience: Powering Climate-Ready Cities

Grid decentralization is good for decarbonization—making it easier to integrate renewable, distributed energy resources. But, it's even more effective in boosting resilience, allowing microgrids to operate independently when regional systems fail. This Grand Challenge asks how the AI boom’s growing demand for electricity could undermine current energy resilience plans, and how we might harness AI itself to shock them back to life.

MOVE

AI-Powered Infrastructure: Transforming Urban Mobility Networks

Climate change is disrupting how cities move—weakening the systems that connect people, goods, and information. As traditional infrastructure faces growing stress, AI presents powerful tools to redesign and fortify urban mobility networks for long-term sustainability. This Grand Challenge investigates AI applications that orchestrate and optimize more distributed, dynamic, and responsive networks and services.

BOOST

AI for Community Mobilization: Advancing Inclusive Adaptation

Urban climate adaptation is everyone’s work—government and industry can’t do it alone. This Grand Challenge takes a deep dive into harnessing AI for engagement. How do we deepen the adaptive capacity of communities by connecting them to the right knowledge, networks, and tools? We’ll explore how AI can be used to reach the most vulnerable and isolated, demonstrate the benefits of adaptation projects in impacted communities, and map out the tools and platforms that could power future resilience hubs.

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MEET OUR SPEAKERS

  • ZACHARY ISCOL

    Commissioner, New York City Emergency Management Department

    Read Bio

  • SAM SCHWARTZ

    Founder & CEO, Sam Schwartz Pedestrian Traffic Management Services, Inc.

    Read Bio

  • FREDERIC CHARLIER

    CEO & Co-founder, ClearRoad

    Read Bio

  • DANA CHERMESH-RESHEF

    Founder & CEO, InCitu

    Read Bio

  • UDIT GUPTA

    Assistant Professor, Cornell Tech

    READ BIO

  • WENDY JU

    Associate Professor, Cornell Tech

    READ BIO

WHAT PEOPLE ARE SAYING

  • "Had a blast at the Cornell Tech Urban Tech Summit this week! Kudos to the teams at Jacobs Technion-Cornell Institute and CIV:LAB for creating space for essential dialogue on the potential of AI to create more resilient urban environments."

    Jonathan Gilmour, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health

  • "It was amazing to collaborate with such passionate individuals, and I want to extend my deepest thanks to all the attendees and my amazing collaborators... Together, we explored innovative ways to empower communities with AI for climate action and resilience."

    Jamil Ellis, Unified Ground 

  • "Love the cross-section of people along with the topics, and leave the event feeling very charged up. Also like you gave younger women leadership roles on stage at times. Great event!"

    Nick Nyhan, Upside Analytics

  • "Just a really great job at putting this together post election. I walked away feeling inspired and happy to be a New Yorker."

    Anonymous

  • "Events like this highlight the importance of interdisciplinary collaboration in addressing challenges posed by climate change… Thank you to Cornell Tech and all the thought leaders who made this summit a success!"

    Carlene Nelson, Consultant

ABOUT THE ORGANIZERS

The Jacobs Technion-Cornell Institute, established jointly by Cornell University and the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology, is based at Cornell Tech in New York City and embodies its mission by spearheading the inception, translation into practice, and incubation of new computational technologies that advance human and societal well-being, while empowering graduate students to be the next generation of tech leaders.

CIV:LAB aims to strengthen the civic and social infrastructure in and with our communities to tackle civilization’s greatest problems. Using collaboration as a vehicle for social change, CIV:LAB funds and enables programs, projects and products on the ground addressing problems in cities. CIV:LAB is a 501(c)(3) based in New York City at Civic Hall.

Emergence Creative is a global creative agency dedicated to social impact. Emergence builds brands, engages communities, and drives behavior change in the pursuit of genuine social transformation. As a global creative agency rooted in social impact, Emergence collaborates exclusively with partners dedicated to the common good. From health to society to the environment, Emergence is confronting some of the most urgent challenges of our time with strategies that promote human well-being.

SPONSORS

CONTACT US

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