In this installment of the Innovation of the Month series (see last month's story here), we explore the University of Pennsylvania’s Master of Urban Spatial Analytics (MUSA) Practicum and how the graduate students in the program work with city officials to develop data science tools that their clients can use to determine how best to use their resources. The program is led by Professor Ken Steif along with Karl Dailey and Michael Fichman.

MetroLab’s Executive Director Ben Levine sat down with Professor Steif and some of the program’s graduate students to learn more.

Ben Levine: Can you explain the concept of urban spatial analytics? Is this a new practice or an existing field in which you are applying new approaches?

Ken Steif: Spatial analysis explores "where" questions. Typically, most phenomena are distributed across space according to some underlying theory. Examples include segregation, zoning, environmental degradation and the like. Spatial analytics is the study of these underlying spatial dynamics toward a broader understanding of why things locate where. In recent years, the master of urban spatial analytics (MUSA) program has tried to take a relatively unique approach, harnessing spatial dynamics for the purposes of prediction.

Levine: Can you tell me about the MUSA program and how the practicum fits into the coursework?

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