Anthony Vanky

Anthony Vanky, Ph.D., is an Assistant Professor at Columbia University’s Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation and co-director for workforce engagement of the NSF Center for Smart Streetscapes. His research focuses on emerging practices using digital data and pervasive technologies to understand and shape better cities, while centering residents’ individual and lived experiences.

Trained as an architect (Tulane University), urban designer (MIT, S.M.), and urban planner (MIT, Ph.D.), he focuses on technology-based practices in urban planning and design. Vanky’s research considers the use of digital data and pervasive sensing technologies in designing, planning, and evaluating urban environments and spans the disciplines of urban design, urban technologies, computational social science, innovation studies, and public health.

Vanky has experience building innovative practices within the university, having helped shape the urban technology degree at the University of Michigan and developed MIT designX, an academic accelerator dedicated to advancing innovation and entrepreneurship in design, cities, and the built environment, as its first academic program manager. He was also a research lead at the MIT Senseable City Lab, a multidisciplinary research group. He bridged the lab’s engagement with industry and the public as the Lab’s partner and outreach strategist. Vanky has consulted and widely presented on topics of design, technology, and urbanism, including at Harvard University, the British Government, and several dozen private and public organizations worldwide. His design work has been exhibited at the Venice Biennale, the Dutch Design Week, the Detroit Month of Design, New Orleans DesCours, and the Gwangju Design Biennial, among others.