City Science - MIT Media Lab

Excited to share that our PhD student Andres Rico (Andrés Rico ) and our Director Kent Larson (Kent Larson ) just published “Making Sense of Sensors: Improving LLM Interpretation of Time-Series Data”.

The problem is simple but significant: we’re collecting massive amounts of sensor data from our homes and buildings, but most people have no idea what it actually means. A spike in water consumption? A pattern in energy use? Without technical expertise, it’s all just numbers on a screen.

In this research, they used Large Language Models paired with structured contextual information to transform raw sensor data into clear, human-readable insights.

Read the full paper: https://lnkd.in/etaKXUbV

mitmedialab

Congratulations to Ivan and Xabi for winning the MIT AI for Microelectronics Manufacturing Hackathon with Silicon Paella—an AI assistant that turns years of messy fab data (machine logs, technician notes, equipment manuals) into instant, grounded answers during live incidents.

Huge congrats to Naroa Coretti, Yasushi Sakai, Kaleigh Spears, Lisa Liang, and Matt Smith on graduation! 🎉 You all brought so much to our group!

The 13th World Urban Forum (WUF13) was held from 17–22 May 2026 in Baku, Azerbaijan, bringing representatives of governments, cities, policymakers, civil society and academia from around the world under the organisation of UN-Habitat.

The City Science Lab Network, including the City Science Lab Hamburg and Guadalajara along with their teams and partners, contributed to a dynamic programme of sessions, exchanges and collaborative activities throughout the Forum.

Across the WUF Academy Campus, Voices from Cities, networking events, SDG in Action and the Expo, the labs presented and discussed projects related to urban data, digital twins, citizen participation, AI for cities, climate and resilience, highlighting how collaborative innovation can help shape more inclusive and sustainable urban futures by creating spaces for exchange, dialogue, experimentation and co-creation, while connecting cities, researchers and communities from across the globe.

An honor to welcome Tea Master Soryo Matsumura to the MIT Media Lab!

We explored the System Architecture of Chanoyu and a select group of our team members experienced the tea ceremony firsthand.

We loved hosting Zuriñe, Scientific Director of City Science Lab Gipuzkoa, at our Spring Member Event! She discovered new research and innovation, dived into interactive workshops, and witnessed live research presentations from her own students, Pau, Nere and Xabi, who were working at MIT. A special moment seeing their work in action!

We’re thrilled to have hosted the launch of the Annexa’t Program with our collaborators from , Andorra Telecom, and the Andorran Government.

Learn more about the project here: https://www.ari.ad/projectes/node-urban-impact

Exciting news! MIT City Science is welcoming guests from Andorra Research and Innovation, Andorra Telecom, and the Andorran Government to launch the Annexa’t Program: a strategic talent initiative led by Andorra Research + Innovation (AR+I) to attract, develop, connect, and retain Andorran talent through research, innovation, and international opportunities.

The program strengthens the link between Andorra and its students, graduates, and professionals by creating high-value academic and career pathways aligned with the country’s future priorities.

Tuesday April 28th
9:30am ET (Boston Time)

Learn more: https://www.media.mit.edu/events/the-andorra-talent-project/

Watch the Livestream here: https://www.youtube.com//streams

We’re excited to welcome some new faces to the City Science group!

Christine Higgins, our new Administrative Assistant; Iván Piris Prieto from Tecnun – University of Navarra, working on urban mobility and accessibility with Naroa; visiting student Jason Kuo from Taipei Tech, focusing on robotics and last-meter delivery; and Pablo Fabra Mora from Universitat Oberta de Catalunya, working on residential development systems modeling. Welcome all!

This morning we had the chance to go behind the scenes at MIT’s Central Utility Plant. An incredible look at the infrastructure that keeps campus running every day.

Huge thank you to Joe Higgins and Jon Sepich for the generous tour and for sharing your knowledge with us and Christine Higgins for coordinating everything 🙌