VIP SMUR

Surrogate Modeling for Urban Regeneration

Welcome to the project page of the VIP team Surrogate Modeling for Urban Regeneration at Georgia Tech. This course is led by Dr. Patrick Kastner, head of the Sustainable Urban Systems Lab.

📝 The Problem

Critics argue that the concept of sustainability merely maintains the status quo rather than fostering true regeneration. This research course challenges this view by developing software tools that go beyond environmental and economic concerns to regenerate urban systems with a focus of empowering communities and decision-makers themselves.

Our models will help strengthen urban decision-making, enabling real-time testing of interventions. By involving all urban stakeholders, we make regenerative cities tangible, actionable, and inclusive. Our work will address:

  • Air quality / pollution / natural ventilation potential

  • Microclimate assessment (outdoor thermal comfort, heat islands)

  • Flood, stormwater / water runoff

  • Mobility / walkability / transportation

  • Global warming / climate change (heat waves)

  • Urban decarbonization

  • Urban building energy / district energy

  • Environmental justice

🎯 Goals

Conventional environmental simulation approaches in urban design are time-consuming and often incompatible with the fast-paced decision-making processes. This project aims to revolutionize this outdated paradigm by developing surrogate models that accelerate simulations (typically via machine learning), thereby offering real-time feedback to urban decision-makers, such as architects, urban designers, and policymakers.

Our goal is to seamlessly integrate sustainability considerations into every step of urban decision-making processes by integrating our models with industry-standard CAD tools such as Rhino and Revit and others.

✅ Interests and Prerequisites

We seek an interdisciplinary team of highly motivated students. Experience with Python/C#, machine learning and simulation modeling will be advantageous. We plan to form teams that consist of:

  • Computer Science / Engineering (Civil, Environmental, Mechanical, etc.)

  • (Applied) Industrial and Systems Engineering

  • Architecture & Urban Design

  • Public Policy

  • Etc.

If your major is not mentioned above, please contact us to see if your background might be a good fit! We’re happy to help.

📊 Project Overview

Our current and previous projects include topics on:

  1. Energy in Buildings

  2. Urban Climate

  3. Mobility and Walkability

  4. Urban Planning, Design, and Neighborhood Processes