The School of Cities professional programs portfolio equips urban professionals with the practical skills, strategic insight, and interdisciplinary knowledge needed to address complex urban challenges. Designed for working professionals across public, private, and non-profit sectors, these offerings combine applied learning with real-world urban issues.
All these microcredentials will be hosted online, with the exception of the Leading Urban Change Studio.
Misinformation and the City
Explore how misinformation shapes public understanding, trust, and decision-making in urban contexts. This course examines the spread of misinformation through digital platforms, its impacts on public policy and civic life, and strategies for identifying, analyzing, and responding to misleading information in professional settings.
Urban Data Science Part I and II
Develop the technical and analytical skills needed to work with urban data across sectors. This course introduces learners to machine learning and artificial intelligence methods with a strong emphasis on applications for urban datasets. Methods will be used to understand how to develop a workflow for data sourcing, management, analysis, and interpretation while emphasizing ethical data practices and evidence informed decision-making in cities.
Urban Data Analysis with Python
Build practical coding skills using Python to analyze, manage, and visualize urban data. Through hands-on exercises and real-world datasets, participants will learn techniques for data cleaning, automation, geospatial analysis, and workflow optimization to support evidence-informed decision-making across urban sectors.
Leading Urban Change: Strategizing for Action
This interdisciplinary microcredential supports professionals leading complex urban initiatives within government, non-profit, community, and private-sector contexts. Through applied learning, systems thinking, and leadership development, participants will strengthen their capacity to advance collaborative urban change projects in their workplaces and communities.
Leading Urban Change Studio
A four-week, hybrid intensive course designed for professionals seeking to apply the concepts, tools, and frameworks explored in the Leading Urban Change: Strategizing for Action microcredential to a real-world project or initiative. Using a studio-based approach, participants work directly on an urban challenge, policy initiative, program, or organizational project from their own context while receiving guidance from subject matter experts and feedback from cross-sector peers. Through facilitated workshops, collaborative problem-solving, and structured project development activities, participants strengthen implementation strategies, test assumptions, identify barriers and opportunities, and develop actionable next steps to advance meaningful urban change in their communities and organizations.
Advanced Data Visualization
Take your data storytelling skills to the next level through advanced visualization techniques and tools. Learners will explore methods for communicating complex urban data clearly and effectively through interactive dashboards, spatial visualizations, and compelling visual narratives for professional audiences.
AI, Urban Data, and Governance
Investigate how emerging technologies, AI, and urban data systems are shaping cities and public policy. This microcredential, designed for urban professionals seeking to understand how to integrate AI into their workflow, may include prompt engineering, predictive modeling, smart cities and IoT applications, data ethics, scenario planning, and the governance implications of AI-enabled decision-making.
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