Urban Insights was founded to “bring the benefit of big data tools and the application of data science techniques to the transportation industry, which hasn’t yet benefited from getting access to these tools and capabilities in the way the private industry has,” says Phil Silver, Director of Business Development at Urban Insights. Recently, Urban Insights agreed to be a founding corporate partner of Rady’s Center for Business Analytics, to help support the Center’s initiatives to provide practical, real-life experience for students and faculty and use big-data applications to create ongoing solutions and impact for the business world.
UC San Diego students already intern for Cubic Transportation Systems (Urban Insights’ parent company) every summer and some of the graduates go on to work there full-time. “The fact that we’re a predictive analytics services provider and the Rady School is developing new analytics practitioners adds a whole new layer of collaboration,” explains Silver. “So our interest is in promoting the use of these tools and techniques, introducing MBAs into the public transportation industry as a potential career option, and also have access to some of the finest academics that exist anywhere to help make sure that what we do is cutting-edge.”
“The Rady School has the international reach that lines up with Urban Insights’ worldwide efforts and maximizes the potential to expand our analytics performance and customer relationships even further.”
A positive impact on Rady School academics is another factor. “As a private firm on the cutting edge of this technology being associated with a leading research and teaching institution helps build our credibility. We also provide a great channel for Rady MBA students to complete projects that not only fulfill their degree requirements but also serve the public interest by improving the performance and operations of public transportation systems using big data tools and deep analytics,” adds Silver.
Indeed, the Rady School’s partnership with Urban Insights will continue to enable students to work with real data towards real solutions and impact. With the population predicted to skyrocket by two billion in the next thirty years, the future of public transportation is becoming an increasingly important issue with optimization needs to be addressed. Cubic’s response is their vision for the future of intelligent design and mobility, NextCity™, which envisions to improve the ability of all transportation modes to operate by connecting all means of transportation together.
“The question is how to optimize all available modes of transportation (including public transportation and private shared-services, tolling, parking, bicycle share, roadway networks) and provide traveler convenience with the ability for city agencies and authorities to manage demand in real-time. This includes understanding the impact of one mode on another and visualizing how to manage disruptions without disrupting the performance of transportation networks,” Silver explains. “These kinds of analytics techniques that Urban Insights is working on are at the core of solving the problem.”
To learn more about the Rady School’s Center for Data Analytics, read:
Lauren Herr is the Social Media Manager for the Rady School. In her free time she can be found snapping landscape pictures and taking advantage of San Diego’s amazing beaches and coffee shops.