Metropolis Initiative

The Metropolis Initiative advances urban technological innovations that make cities more sustainable, resilient, and equitable. Instead of passively responding to technological advances, the Metropolis Initiative envisions a future where researchers and cities collaborate to actively develop, use, and integrate innovations and technologies to chart intelligent pathways towards a set of desired outcomes.

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A person (face not visible) wearing a white lab coat and blue disposable gloves holds a square lab plate in their left hand. Their right hand holds a pair of tweezers which they are using to pick up one of several small green plants on the plate. — Jonathan Conway, assistant professor of chemical and biological engineering, received an innovation grant for the project “Engineering symbiotic plant-microbe interactions for sustainable agriculture.” Photo by Sameer A. Khan/Fotobuddy

Since 2008, innovation funds have fostered research in AI fairness, sustainable agriculture, drug discovery and more

Plaque that reads "junior faculty awards 2024".

Junior faculty awards recognize outstanding teaching and research

Pedestrians crossing the street in New York City. — Pedestrians crossing a street in New York City (image from adobe.stock.com).

Retro-reflectors could help future cities keep their cool

Dense rows of low crops growing in a field, with trees in the distance and a clear blue sky.

Princeton IP Accelerator funding awarded to support promising new technologies

Hazy sunlight filtering through ranked skyscrapers — Photo by iStock

A good way to cool a sweltering urban canyon? Put a lid on it.

Trees and street signs partially submerged in river water with a buildings standing in floodwater in the background. — Flooding in Fenton, Missouri, in 2008. Photo by Jocelyn Augustino, FEMA

Climate change likely to drive more floods in some parts of the U.S., fewer in others

Sigrid Adriaenssens

Civil and Environmental Engineering

Portrait Elie Bou-Zeid

Elie Bou-Zeid

Civil and Environmental Engineering

Minjie Chen

Electrical and Computer Engineering

Luc Deike

Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering

Jaime Fernández Fisac

Electrical and Computer Engineering

Michael Freedman

Computer Science

Maria Garlock

Civil and Environmental Engineering

Portrait of Branko Glisic

Branko Glišić

Civil and Environmental Engineering

Jürgen Hackl

Civil and Environmental Engineering

Felix Heide

Computer Science

Marcus Hultmark

Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering

Peter Jaffé

Civil and Environmental Engineering

Kyle Jamieson

Computer Science

Niraj Jha

Electrical and Computer Engineering

Yiguang Ju

Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering

Alain Kornhauser

Operations Research and Financial Engineering

Amit Levy

Computer Science

Ning Lin

Civil and Environmental Engineering

Lynn Loo

Chemical and Biological Engineering

Jyotirmoy Mandal

Civil and Environmental Engineering

Christos Maravelias

Chemical and Biological Engineering

Reed Maxwell

Civil and Environmental Engineering

Forrest Meggers

Prateek Mittal

Electrical and Computer Engineering

Reza Moini

Civil and Environmental Engineering

Andrés Monroy-Hernández

Computer Science

Anu Ramaswami

Civil and Environmental Engineering

Zhiyong "Jason" Ren

Civil and Environmental Engineering

Olga Russakovsky

Computer Science

Howard Stone

Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering

Naveen Verma

Electrical and Computer Engineering

Claire White

Civil and Environmental Engineering

Gerard Wysocki

Electrical and Computer Engineering