The Urban Collaboratory partners with communities to solve on-the-ground challenges such as making drinking water safer, improving infrastructure, increasing access to healthy food, and much more. Collaboratory team members work directly with city stakeholders to identify their needs and develop solutions guided by smart city technology and novel urban design methods.
The Urban Collaboratory’s work starts in the city itself, and then connects to campus —not the other way around. Researchers work with local stakeholders to define and scope initiatives based on the pressing challenges facing urban centers. Smart city technologies are designed into scalable and robust urban solutions by Urban Collaboratory teams before being implemented at pilot-scale in cities.
Urban Collaboratory projects integrate information technologies and sensing in a comprehensive fashion to observe, manage, and control urban processes—all with the goal of improving residents’ health and overall quality of life. These initiatives create what are known as “smart and healthy cities.”
“It’s very intentional for us to get faculty members out of their labs and out of their classrooms to work directly in the community. That’s where we can have the most impact. Rather than pushing research agendas on client cities, this model embraces collaboration as a means of better understanding the challenges and needs that the community identifies.”
When cities use technology to solve problems, they become “smart cities.”
Urban Collaboratory researchers are working with Ypsilanti stakeholders to improve social and water resources in the community.
Learn MoreThe Urban Collaboratory is working with Chicago stakeholders to explore how different forms of transit can improve access to food, healthcare, and education.
Learn MoreResearchers are working to demonstrate how incentivizing individual travelers to adjust travel choices can minimize energy consumption.
Learn MoreIn Grand Rapids, the Urban Collaboratory focuses on water and social issues.
Learn MoreLocated in Southern Vermont, the rivertown of Brattleboro, VT is located on Vermont's eastern border along the Connecticut River.
Learn MoreUrban Collaboratory researchers have partnered with Flint community members to support grassroots efforts to increase access to safe drinking water.
Learn MoreDetroit stakeholders are working with the Urban Collaboratory to understand and improve their water resources.
Learn MoreThe Urban Collaboratory’s work in Ann Arbor largely focuses on water issues.
Learn MoreA team from the Urban Collaboratory has partnered with the Jamaican Ministry of Health to enhance public health in Sandy Bay.
Learn MoreThe State of Michigan is known for its amazing natural resources, agriculture, academic institutions, fresh water and the automotive industry.
Learn MoreWhile each city we serve is very unique, seven themes crop up again and again, no matter the location. Within these seven themes, our research aims to answer questions including: How do we pay for smart cities? How can cities enable social mobility? How can energy become clean and affordable? And much more.
These themes are the focus of our research, and all of our projects are designed to create solutions in at least one of these areas.
August 27, 2019
U.S. Rep. Debbie Dingell raised her voice Tuesday night when a constituent suggested she and other lawmakers aren’t approaching the issue of PFAS with enough urgency.
Learn MoreFebruary 6, 2023
U-M CEE engineers have received two grants totaling more than $1.17 million from the Erb Family Foundation to research regional coordination, with a focus on optimizing wastewater and stormwater systems operations, and assisting residents and municipalities in managing these water issues.
Learn MoreOctober 19, 2022
CEE Professors Carol Menassa and Vineet Kamat are the lead PIs on a project that is looking at long-term ways to provide new solutions for people who use wheelchairs for mobility in indoor and outdoor built environments, with a goal of improving their independence and reducing health care costs.
Learn MoreJuly 5, 2022
UM-CEE Professor Glen Daigger was the principal investigator on the six-person independent panel examining Metro Detroit’s historic flooding in Summer 2021. The goal of the recently-issued report is to provide infrastructure solutions to address short-, medium-, and long-term flooding problems.
Learn MoreNovember 12, 2021
University of Michigan leads a collaboration to advance a renewable methane ecosystem. Cattle are supremely efficient at digesting tough materials, and a proposed energy-production system based, in part, on cow stomachs could generate 40% more power from municipal waste streams.
Learn MoreNovember 12, 2021
In areas where floods were once rare, now some neighborhoods are flooding repeatedly. Stormwater sewers are being overwhelmed by more intense storms. Most of the solutions call for big pipes and expensive construction. A group of researchers is instead helping cities use their current systems better
Learn MoreDecember 8, 2020
U-M is working with the Great Lakes Water Authority to investigate the transition to a biological treatment process to not only remove phosphorus from wastewater but also to concentrate it into a form where it can be recovered and turned into recycled fertilizer.
Learn MoreOctober 12, 2020
Professor SangHyun Lee and team are placing inexpensive wearable sensors on construction workers to measure things such as anxiety, fatigue and stress on active construction sites.
Learn MoreOctober 12, 2020
At U-M CEE, we're building on our enduring legacy to tackle some of the most complex challenges facing our society and our planet. More than any other engineering discipline, we are in service to society advancing the common good. Check out our video to see why it's great to be CEE!
Learn MoreAugust 5, 2020
University of Michigan researchers are developing better plasma technology that can destroy PFAS compounds.
Learn MoreAugust 27, 2019
U.S. Rep. Debbie Dingell raised her voice Tuesday night when a constituent suggested she and other lawmakers aren’t approaching the issue of PFAS with enough urgency.
Learn MoreFebruary 6, 2023
U-M CEE engineers have received two grants totaling more than $1.17 million from the Erb Family Foundation to research regional coordination, with a focus on optimizing wastewater and stormwater systems operations, and assisting residents and municipalities in managing these water issues.
Learn MoreOctober 19, 2022
CEE Professors Carol Menassa and Vineet Kamat are the lead PIs on a project that is looking at long-term ways to provide new solutions for people who use wheelchairs for mobility in indoor and outdoor built environments, with a goal of improving their independence and reducing health care costs.
Learn MoreJuly 5, 2022
UM-CEE Professor Glen Daigger was the principal investigator on the six-person independent panel examining Metro Detroit’s historic flooding in Summer 2021. The goal of the recently-issued report is to provide infrastructure solutions to address short-, medium-, and long-term flooding problems.
Learn MoreNovember 12, 2021
University of Michigan leads a collaboration to advance a renewable methane ecosystem. Cattle are supremely efficient at digesting tough materials, and a proposed energy-production system based, in part, on cow stomachs could generate 40% more power from municipal waste streams.
Learn MoreNovember 12, 2021
In areas where floods were once rare, now some neighborhoods are flooding repeatedly. Stormwater sewers are being overwhelmed by more intense storms. Most of the solutions call for big pipes and expensive construction. A group of researchers is instead helping cities use their current systems better
Learn MoreDecember 8, 2020
U-M is working with the Great Lakes Water Authority to investigate the transition to a biological treatment process to not only remove phosphorus from wastewater but also to concentrate it into a form where it can be recovered and turned into recycled fertilizer.
Learn MoreOctober 12, 2020
Professor SangHyun Lee and team are placing inexpensive wearable sensors on construction workers to measure things such as anxiety, fatigue and stress on active construction sites.
Learn MoreOctober 12, 2020
At U-M CEE, we're building on our enduring legacy to tackle some of the most complex challenges facing our society and our planet. More than any other engineering discipline, we are in service to society advancing the common good. Check out our video to see why it's great to be CEE!
Learn MoreAugust 5, 2020
University of Michigan researchers are developing better plasma technology that can destroy PFAS compounds.
Learn MoreAugust 27, 2019
U.S. Rep. Debbie Dingell raised her voice Tuesday night when a constituent suggested she and other lawmakers aren’t approaching the issue of PFAS with enough urgency.
Learn More