Graduate Certificate of Urban Informatics

Overview

The Graduate Certificate of Urban Informatics focuses on designing for healthy city futures by embracing creative and speculative design thinking, cross-disciplinarity, alongside engagement with people, data and advanced technologies. Cities are growing at an unprecedented rate with over fifty percent of the world’s population now living in cities. This mass urbanisation presents urgent challenges, such as accommodating dense populations, responding to climate change, public health, housing affordability, urban mobility, and growing spatial complexity. These challenges cannot be addressed using traditional twentieth century urban planning methods – new multi-dimensional approaches are needed by professionals that embrace three dimensional space, big-data along with change over time, temperature, humidity, sun and shade, air quality, land use, safety, alongside economic, environmental, social and cultural aspects of the city.

Graduate will have skills and knowledge to respond to these critical challenges and be prepared to make meaningful contributions in careers such as specialist urban informatics consultant, or when completed in addition to a professional degree such as planning, landscape architect or architect, urban designer in private practice or local government positions in planning authorities and local city councils.

Aims and Objectives

Students who successfully complete the Graduate Certificate of Urban Informatics will be able to apply specialised knowledge in Urban Informatics and will be able to: 

• critically reflect on and apply knowledge of contemporary Urban theory demonstrating comprehension of international and local planning theory and history, urban economics, sustainability and strategic planning

• apply analytical design research methods with an understanding of sourcing credible, relevant data to investigate, analyse and synthesise complex information, problems, concepts and theories and apply these to the broader social, economic and environmental urban processes

• apply spatial thinking and innovation approaches in a range of settings and scales while critically presenting design research results to explain, interpret and evaluate the impact urban situation

• communicate clearly and concisely using a range of media 

• apply technical design modelling and planning skills to research, analyse, design, and evaluate plans, policies, strategies and guidelines, land uses allocations, resources and manage implementation processes.

Career opportunities

Graduate will have skills and knowledge to respond to these critical challenges and be prepared to make meaningful contributions in careers as specialist urban informatics consultants, or when completed in addition to a professional degree such as planning, landscape architecture or architecture, as urban designers in private practices or local government positions in planning authorities and local city councils.

Graduate skills

The Swinburne graduate attributes signify that Swinburne intends that its teaching courses assist all its graduates to be: 

• capable in their chosen professional, vocational or study areas

• entrepreneurial in contributing to innovation and development within their business, workplace or community

• effective and ethical in work and community situations

• adaptable and able to manage change

• aware of local and international environments in which they will be contributing.

Maximum Academic Credit

The maximum level of credit that can be granted for the Graduate Certificate of Urban Informatics is 25 credit points (normally two units).