Data-featured computer science programme students’ KASE employability traits – MSc Urban Informatics Programme as a case study

TY - CHAP

T1 - Data-featured computer science programme students’ KASE employability traits – MSc Urban Informatics Programme as a case study

AU - Canty, Raphael

AU - Li, Yijing

PY - 2024/1/25

Y1 - 2024/1/25

N2 - In light of the big data spikes in contemporary urban contexts, there is a rising demand in the employment market for specialists capable of mining urban data, analysing the data, telling stories with the data, visualising the data, and perhaps most importantly, generating data-driven insights for policymakers (Li and Crowther, 2023). As such, the term Urban Informatics has been coined since the 2010s (Foth et al, 2011) to highlight data-driven problem-solving knowledge and skills for urban science practitioners. It has been interpreted by Kontokosta (2021) from the perspective of capability training in shifting modes of learning, working and decision-making; especially when leveraging novel sources of urban data into urban management and policy analysis (Thakuriah and Zellner, 2015), which denotes its multidisciplinary nature in borrowing a wide range of methodologies from multiplesubjects, such as Informatics, Geography, Organisational Behaviour, Planning and Social Sciences.The MSc Urban Informatics programme (MSc UI) was launched in 2018 at King’s College London, by the Centre for Urban Studies and Progress (CUSP) London, the Department of Informatics.The design was to enable students to “study how rich behavioural data from cities and their citizens can be collected, analysed, understood, and communicated through computation”, in order to “inform improvements that can increase the wellbeing of city residents, whether by government organisations or industries involved in providing services in cities” (Li and Crowther, 2023, pp104-117). Hence the programme has a strong remit to equip students with the rounded technical, analytical andcommunication skills embedded in Urban Informatics towards near-future employability.

AB - In light of the big data spikes in contemporary urban contexts, there is a rising demand in the employment market for specialists capable of mining urban data, analysing the data, telling stories with the data, visualising the data, and perhaps most importantly, generating data-driven insights for policymakers (Li and Crowther, 2023). As such, the term Urban Informatics has been coined since the 2010s (Foth et al, 2011) to highlight data-driven problem-solving knowledge and skills for urban science practitioners. It has been interpreted by Kontokosta (2021) from the perspective of capability training in shifting modes of learning, working and decision-making; especially when leveraging novel sources of urban data into urban management and policy analysis (Thakuriah and Zellner, 2015), which denotes its multidisciplinary nature in borrowing a wide range of methodologies from multiplesubjects, such as Informatics, Geography, Organisational Behaviour, Planning and Social Sciences.The MSc Urban Informatics programme (MSc UI) was launched in 2018 at King’s College London, by the Centre for Urban Studies and Progress (CUSP) London, the Department of Informatics.The design was to enable students to “study how rich behavioural data from cities and their citizens can be collected, analysed, understood, and communicated through computation”, in order to “inform improvements that can increase the wellbeing of city residents, whether by government organisations or industries involved in providing services in cities” (Li and Crowther, 2023, pp104-117). Hence the programme has a strong remit to equip students with the rounded technical, analytical andcommunication skills embedded in Urban Informatics towards near-future employability.

M3 - Chapter

SP - 71

BT - Advance HE: Lighting the Labyrinth: enhancing student success through the 3Es

ER -