Sarah Williams
Director of the Leventhal Center of Advanced Urbanism and Civic Data Design Lab, MIT.
Sarah Williams is an Associate Professor of Technology and Urban Planning at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) where she is also Director of the Civic Data Design Lab and the Leventhal Center for Advanced Urbanism. Williams combines her training in computation and design to create communication strategies that expose urban policy issues to broad audiences and create civic change.
Williams will explain how we can use data as a tool for empowerment rather than oppression, something Williams calls "Data Action", which is also the title of her recent book. Data Action seeks to provide guidance for using data toward the benefit of society, learning from the ways we have used data unethically in the past and illustrating ways we can use it more ethically and creatively in the future. Williams will illustrate the seven Data Action principles through her diverse research projects spanning topics of Central American migration, popular transit in Africa, ghost cities in China, and People Power AI.
Williams is co-founder and developer of Envelope.city, a web-based software product that visualizes and allows users to modify zoning in New York City.
Director, Leventhal Center of Advanced Urbanism and Civic Data Design Lab; MIT. Sarah Williams.
Before coming to MIT, Williams was Co-Director of the Spatial Information Design Lab at Columbia University’s Graduate School of Architecture Planning and Preservation (GSAPP). Her design work has been widely exhibited, including work in the Guggenheim, the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), Venice Biennale, and the Cooper Hewitt Museum. Williams has won numerous awards, including being named one of the top 25 technology planners, Game Changer by Metropolis Magazine, and most recently won an Anthem Award for the best use of data in the humanitarian sector.
Published April 2, 2025
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