Urban Informatics Course | IIT Kharagpur | Prof. Debapratim Pandit | Smart Cities
Course Details
| Exam Registration | 272 |
|---|---|
| Course Status | Ongoing |
| Course Type | Elective |
| Language | English |
| Duration | 12 weeks |
| Categories | Architecture and Planning, Urban Infrastructure Planning and Management |
| Credit Points | 3 |
| Level | Undergraduate/Postgraduate |
| Start Date | 19 Jan 2026 |
| End Date | 10 Apr 2026 |
| Enrollment Ends | 02 Feb 2026 |
| Exam Registration Ends | 20 Feb 2026 |
| Exam Date | 19 Apr 2026 IST |
| NCrF Level | 4.5 — 8.0 |
Master the Future of Cities with IIT Kharagpur's Urban Informatics Course
In an era of rapid urbanization, the ability to harness data and technology is paramount for building sustainable, efficient, and livable cities. Urban Informatics emerges as the critical interdisciplinary field at this intersection, and a new comprehensive course from the Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur (IIT Kharagpur) offers a unique opportunity to master it. Led by renowned expert Prof. Debapratim Pandit, this 12-week program is designed to equip students and professionals with the skills to solve complex urban challenges.
Meet Your Instructor: Prof. Debapratim Pandit
Prof. Debapratim Pandit is a Professor at the Department of Architecture and Regional Planning, IIT Kharagpur. With a PhD from the University of Tokyo in land-use transportation modeling and over 16 years of teaching and professional experience, he is a leading voice in urban planning and technology.
He teaches Advanced Transportation Planning, Urban Informatics, and Urban Utilities and Services. As the head of the well-known City Future Lab, he has guided over 70 postgraduate and 10 doctoral students. His practical expertise is demonstrated through a wide array of consultancy projects and the development of innovative products like PUBBS—a bicycle sharing system and AI-powered software for urban bus transit planning for the Government of India.
Course Overview: What is Urban Informatics?
This course is a deep dive into how data science, programming, machine learning, and the Internet of Things (IoT) converge to analyze and improve urban systems. It moves from foundational concepts to integrated system design, providing a holistic understanding of the smart city ecosystem.
- Duration: 12 Weeks
- Level: Undergraduate/Postgraduate
- Categories: Architecture and Planning, Urban Infrastructure Planning and Management
Who Should Enroll?
This course is ideal for a diverse range of students and professionals looking to future-proof their skills:
- Bachelor's students in Architecture, Planning, Civil Engineering, Computer Science, IT, or Social Sciences.
- Master's students in City/Urban Planning, Urban Engineering, Transportation Planning, Spatial Data Science, or related technology fields.
Prerequisites: Basic knowledge of computers and urban planning concepts.
Industry Support: The curriculum is highly relevant for Architecture, Urban Planning, Infrastructure, IT/ITeS, and Consultancy firms developing solutions for urban areas.
Detailed 12-Week Course Curriculum
| Week | Core Topics |
|---|---|
| Week 1 | Introduction to Urban Informatics: Smart cities, data-driven governance, digital infrastructure, case studies. |
| Week 2 | Types of Urban Data & Databases: Data formats, relational & NoSQL databases, normalization. |
| Week 3 | Data Access & Management: SQL, APIs, web scraping, data cleaning, cloud storage. |
| Week 4 | Programming with Python: Syntax, control structures, functions, object-oriented programming. |
| Week 5 | Data Analysis & Visualization: Pandas, Matplotlib, dashboards, exploratory data analysis. |
| Week 6 | Introduction to Machine Learning: Foundational theories, model building, training, and evaluation. |
| Week 7 | Supervised Learning: Classification, regression, decision trees, SVM with urban case studies. |
| Week 8 | Unsupervised Learning: Clustering (K-means), PCA, association rule mining (Apriori). |
| Week 9 | Deep Learning: Neural networks, CNN, LSTM for time series modeling. |
| Week 10 | IoT Fundamentals: Architecture, sensors, microcontrollers, protocols (MQTT/HTTP), cloud integration. |
| Week 11 | Arduino & Prototyping: IDE, serial communication, firmware basics, urban IoT projects. |
| Week 12 | Integrated Urban Systems: Geospatial analysis (PostGIS), real-time dashboards (Tableau), urban simulation, bus/bicycle sharing optimization. |
Key Learning Outcomes
By the end of this course, participants will be able to:
- Understand the ecosystem of smart cities and data-driven urban governance.
- Program in Python for data analysis, visualization, and building predictive models.
- Apply machine learning and deep learning techniques to urban prediction problems.
- Design and prototype IoT-based solutions for urban monitoring and management.
- Integrate data storage, processing, analytics, and visualization into end-to-end urban systems.
- Develop practical insights through real-world case studies from the instructor's own research and projects.
Recommended Textbooks & Resources
The course draws from authoritative texts to provide a strong theoretical foundation alongside practical skills:
- An Introduction to Relational Database Theory by Hugh Darwen
- Urban Informatics and Big Data by Michael Batty
- Smart Cities: Big Data, Civic Hackers, and the Quest for a New Utopia by Anthony M. Townsend
- Python in a Nutshell by Alex Martelli et al.
- Machine Learning by Tom Mitchell
- Python for Data Analysis by Wes McKinney
- Machine Learning: A Probabilistic Perspective by Kevin P. Murphy
- Internet of Things: A Hands-On-Approach by Arshdeep Bahga and Vijay Madisetti
Why Choose This Urban Informatics Course?
This course stands out due to its unique blend of academic rigor and real-world application, directly from one of India's premier institutions. Learning from Prof. Pandit means gaining insights from an expert who is actively shaping India's urban mobility landscape through groundbreaking projects. The curriculum's progression from data fundamentals to integrated AI and IoT systems ensures you gain not just isolated skills, but the ability to conceptualize and build comprehensive smart city solutions.
Whether you're a student aiming to enter the field of urban tech or a professional seeking to upgrade your skillset, this course provides the essential toolkit to become a leader in the future of urban development.
Enroll Now →