Last weekend—two hundred and forty eight weeks after we started working on this degree program—our first batch of students walked across the stage at Hill Auditorium in Ann Arbor and became alumni. As students embarked upon the cliche “first day of the rest of their lives” (groan!) us as faculty and staff celebrated the end of the beginning. With the curriculum stood up and first graduates out the door, now we double down.

As the cohort sizes scale up, we turn classes that were prototypes into the foundations of this education. Events that we tried because, why not, become regular things. Spreadsheets made in haste to just figure it out become crib sheets that power the operations of a degree program and community of nearly 200 students. Being part of graduation I had the feeling that we were turning, right there in that very moment, from a sprout into a sapling. The tree grows leaf by leaf and ring by ring. Refine, layer, reach.

Through all of this year-over-year effort, the one thing I think we have most ‘right’ at this moment is the sense of community amongst our students. It’s probably the hardest thing to scale, so keeping this feeling is going to take everyone putting effort into maintaining a spirit of shared endeavor. Juniors, sophomores, and first years: this is your work now. Hold on to the collective and make it your own.

Aakash Narayan, elected by his peers as the student speaker at graduation, touched on similar themes in his remarks. Continue below for the full comments by Aakash. We’re proud of you, Class of 2025, now go shake it up out there!

💬 Hello! This is the newsletter of the Urban Technology program at University of Michigan, in which we explore the ways that data, connectivity, computation, and automation can be harnessed to nurture and improve urban life. If you’re new here, try this short video of current students describing urban technology in their own words or this 90 second explainer video.

🎓 What Good is an Empty Big House?

Good morning! My name is Aakash Narayan, and I am one of the graduates in the inaugural Urban Technology cohort here at Taubman. When I first found out that I would be nominated to represent our entire class, I was really, really nervous. And while I was trying to clear my head, I thought about how unique this specific ceremony is compared to all the other college graduations.

Many of us started college on a frigid January day, with wind rather than sun in our faces. While everyone else on campus was asking former students about what classes to take, and finding their professors on RatemyProfessors, we attended half our classes with a mystery of what to expect. But our cohort embraced our role as pioneers and we supported and helped each other in a way I have never experienced in a classroom.

Now, the 20 of us are the only people who can claim "I was the first to graduate with this degree," not only at Taubman College and the University of Michigan, but as far as we know, the entire country.

So, how do I encapsulate our three and a half years as guinea pigs? How do I best describe our journey and explain to all of you what we learned? Well, I want to do it by answering a question we students are all too familiar with. What is an Urban Technologist?

The "professional" answer is that urban technologists leverage the tools of the future to improve how all people fundamentally live, work, and play. Over the years, however, I have learned a different definition.

Urban technologists are the ultimate collaborators. We practice empathy and have a passion for serving others. Urban technologists are the best problem solvers in the world. We blend creativity and logic, and work to make the best of every situation, no matter the adversity, no matter the constraints.

My biggest takeaway from this program is something I learned in the classroom just as much as I did outside of it. If you don't remember anything else, just remember this about urban technologists: We believe in the power of people. People make the place.

Not only do humans physically design and construct places, but it's people who bring an almost indescribable spirit to every environment. A restaurant or store is nothing without its owner and service. A park or streetscape may be beautifully designed, but it only comes alive when it is interacted with. The Big House, which we were all in yesterday, is a marvelous structure, but it's only famous when 110,000 people fill the stands.

We all challenged ourselves, in every assignment, to not just change how a place looks, but worked to inspire moments, interactions and memories that make the places we go to so amazing.

Our UT studio, where we spent hours and hours every semester, was my favorite place on campus, not because of the natural light or the fact that it has a couch. It's because of the conversations, the struggles, the presentations, and the celebrations that the twenty of us have gotten to share in that place.

My Michigan experience wouldn't have been the same without my graduating cohort, so an imaginary toast to all of you and your families. I wish we could all continue this journey and start practicing everything we have learned together to create our own urban utopia, but I am also so excited to see how everyone's different interests and ambitions elevate cities across the world!

Thank you and Congratulations!

These weeks: Surprise delight from the graduation hooplah? Meeting parents! Otherwise: Faculty meetings. Cities Intensive starting. Budget planning. Using “UT++” as a descriptor and that’s kinda nice. Feeling the sun. Welcome to the (newsletter) party, Cornell Tech! Sign up for Cornell Tech Urban Tech Hub’s Concrete & Code newsletter. 🏃