For Students Looking to Translate Data into Policy, Dual Degree Opens Doors

They play a major role in shaping neighborhoods and cities, but for most people they are a black box. Zoning codes are often so technical, confusing, and inaccessible that even some developers and elected officials struggle to know how much building potential there is in a given area.

One of the people confronting the challenge is Alex Nelms (MUSA'22, MCP'23), a graduate of Weitzman’s Master of Urban Spatial Analytics (MUSA) program and Master of City Planning (MCP) program, who now works as a research assistant for the Wharton Geospatial Initiative. His team is mapping zoning codes based on one number—maximum allowable housing units—allowing users to easily see where new housing can legally be built or where the zoning codes should be adjusted.

“It is kind of a culmination of everything I’ve worked on,” says Nelms, whose studies combined data science, programming, and public policy. “We have a team of 10 to 20 people, and I’ve become the main data guru and the zoning interpreter.”

After working as a GIS analyst in a city planning office, Nelms struggled to find graduate data science or spatial analysis programs at the nexus of data, space, and planning. Weitzman’s MUSA program is one of the few to offer instruction in data analytics that’s not exclusively geared toward a career in finance or tech.

“Our MUSA program is the leading applied urban data science program,” says Megan Ryerson, the UPS Foundation Chair of Transportation, professor of city and regional planning and electrical and systems engineering and chair of the Department of City & Regional Planning. “Students come to MUSA from a wide range of disciplinary backgrounds and graduate from our program as urban data scientists.”

The one-year degree exists in its current form thanks to the late Associate Professor of Practice Ken Steif, the visionary public data science practitioner who served as the program’s director until his untimely passing in 2021. Elizabeth Delmelle, Associate Professor of City & Regional Planning, took on the role of MUSA program director in 2022. She brought to the MUSA program a commitment to teaching urban data science and data-oriented communication skills to her students such that their results can be translated to non-technical stakeholders and decision makers.

It’s why the MUSA curriculum goes beyond intensive technical skills—three programming languages, machine learning, remote sensing, cloud computation, web-based mapping—to include a strong orientation around technical communication.

“Making critical decisions about how data is shown, how data is selected, used, and then displayed: That's not something ChatGPT can do for you."

The MUSA program is a part of the Department of City and Regional Planning, which is also home to one of the country’s most renowned Master of City Planning (MCP) programs. The MCP program teaches students critical frameworks to understand the most pressing planning challenges, and the skills to assess, analyze, and operationalize, solutions that work. For Ryerson, the dual-degree alums develop expertise that positions them to identify problems, lead complex analysis, and then advocate for change.

“The programs are related in many ways; for example, the MCP program teaches students how to design solutions that might then be tested and evaluated by MUSA analysts,” she says. “Once out in practice, our dual degree students can speak the language of local government officials, engineers, planners, and so on. They are perfectly positioned to manage complex teams and communicate the need for innovation.”

Individually, the MUSA and MCP degrees take one and two years, respectively. The combined degree adds an additional semester.

Sofia Fasullo, who is completing the dual MUSA/MCP this month, was a double major in statistics and geography in her undergraduate studies at Binghamton University. She wanted to deepen her work at that intersection but, like Nelms, found that those fields didn’t intersect at many schools. And when they did, they weren’t always dedicated to public service. Having always been passionate about science and social issues, she says adding the MCP was a no-brainer.

“MUSA was different than my statistics degree, because we were constantly thinking about the practical applications of our choices, which is something I'm very passionate about. I think anyone in STEM should have to think about social science and social justice, frankly.”

After graduating, Fasullo plans to work as a data scientist in the housing development field. Beyond learning three new programming languages in the MUSA program, and technical skills like pro forma analysis in the MCP, she credits the dual-degree experience for shaping the way she thinks.

“Making critical decisions about how data is shown, how data is selected, used, and then displayed: That's not something ChatGPT can do for you. That's something that really takes a good eye—a design eye.”

Lu Yii Wong, a dual MUSA/MCP student who expects to graduate in May, came to Weitzman with an undergraduate degree in sustainable urban environments from NYU, where she fell in love with spatial analysis as a communication tool. She’s focused on climate change and environmental justice through the Land Use Planning concentration in the MCP program. She honed her interests in a course on water policy with Assistant Professor of City & Regional Planning Allison Lassiter and a studio on climate resilience looking at the impacts of flooding in so-called “climate havens.”

“Good spatial visualization can be very impactful,” Wong says. “I’ve learned that if you cannot communicate the numbers and the facts, then no matter how passionate you are about something, it’s hard to convince someone that change is needed.”