IN THE NEWS: New Master of Urban Technology featured in Michigan Daily

Taubman College’s new Master of Urban Technology program was highlighted in a recent article in The Michigan Daily, which also featured interviews with future M.U.T. director Bryan Boyer and former urban technology student organization president Emma Vitet, B.S. Urban Tech. ’26.

The M.U.T. program will be offered in Fall 2027 at the new University of Michigan Center for Innovation in downtown Detroit. Boyer, who helped establish the undergraduate urban technology program, will step down from his previous role to oversee the new program.

“The people that we expect to join the program are ones that have both a passion and a realistic view of how change happens in cities,” Boyer said. “You graduate with all this optimism, and then you sit at a chair at an office somewhere and you’re like ‘I want to do the dreaming. I want to do the strategy. I want to do the cool stuff.’ And your boss is asking you to figure out how many cars pass an intersection in Livonia on a Tuesday.”

The program meets a growing demand globally. Cornell Tech, host of the annual Urban Tech Summit, currently offers a two-year, dual-degree master’s in urban technology and applied information science. Other programs, like Trinity College Dublin, offer a one-year master’s in smart and sustainable cities.  

“I don’t think a bachelor’s is super accessible for people who are already working and want to add something to their skillset,” Vitet said. “Starting a master’s in urban tech addresses that. So if professionals or planners or even architects want to branch out a little bit and are interested in UT, you can’t really do that and get another bachelor’s, but you can do it with a master’s.” 

Read the full article on The Michigan Daily website.

Main Image: Audrey Rosenberg/DAILY