The Urban Synergistics Lab (USL) was founded by Dimitris Papanikolaou, DDes, an assistant professor jointly between the School of Architecture and the Department of Software and Information Systems. The USL designs, studies, and develops enabling systems that connect humans, objects, and places cooperatively across scales, physically or virtually.
Research is conducted in three areas: interfaces/technologies to connect people, objects, and places; mechanisms to link data to action; and data-driven simulations to predict urban dynamics.
In 2019, the USL received a grant from the Knight Foundation for the project “Charlotte Breaths,” an interactive public art installation of wirelessly-networked inflatables placed at sites around Charlotte to allow visitors at one site to perceive the presence of visitors at other sites, promoting a spirit of public participation.