Next Steps for Newly Admitted CUSP Students

Connect with Abhishek Kumar on LinkedIn, explore his website, or schedule an appointment to chat directly.
 

Abhishek Kumar (he/him) is a graduate student and Admissions Ambassador at NYU Tandon Center for Urban Science and Progress (CUSP), where he was recognized as a Rising Scholar in 2024. He holds a Bachelor’s degree in Urban Planning from the School of Planning and Architecture, Vijayawada.

Before joining NYU, Abhishek was a founding software developer at Sahl AI, a healthcare AI startup, where he led the development of the initial MVP, built backend APIs, and managed core modules for an AI health scribe platform. He also contributed to a research project at IIT Kharagpur, where he developed a transit-focused web application that helped secure follow-up funding from India’s Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs.

Abhishek’s work bridges industry and academia, with a focus on the ethical and applied use of AI. For his undergraduate dissertation, he developed custom algorithms to quantify urban features using street view imagery, computer vision, and vision-language models. At CUSP, his project predicting building energy usage from 3D structural datasets was awarded Best Technical Contribution at the 2025 Global Data Dive hosted by King’s College London. He also won a Qualcomm-Microsoft hackathon with a privacy-focused AI app, leading to his selection as a Qualcomm Ambassador at NYU and an invitation to mentor participants at the Edge-AI Hackathon at Northeastern University Seattle.

As an Admissions Ambassador, Abhishek is passionate about supporting prospective students and fostering an inclusive, innovative community at CUSP.

Schedule an appointment to chat with Lishun (Gaara) Liu directly.

Lishun (Gaara) Liu is a second-year professional master's student at CUSP at NYU Tandon and currently serves as an admissions ambassador for CUSP. Gaara is dedicated to helping new students quickly adapt to the NYU environment and is committed to creating a warm and friendly environment for the next generation of talent at CUSP.

Gaara has a background in actuarial science from Binghamton University and has deep expertise in data analytics, urban informatics, and public communications. During his undergraduate studies, he served as a teaching assistant for an English-taught astronomy course, working closely with international students. This experience not only enhanced his communication and public speaking skills but also deepened his passion for mentoring and creating an inclusive learning environment.

On the professional side, Gaara has worked with institutions such as Deloitte and Wilson-Bennett Technology on environmental risk analysis and digital consulting research. His recent projects and research include building a high-precision random forest model for predicting traffic accident severity in New York City and combining AI, machine learning, and spatial insights for practical urban policy applications.

As the winner of the 2025 CUSP Data Dive Best Technology Award and a CUSP Project Badge Recipient, Gaara continues to explore the intersection of urban systems, data science, and community impact. He is fluent in Mandarin and English. In his daily leisure time, Gaara enjoys researching computer peripheral gaming-related products.

• March 28, 2025 — Reflecting Towards a Purpose 
  
  Led by Peter Huu Tran, CUSP’s Assistant Director of Academic Administration and Student Engagement, this interactive workshop invited students to explore their sense of purpose and how it aligns with urban science. Through guided reflection and discussion, participants articulated their motivations, refined their understanding of urban science, and crafted a personal mantra to help center their class selection and career aspirations.
  
  Learning objectives included: (1) Connecting Reflection to Purpose: Participants defined their purpose and how it connects to academic and career goals; (2) Understanding Urban Science: Attendees explored personal interpretations of urban science and its role in shaping cities and communities; (3) Personal Mantra: Each student developed a guiding statement to inform their class choices, research interests, and career direction.
   
• April 1, 2025 — Mapping Housing Inequality
  
  Led by Ziwei Zhang (NYU CUSP ’25), this hands-on workshop introduced participants to the ArcGIS Online Map Viewer, focusing on how to visualize and analyze spatial data for real-world applications. Using NYC eviction data and U.S. Census Bureau income statistics, students created thematic maps, explored spatial relationships, and gained insights into how GIS can be used for social analysis.
  
  Learning objectives include: (1) Understanding Basic GIS Concepts: Students learned the fundamentals of Geographic Information Systems (GIS) and how ArcGIS Online facilitates spatial analysis and visualization; (2) Creating and Customizing Thematic Maps: Students used ArcGIS Online’s tools to add, style, and analyze datasets, including NYC eviction data and census tract income layers; (3) Performing Spatial Analysis: Students Applied techniques like data aggregation and filtering to uncover patterns in socioeconomic data, improving decision-making and storytelling with maps.
   
• April 7, 2025 — Heatmap Sprint with Python (Presentation Slides and GitHub Repository)
  
  Led by Nissim Ram (NYU CUSP ’26), this workshop guided participants through the process of creating compelling graphical visualizations with just a few lines of Python using powerful plotting libraries like Seaborn and Matplotlib! Attendees learned to convey critical insights through heatmaps—whether analyzing trends, mapping geographic data, or uncovering patterns in large datasets. This hands-on course allowed participants to follow along in real-time, ensuring they left with a polished heatmap and practical skills to apply immediately.
  
  Learning objectives included: (1) Understanding the Fundamentals of Heatmaps and Geographic Heatmaps: Students learned how both traditional and spatial heatmaps work, and when to use each; (2) Creating and Customizing Heatmaps using Python: Students used libraries like Seaborn, Matplotlib, and Plotly to generate standard and geographical heatmaps; (3) Applying Heatmaps to Real-world Spatial Data: Participants visualized geographic trends, such as population density or temperature variations.
   
• April 16, 2025 — The Art and Science of Data Visualization
  
  Led by Rishabh Chauhan, Industry Assistant Professor at CUSP, this workshop offered hands-on experience in data visualization using Python, exploring libraries like Matplotlib, Seaborn, and Plotly to create meaningful visualizations from real datasets. This session covered best practices and identified potential pitfalls, as well as the crucial role of data visualization in urban science and policy-making.
   
• April 24, 2025 — The Need For Municipal Solid Waste (MSW) Data Characterization: A Pilot Project Experience
  
  Led by Tekle Kahsay, Visiting Associate Professor of Environmental Planning at CUSP, this workshop discussed the purpose of analyzing segregated MSW data, highlighting its environmental and economic importance based on a practical pilot project carried out in Addis Ababa and offering the perspective of an emerging megacity in a developing country. The experience details a demonstrated change from a burden of dumping into an important income-generating source of employment. The project involved a systematic separation of solid waste into four categories: metals, plastic and papers, glass and related, and organic. All three categories were sold directly to recyclers while the organic waste was composted and used as an organic fertilizer.
  
  Learning objectives included: (1) Understanding the nature of MSW data and its different categories; and (2) Perceiving how segregated MSW data was converted from a burden of dumping into a resource that created opportunities for both employment and income—in addition to environmental benefits. By introducing a separation system involving four categories (metal, glass, paper or plastic, and organic waste), each was transformed into an income-generating opportunity. Waste segregation training was offered by experts to both households and to those who collect separated waste and sell it to reusers and recyclers.
   
• May 2, 2025 — Tell a Story with a Simple Map       
  
  Led by Anton Rozhkov, Industry Assistant Professor and Director of the M.S. in Applied Urban Science and Informatics program at CUSP, this hands-on workshop showed how to transform real NYC Open Data into interactive, insightful maps using an easy-to-use online mapping tool. The session guided students through the process of finding, analyzing, and mapping public data to uncover trends and tell compelling narratives. It started by exploring NYC’s vast open data resources, covering everything from transit patterns to environmental data. Then, using a user-friendly mapping platform, students learned how to visualize this information to communicate key insights. By the end of the workshop, each student built a simple map that tells a story. Unlock the power of storytelling through maps!
  
  Learning objectives included: (1) Discovering and Accessing NYC Open Data: Students learned how to find and interpret publicly available datasets to uncover meaningful insights; (2) Creating Interactive Maps: Attendees use an online mapping tool to visualize data and craft engaging, informative maps; (3) Telling a Story with Data: Participants developed a clear narrative using mapped data to highlight trends, patterns, or issues in NYC.
   
• May 7, 2025 — Prototyping Community Projects
  
  Led by Manny Patole, Industry Assistant Professor at CUSP, this interactive class invited students to explore how Design Thinking and Community Science can be used to co-create projects that reflect community needs and aspirations. Through hands-on exercises and case studies, participants learned practical strategies to collaborate as equal partners, ensuring that projects are inclusive, actionable, and sustainable.
  
  A key activity involved creating an empathy map, helping participants understand what different community partners think, feel, say, and do when given the opportunity to share. This exercise fosters deeper insight into community perspectives, enhancing the design and implementation of impactful projects.
  
  Whether you're a policymaker, researcher, nonprofit leader, or grassroots organizer, this session provided valuable tools to prototype, test, and refine ideas with communities—not for them.
  
  Learning objectives included: (1) Applying Design Thinking for Collaborative Problem-Solving: Students learned how to use human-centered design principles to co-develop, test, and refine community projects that address real needs through an iterative process; (2) Utilizing Community Science to Integrate Local Knowledge: Participants understood how to engage community members as community scientists, leveraging their lived experiences and expertise to shape data-driven, community-led solutions; (3) Developing Empathy-Driven Insights for Inclusive Project Design: Students used empathy mapping to analyze what community members think, feel, say, and do, ensuring that project development is responsive, inclusive, and reflective of diverse perspectives.
   
• May 14, 2025 — Urban Environments & Mental Health
  
  Led by Hanxue Wei, Industry Assistant Professor at CUSP, this workshop explored how the intersection of urban data science and public health offers opportunities to design cities that support mental well-being and how spatial data, environmental metrics, and computational modeling can be leveraged to analyze the relationship between urban environments and mental health outcomes. Students engaged in team-based activities to: (1) examine real-world case studies on how urban factors may impact mental health, and (2) propose data-driven strategies for evidence-based urban interventions.
  
  Learning objectives included: (2) Learning how urban data science can be used to analyze the relationship between urban environments and urban health; (2) Working with real-world case studies to propose data collection strategies, modeling approaches, and potential urban interventions to improve mental health outcomes.