My name is Anton Rozhkov (he/him), and I am an Industry Assistant Professor and a Director of the M.S. in Applied Urban Science and Informatics Program at the Center for Urban Science and Progress (CUSP) at New York University (NYU) Tandon School of Engineering.
Before joining the CUSP team at NYU, I received a Ph.D. degree from the Department of Urban Planning and Policy at the University of Illinois Chicago (UIC). During the last two years in the program (2021-2023), I have been serving as a primary instructor in introductory and advanced Geographic Information Science (GIScience) courses that are part of the campus Geospatial Analysis and Visualization (GSAV) Certificate.
My research interests focus on how energy policies and new technologies can affect infrastructure planning and the design of our cities. I conduct research using a complex systems approach, together with geospatial analysis and machine learning. Using complexity-based modeling tools (such as causal loop diagrams, system dynamics, and agent-based modeling), I am working on identifying how decentralized energy systems affect the existing complexity of today’s power grid, and I am exploring the possibility of achieving the goals of sustainable and livable cities at the intersection of the concepts of urban planning, energy efficiency, and architecture.
Over the past few years, I have been involved in several research projects. Currently, together with scholars from San Jose State University, we are working on the empirical investigation into affordable transit-oriented development (A-TOD) in California (sponsored by California State University Transportation Consortium (CSUTC), which is led by the Mineta Transportation Institute). In 2021, I took part in the development of the Sustainable Urban-Regional Modeling Network [SURe Modeling], which was funded by a Sustaining Illinois grant from the Illinois Innovation Network (INN) and was a collaboration between the Institute for Environmental Science and Policy at UIC (IESP) and Northern Illinois University.
In 2020, as part of the Urban Data Visualization Lab (UDVL), I worked on the Census 2020 Map-The-Count project, which was a collaboration with the Illinois Department of Human Services (IDHS). The overall project goal was to create a new model for predicting response rates, as well as a web-based GIS platform for reporting census outreach activities and tools to assess the effectiveness of the outreach activities.
Before joining UIC, I received an M.S./B.S. degree in Engineering in Land Cadaster from the State University of Land Use Planning (Moscow, Russia) and worked as a senior specialist in companies of a Russian power grid sector – “Rosseti” Group of Companies.
As for my hobbies and things that I love to do, the most I love traveling and exploring new and already familiar places. This might be big cities, small towns, national parks, lakeshores, or even plain deserts – I love to walk or hike and explore them all. For many years, urban and landscape photography and videography have been my accompanying activities on all trips. You can see photos from many different places in the gallery. I love art in all its forms, and I am this person who is looking for a gallery first thing in any new place since I believe that nothing could be better than visiting a gallery where you have never been before. Also, I enjoy running, snowboarding, and playing the guitar in my free time.
ANTON ROZHKOV 