Publications
2025
Striking a Pose: DIY Computer Vision Sensor Kit to Measure Public Life Using Pose Estimation Enhanced Action Recognition Model.
Sarah Williams and Minwook Kang
Smart Cities, Volume 8, Article 183.
2025
Vida Migrante: Empathy and the Migrant Experiences through Data Visualization
Alberto Meouchi, Enrique Casillas, Sarah Williams
2024
People-Powered Gen AI: Collaborating with Generative AI for Civic Engagement
Sarah Williams, Sara Beery, Christopher Conley, Michael Lawrence Evans,
Santiago Garces, Eric Gordon, Nigel Jacob, and Eden Medina
2023
Data-Driven Urban Development: Increasing Equity in Cities
Justin Kollar, Niko McGlashan, and Sarah Williams
2023
Spatial Equity in U.S. Cities: An Evaluation and Comparison of Equity Tools
Niko McGlashan, Daniela Coray, and Sarah Williams.
2023
Exclusionary tales in Beirut’s spaces of craftsmanship: Using historic cartography, archival ethnography, and oral history to map the enduring vulnerability of craftspeople
Carmelo Ignaccolo, Daniella Maamari, Ashley Louie, Azra Aksamija, and
Sarah Williams
Abstracts of the International Cartographic Association, Volume 6, pp.
97
2023
Using call detail records to determine mobility patterns of different socio-demographic groups in the western area of Sierra Leone during early COVID-19 crisis
Yanchao Li, Ziyu Ran, and Sarah Williams
Environment and Planning B: Urban Analytics and City Science, Volume 50,
Issue 5
2023
Addressing Irregular Migration through Principled Programmatic Approaches: Examining the West Africa Route and WFP Operations
Ambler, Kate, Alan de Brauw, Eduardo Maruyama, Sara Moussavi, Sarah
Williams, and Ashley Louie
Washington, DC, and Cambridge, MA: International Food Policy Research
Institute and Civic Data Design Lab at the Massachusetts Institute of
Technology, 2023
2023
Housing Markets, Residential Sorting, and Spatial Segregation
Shin Bin Tan, Wenfei Xu, and Sarah Williams
China Urbanizing: Impacts and Transitions
2023
Vida Migrante: Economic Inclusion of Venezuelan Migrants in Ecuador
Dinucci, Alessandro, Luis Fernández, Crescenzo Rubinotti, Espedito
Nastro, Sarah Williams, Alberto Meouchi, Ashley Louie, Rohun Iyer, Jari
Prachasartta, Maria Gabriela Carucci, Enrique Casillas, Eric Lam,
Christina Chen, Ilana Strauss, Sylvia Jimenez, Ethan Harrison, and
Mauricio Darcourt
Quito, Washington, DC, and Cambridge, MA: World Food Programme, USAID
Bureau for Humanitarian Assistance, and Civic Data Design Lab at the
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
2022
Tourism Morphometrics in Venice: Constructing a Tourism Services Index (TSI) to unmask the spatial interplay between tourism and urban form
Carmelo Ignaccolo, Yuke Zheng, and Sarah Williams
Cities, Volume 140
2022
Advancing Racial Justice Research in Architecture, Urban Planning, and Allied Fields
Williams, Sarah, Malhaar Agarwal, Devin Michelle Buten, Connie Choa,
Catherine D'Ignazio, Vedette Gavin, Enjoli Hall, Holly Harriel, Eric
Robsky Huntley, Sarah Rege, Anne Whinston Spirn, and Delia Wendel
ACSA 110th Annual Meeting | Empower
2021
Charting a new regional course of action: The complex motivations and costs of Central American migration
Ruiz Soto, Ariel G., Rossella Bottone, Jaret Waters, Sarah Williams,
Ashley Louie, and Yuehan Wang
Rome, Washington, DC, and Cambridge, MA: World Food Programme, Migration
Policy Institute, and Civic Data Design Lab at Massachusetts Institute
of Technology.
2021
Using Public-Private Data to Understand Compliance with Mobility Restrictions in Sierra Leone
Ndubuisi-Obi, Innocent, Ziyu Ran, Yanchao Li, Chenab Ahuja Navalkha,
Sarah Williams, and Lily Tsai
Springer International Publishing, in Urban Informatics and Future
Cities, pp. 33-49.
2021
Applying Machine Learning and Geolocation Techniques to Social Media Data (Twitter) to Develop a Resource for Urban Planning
Milusheva, Sveta, Robert Marty, Guadalupe Bedoya, Sarah Williams,
Elizabeth Resor, and Arianna Legovini
PLoS ONE
2020
2020
Can crowdsourcing create the missing crash data?
S Milusheva, R Marty, G Bedoya, E Resor, S Williams, and A Legovini
Proceedings of the 3rd ACM SIGCAS Conference on Computing and
Sustainable Societies
2019
Smart and Safe Kenya Transport (SMARTTRANS)
Guadalupe Bedoya, Arianna Legovini, Sveta Milusheva, Sarah Williams,
Robert Marty
The World Bank
2019
Ghost cities of China: Identifying urban vacancy through social media data
S Williams, W Xu, SB Tan, MJ Foster, C Chen
Cities 94, 275-285
2019
Evaluating sensors for the measurement of public life: A future in image processing
S Williams, C Ahn, H Gunc, E Ozgirin, M Pearce, Z Xiong
Environment and Planning B: Urban Analytics and City Science 46 (8),
1534-1548
2019
Commuting for women in Saudi Arabia: Metro to driving-Options to support women employment
S Williams, W Qiu, Z Al-awwad, A Alfayez
Journal of Transport Geography 77, 126-138
2017
Understanding Gendered Spaces Using Social Media Data
A Alfayez, Z Awwad, C Kerr, N Alrashed, S Williams, A Al-Wabil
International Conference on Social Computing and Social Media, 338-356
2017
Informal 2.0: Seeing and Improving Urban Informal Practices through Digital Technologies The Digital Matatus case in Nairobi
J Klopp, D Orwa, P Waiganjo Wagacha, S Williams, A White
Field Actions Science Reports. The journal of field actions, 39-43
2017
Benchmark: using sensors to study public space
MA Giampieri, S Williams, W Xu, H Gunc, CM Langston, DC Harvey
Free and Open Source Software for Geospatial (FOSS4G) Conference
Proceedings
2016
Data Visualizations Break Down Knowledge Barriers in Public Engagement
S Williams
The MIT Press, Cambridge, MA
2016
Digital neighborhoods
L Anselin, S Williams
Journal of Urbanism: International Research on Placemaking and Urban
Sustainability
2016
Towards Urban Tribes in Saudi Arabia: Social Subcultures Emerging from Urban Analytics of Social Media
Tariq Alhindi, Salma Aldawood, Jumana Almahmoud, Carlos Sandoval, Areej
Al-Wabil, Mansour Alsaleh, Sarah Williams
International Conference on Social Computing and Social Media, 258-266
2016
The lottery is a mathematics powerball
V Lim, L Rubel, L Shookhoff, M Sullivan, S Williams
Mathematics Teaching in the Middle School 21 (9), 526-532
2016
The responsive city: The city of the future re-imagined from the bottom up
S Williams
Emergent Urbanism: Urban Planning & Design in Times of Structural
and Systemic Change
2015
Digital Matatus: Using Mobile Technology to Visualize Informality
Williams, Sarah, Jacqueline Klopp, Peter Waiganjo, Daniel Orwa, Adam
White
Proceedings ACSA 103rd Annual Meeting: The Expanding Periphery and the
Migrating Center
2015
The Digital Matatu Project: Using Cell Phones to Create an Open Source Data for Nairobi's Semi-Formal Bus System
S Williams, A White, P Waiganjo, D Orwa, J Klopp
Journal of Transport Geography 49, 39-51
2015
Leveraging cellphones for wayfinding and journey planning in semi-formal bus systems: Lessons from digital matatus in Nairobi
J Klopp, S Williams, P Waiganjo, D Orwa, A White
Planning support systems and smart cities, 227-241
2015
Local Lotto: Mathematics and mobile technology to study the lottery
V Lim, E Deahl, L Rubel, S Williams
Cases on technology integration in mathematics education, 43-67
2015
2015
Maps, Mobile Tools, and Media Boards: Digital Technologies for Learning About Pawnshops
L Rubel, V Lim, M Hall-Wieckert, S Williams
International Society of the Learning Sciences
International Society of the Learning Sciences
2014
Industry in motion: using smart phones to explore the spatial network of the garment industry in New York City
S Williams, E Currid-Halkett
PloS one 9 (2), e86165
2014
Toward open source Kenya: Creating and sharing a GIS database of Nairobi
S Williams, E Marcello, JM Klopp
Annals of the Association of American Geographers 104 (1), 114-130
2014
Towards a Standard for Paratransit Data: Lessons from Developing GTFS Data for Nairobi's Matatu System
J Klopp, J Mutua, D Orwa, P Waiganjo, A White, S Williams
Transportation Research Board 93rd Annual MeetingTransportation Research
Board
2014
City Digits: Local Lotto: Developing Youth Data Literacy by Investigating the Lottery
S Williams, E Deahl, L Rubel, V Lim
Journal of Digital Media Literacy
2012
Here Now!: Social Media and the Psychological City
S Williams
Inscribing a Square - Urban Data as Public Space, edited by Katja
Schechtner and Dietmar Offenhuber, Springer
2011
The emergence of Los Angeles as a fashion hub: a comparative spatial analysis of the New York and Los Angeles fashion industries
S Williams, E Currid-Halkett
Urban Studies 48 (14), 3043-3066
2010
The geography of buzz: art, culture and the social milieu in Los Angeles and New York
E Currid, S Williams
Journal of Economic Geography 10 (3), 423-451
2010
Two cities, five industries: Similarities and differences within and between cultural industries in New York and Los Angeles
E Currid, S Williams
Journal of Planning Education and Research 29 (3), 322-335
2006
Mobile landscapes: using location data from cell phones for urban analysis
C Ratti, D Frenchman, RM Pulselli, S Williams
Environment and planning B: Planning and design 33 (5), 727-748
2005
Understanding urban assets: using remote sensing to manage stormwater run-off
SE Williams
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
2003
Evolving metadata needs for an institutional repository: MIT's DSpace
M Branschofsky, R Lubas, MK Smith, S Williams
International Conference on Dublin Core and Metadata Applications,
237-238