Contact
- michael.szell@gmail.com
- Address
- Computer Science Dept.
ITU Copenhagen
Rued Langgaards Vej 7
2300 København, DK - Office
- 3F11, Kaj Munks Vej 9
Profiles
Scholar | ORCID | arXiv | Github | 
Toots from @mszll@datasci.social
Recent papers
Journal of Open Source Software: superblockify: A Python Package for Automated Generation, Visualization, and Analysis of Potential Superblocks in Cities
Geographical Analysis: How Good Is Open Bicycle Network Data? A Countrywide Case Study of Denmark
Computers, Environment and Urban Systems: Sidewalk networks: Review and outlook
Environment and Planning B: BikeDNA: A Tool for Bicycle Infrastructure Data & Network Assessment
Recent media coverage
The Conversation: Hundreds of cities have achieved zero road deaths in a year. Here’s how they did it
ORF Wien Heute: Radinfrastruktur ausbaufähig
wien.orf.at: Radwege sollen möglichst direkt verlaufen
Ingeniøren: Københavns Politi om den nye, diagonale cykelsti: Husk vores bemærkninger, hvis pressen ringer
News
| 2024-08-14 |  | Paper published in Journal of Open Source Software (JOSS) superblockify: A Python Package for Automated Generation, Visualization, and Analysis of Potential Superblocks in Cities. See also: superblockify.city |
| 2024-04-05 |  | Paper published in Geographical Analysis on How Good Is Open Bicycle Network Data? A Countrywide Case Study of Denmark. |
| 2024-01-22 |  | I won the EU Horizon grant JUST STREETS together with 31 partners. See also the NERDS News. |
| 2023-09-15 |  | Review paper published in Computers, Environment and Urban Systems on Sidewalk networks. |
| 2023-06-21 |  | Paper published in Environment and Planning B on BikeDNA: A tool for bicycle infrastructure data and network assessment. See also the project page. |
| 2023-04-19 |  | Paper published in EPJ Data Science on Revealing the determinants of gender inequality in urban cycling with large-scale data. |
| 2023-02-21 |  | New affiliation at AI Pioneer Centre |
| 2022-12-01 |  | Paper published in Transport Findings on Computational Desire Line Analysis of Cyclists on the Dybbølsbro Intersection in Copenhagen. |
| 2022-11-18 |  | Mastodon instance datasci.social set up, to provide a platform for researchers in human-centric data science. |
| 2022-11-03 |  | GrowBike.Net was shortlisted at the 2022 CityVis competition, category "Research". |
| 2022-10-22 | | Paper published in Environment and Planning B on Data-driven micromobility network planning for demand and safety. See also the project page. |
| 2022-07-20 | | Paper published in Environment and Planning B on Multimodal urban mobility and multilayer transport networks. |
| 2022-06-02 |  | Our research group NERDS won the Research Environment of the Year 2022 award. See also the Forskerforum article (in Danish). |
| 2022-04-28 | | Paper published in EPJ Data Science on Identifying urban features for vulnerable road user safety in Europe. See also the blog post. |
| 2022-04-26 |  | Paper published in Scientific Reports on Growing urban bicycle networks. See also the project page. |
| 2022-03-22 | | Paper published in Geographical Analysis on Automated Detection of Missing Links in Bicycle Networks. See also the project page. |
| 2021-11-01 |  | New affiliation at ISI Foundation |
| 2021-07-07 | | GrowBike.Net released |
| 2021-06-07 |  | Paper published in ICWSM 2021 on Multilayer Graph Association Rules for Link Prediction. |
| 2021-05-26 |  | Paper published in Nature on The universal visitation law of human mobility. See also the project page. |
| 2021-01-06 |  | Taxonomy of Urban Bicycle Network Approaches released |
| 2020-12-16 |  | Paper published in Royal Society Open Science on Data-driven strategies for optimal bicycle network growth |
| 2020-10-01 |  | Promotion to associate professor at ITU Copenhagen |
| 2020-06-10 | | Paper published in Transport Findings on multiplex transport networks |
| 2019-12-12 |  | Published editorial and completed Special Issue in International Journal of Geo-information: Human-Centric Data Science for Urban Studies Editors: Resch, Szell |
| 2019-09-05 |  | What the Street?! added to Futurium's permanent exhibition |
| 2019-08-07 | | Joined editorial board of International Journal of Geo-information |
| 2019-08-01 | | New affiliation at ISI Foundation |
| 2019-05-09 | | Postdoc wanted at NERDS |
| 2019-04-24 | | New research group founded: NEtwoRks, Data, and Society (NERDS) at ITU Copenhagen |
| 2019-02-01 | | New position at ITU Copenhagen |
| 2019-01-08 |  | Paper published in Nature Reviews Physics on taking census of physics |
| 2019-01-07 |  | Call for papers at PLOS ONE: Science of Stories Submission deadline: 2019-06-14 |
| 2018-11-01 |  | Paper published in Nature Physics on interdisciplinarity and the Nobel Prize |
| 2018-10-17 | | What the Street!? visualization won the City Vis 2018 competition in Art & Advocacy |
| 2018-03-29 | | Paper published in Urban Planning |
| 2018-03-14 |  | Tribute to Stephen Hawking published |
| 2018-01-09 |  | Joined Editorial Board of Complex Systems |
| 2017-12-15 | | Joined Editorial Board of PLOS ONE |
| 2017-12-05 | | Call for papers at International Journal of Geo-information: Human-Centric Data Science for Urban Studies Editors: Resch, Szell Submission deadline: 2019-04-30 |
| 2017-05-04 | | Call for papers at EPJ Data Science: Individual and Collective Human Mobility: Description, Modelling, Prediction Editors: Simini, Ghoshal, Pappalardo, Szell, Hövel Submission deadline (extended): 2018-01-31 |
Current research
Watch my keynote to learn about my current research:
Bio
Michael Szell is associate professor in Data Science at IT University of Copenhagen, external researcher at ISI Foundation and at the Complexity Science Hub Vienna, and affiliate at the AI Pioneer Centre. His research quantifies the patterns behind interlinked human behavior and human-built structures through mining large-scale data sets. He follows an interdisciplinary approach using methods from data science and network science. Michael's current focus is on sustainable urban mobility and urban data science. He has also developed several interactive data visualization platforms such as What the Street!?, and the award-winning massive multiplayer online game Pardus.
Research interests
- Primary: Urban/Geospatial Data Science, Sustainable mobility, Bicycle networks
- Secondary: Network science, Complex systems, Social networks, Data visualization
Research highlights
| Bicycle Networks  2022 |
Human Mobility  2021 |
Nobel Prizes  2018 |
Citation Networks  2015 |
Taxi Sharing  2014 |
Social Networks  2010 |
Data visualization highlights
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Education
| 2012 / 03 |  | Ph.D. in Physics, University of Vienna Ph.D. Thesis
Advisors: Stefan Thurner, Christoph Dellago |
| 2007 / 10 |  | M.Sc. in Technical Mathematics with focus on computer science, Vienna University of Technology M.Sc. Thesis |
Current positions
| since 2020 / 10 | | Associate professor, Computer Science Department, IT University of Copenhagen |
| since 2021 /11 | | Researcher, ISI Foundation |
| since 2017 / 04 |  | External faculty, Complexity Science Hub Vienna |
| since 2023 / 02 | | Affiliate, Pioneer Centre for Artificial Intelligence |
| since 2006 / 09 | Founder and manager of Bayer & Szell OG | |
| since 2004 / 07 |  | Developer and administrator of the Massive Multiplayer Online Game Pardus |
