From Civic Tech to Evidence-Based Urban Governance: Taipei's Journey, with Roy Lin

Can data and AI truly make our cities more livable and responsive, or do we need a fundamental shift in how we approach urban decision-making? As emerging technologies rapidly reshape the public sector, bridging the gap between digital innovation, civic participation, and institutional policy remains one of modern urbanism’s greatest challenges.

In this lecture, architect and urban designer Roy Lin shares key insights from a decade spent at the forefront of civic tech, municipal strategy, and city-scale AI. Tracing a professional journey across sector boundaries, Roy will examine how data can be practically deployed to strengthen public trust, foster civic engagement, and elevate city governance:

Grassroots Advocacy: Founding IVC (InVisibleCities), a Taiwan-based civic tech community leveraging open data for urban studies and public awareness.Institutional Innovation: Establishing and leading the Taipei Urban Intelligence Center within the Taipei City Government to embed evidence-based policy making directly into municipal workflows.Future Horizons: Drawing on current research at the City Science Lab @ Taipei Tech to critically re-examine what data and AI can—and cannot—achieve in urban contexts.

Moving beyond standard "smart city" hype, Roy offers a candid look at the friction between technology and public administration, presenting a vision for city-making that prioritizes human-centered design, scientific rigor, and democratic values.

About

Roy Yu-Ta Lin is a 2026 Yale World Fellow, an urban innovation leader working at the intersection of urban design, data science, and city governance. Roy currently serves as Head of Urban Informatics at the City Science Lab @ Taipei Tech, a joint lab between MIT and NTUT, where he develops advanced urban science and AI tools to help governments and city stakeholders address urban developments, mobility, and social-economical challenges across Asia, Europe, and the Americas.

Previously, Roy served as Director of Data Analytics & Applications at the Taipei Urban Intelligence Center (TUIC), the city’s first data-driven policy think tank. He is also an entrepreneur: founder of IVC InVisibleCities, a civic-tech community using open data for urban research, and CVI Civic Intelligence, an urban analytics startup.

Across civic tech, government, and international design practice, Roy specializes in turning complex urban systems into clear, actionable insights—supporting cities to become more adaptive, equitable, and evidence-driven. He holds a Master of Architecture in Urban Design from the Harvard Graduate School of Design.