Joint Course Set by GSD And B-School

The Business School and the Graduate School of Design will offer their first joint course next semester--a three-term seminar on urban analysis, using the case-study method.

Maurice D. Kilbridge, professor of Business Administration, will conduct the joint seminar on the use of management science in urban planning. Kilbridge explained that this involves the application of quantitative techniques to management problems. "The use of these techniques has started a renaissance in management theory and practice," he said.

Case Study

The seminar will use the case-study method--analyzing a number of separate urban planning problems in depth. The group will then consider the relevance of the sample problem and its solution to other problems of the same type. The case-study is the usual method of instruction at the Business and Law Schools, but this is the first time that it will be used in urban planning studies.

The seminar staff will record the proceedings of the seminar for release in a book intended for students and administrators concerned with urban planning.

Similarities

The problems encountered in business administration and urban planning have many similarities, Kilbridge said. "In each field the problems are mostly ill-structured, containing objective and subjective elements, distortions and discontinuities. Both depend on the collection and organization of large amounts of empirical data, rather than on the application of general theories, for the solutions of their problems."

Kilbridge said that he will invite specialists in this field from outside the University to present their ideas to the seminar. "We are particularly interested," Kilbridge said, "in the computerized models of urban systems that some of these people have developed."

He said that he expects students and faculty members from the Business School, the School of Design, the Division of Engineering and Applied Physics, and a number of other graduate departments to participate.