Melba Kurman

My name is Melba Kurman. I write and speak about the fascinating (and sometimes worrying) ways that artificial intelligence, data and exponential technologies enrich and challenge our daily lives.My special interests include 3D printing, driverless cars, and the next-generation of smart cities, the “Quantified City.”

Today’s so-called smart cities apply technology to automate old ways of doing things. This is linear thinking. To meet the challenges of climate change and growing urban populations, Quantifieid Cities will fearlessly embrace urban density and use sensors, data, autonomous vehicles and AI to transform city life for the better.I’ve been writing, analyzing, marketing and teaching people about technology for more than two decades.

In the past, I worked at Microsoft, Cornell University, and a few startups that died and taught me some difficult, but useful lessons. I am a graduate of Cornell University, the University of Illinois’s iSchool and the U.S. Peace Corps (Liberia, West Africa). I was born in Helsinki, and am a proud first-generation American-Estonian.

Today I live in Manhattan. This is fortuitous coincidence: living in a modern city challenges me on a daily basis to imagine new ways we could apply technology to make city life better for everyone.Follow me on twitter @melbakurman or contact me here if you'd like to connect.