The Friendly Cities Lab works in several research areas:

• Spatial Social Network (SSN) Analysis
• Regional Network Analysis
• Applied Planning for Relationships in the City
• Geovisualization and Information Visualization.

We analyze traditional social networks from sociology within a GIS environment. We develop metrics to show how relationships are hindered or helped by the built environment, and how powerful individuals benefit from the surrounding environment.

We measure how connected places are and how this reflects the culture, diversity, and idea flow of a city. We find hidden connections by developing a new measure of social distance: the strength of social flows between places. Social distance is driven by connecting over political/administrative, natural, and infrastructural boundaries, and through institutions (universities, military bases, governments), social ties, and shared culture. 

We help urban planners plan better cities by finding the amenities (parks, bars, Tinder, etc.) that best support personal relationships such as friends, families, co-workers, organization-based relationships, and romantic relationships.

We create interactive visualizations and tools for exploratory spatial data analysis (ESDA) with HCI principles in mind.