Cornell University • Student Organization
Last spring, a student-run conference at Cornell put a legged farm robot, a set of robotic dresses that respond to the room, and researchers flown in from the United Nations in the same building. That was our first year. This year we’re building a lunar rover.
The Future Civilizations Society is a student organization at Cornell University working to envision the next human city and the means of arriving at it.
At a glance
Focus
AI, autonomous systems, architecture, infrastructure, governance, and the social life of future cities.
Current work
A lunar logistics rover built for demonstration at the Future Civilizations Conference.
Structure
Forum, Technical, and Events teams working together across research, build, and public engagement.
About the Society
Artificial intelligence and autonomous systems are already reshaping architecture, infrastructure, governance, and social life; the city that results from this will take a form no one has yet described.
FCS exists to describe it, and to build toward it, through three teams: Forum, Technical, and Events.
Teams
The Society’s work spans intellectual foundation, direct technical experimentation, and public engagement with the questions shaping future cities.
Forum is the Society’s research and policy division. Its aim is to establish the intellectual foundation the next human city will be built on.
It compiles faculty research into an academic publication on the next human city and develops policy proposals in collaboration with city governments.
Technical builds toward the next human city directly, taking on projects that are necessary steps in its creation.
Its current project is a rover built for lunar logistics, developed for demonstration at the Future Civilizations Conference. A robot capable of moving material across the lunar surface is a foundational technology for any city built off world.
Events brings the Society’s work to the wider student body and to the university at large.
Its program includes the Future Civilizations Conference, our annual gathering of faculty, researchers, and visiting speakers, alongside demonstrations and discussions throughout the year.
Current work
The Society moves between proposal, demonstration, and conversation: we research the future as rigorously as we build toward it.
Technical team
Our current technical project is a rover designed for lunar logistics, developed for demonstration at the Future Civilizations Conference.
A robot capable of moving material across the lunar surface is a foundational technology for any city built off world. The rover sits at the center of the Society’s technical agenda: the question is not only what the future city will look like, but what systems must exist to make it possible.
Past Work
Last year, we hosted the inaugural Future Civilizations Conference, examining AI’s impact across four domains: the autonomous city, human psychology and social life, sustainability and future food systems, and settlement beyond Earth.
Three labs presented their research on the floor, and we brought researchers from the United Nations together with Cornell faculty to take up these questions.
Conference speakers
Leadership & Team
Daniyal Virk
Conference founder and director.
Sangh Leigh
Faculty advisor.
Membership
Applications are open across all three subteams. The Society is building the next human city through research, technical work, and public programming.
Forum
Research & policy
Technical
Robotics & systems
Events
Programming & outreach
Apply to join the Future Civilizations Society and contribute to the work of imagining and building the next human city.