University of Alabama at Birmingham
AC-4: Graduate Program

The Sustainable Smart Cities Master's program from the University of Alabama at Birmingham (USA) and Staffordshire University (UK) is a unique professional postgraduate program that provides an interdisciplinary grounding in the principles, application, and key technologies required to develop sustainable smart cities. Delivered by experienced faculty at both UAB and Staffordshire University, this genuinely international program will equip you with the knowledge, skills, and critical thinking to assess, design, and implement sustainable smart cities' strategies across the globe. The program offers a broad curriculum covering sustainability theory, sustainable urban development, low carbon, and renewable energy systems, green infrastructure, natural resource management, health and liveability, transport and mobility, big data analytics, and smart technologies. This program is aimed at leaders and professionals in public and private sector organizations who seek to design, develop, and deliver smart and sustainable urban solutions. The program is a good fit for students interested in pursuing careers as: -senior executives, mayors, and elected representatives -policymakers -building services engineers -urban planners -architects -urban designers -civil and transport engineers -real estate professionals -software programmers -ICT professionals -public health and social medicine professionals -environmental and sustainability managers -social scientists

Anthropology is the science committed to the comparative and historical study of humankind. Anthropology literally means the study of humanity and considers human biological and cultural variation. In recent years the department at UAB has developed a topical focus on peace, justice, human rights, and ecology. The new program focuses on peace as a behavioral process at multiple levels including at the level of individuals, families, groups, communities, cultures, and nations. Students will critically analyze how factors such as ecological sustainability, human security, democracy, justice, non-violence, conflict resolution, and human rights are interconnected constructs related to the unifying construct of peace. Anthropology offers an important set of perspectives that address knowledge about and appreciation of cultural diversity, cultural relativism, multiculturalism, cross-cultural interaction, variation in norms, values, beliefs, conflict resolution styles, and respect for cultural differences and human rights. This unique set of perspectives is at the basis of the new program’s focus on peace and human rights and makes it relevant to the goals of diversity and the challenges and opportunities posed by globalization.

Students pursuing the MPH degree acquire competency in the fundamental public health disciplines; the basic public health sciences; data analysis and policy analysis; communications; program planning and administration; public health systems and the organization of health services in the United States and abroad; recognition and analysis of ethical or legal issues in public health and professional practice; cultural, behavioral, genetic, environmental, political, geographic, and socioeconomic factors in health; the global nature of health and the needs of special populations, such as mothers and children, ethnic minorities, and vulnerable populations; and in the integration of core public health disciplines in public health problem decision-making processes. The MPH concentration in Environmental Health & Toxicology studies the links between the environment and public health, studying all aspects of this process from initial exposure to toxicant action to science-based policy development. We train students to recognize and assess exposures, determine the toxicity risk to the public, and design and properly communicate strategies to reduce risk and help set appropriate policy. Graduates will be able to do the following upon completion of the program: Demonstrate practical knowledge of environmental regulations. Specify approaches for assessing air- and water-borne agents. Describe critical factors of exposure assessment studies. Explain how environmental factors impact human health. Specify approaches for assessing environmental hazards. Employ risk assessment approaches. Describe regulatory programs and agencies that influence environmental and occupational health issues. Explain how environmental justice impacts health. Communicate scientific information in public and professional venues.