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Mission

Develop new knowledge, methods, and tools that increase understanding of Dubai's physical, digital, natural, and built environments.

The Senseable City Dubai (SCD) is the first-ever MIT Senseable City Lab in the Middle East, established in partnership with the Dubai Future Foundation. Its focus is on researching and testing pilot projects for urban planning and managing the rapid growth of cities. Adopting an omni-disciplinary approach, it caters to designers, planners, engineers, physicists, biologists, and social scientists. Drawing upon the expertise of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, SCD explores the relationship between cities, people, and technologies, and investigates how the ubiquity of digital devices and telecommunication networks are impacting urban living. Apply today and join us in our mission to create more diverse and inclusive cities.

Visual AI

MIT has been at the forefront of developing AI models to assess image-based urban data analytics. We use transfer AI learning techniques to detect patterns in new ways of people living the environment.

Big Data Analytics

Evidence-based policy is gaining traction globally. We believe that policy decisions should be informed by objective evidence. In this sense, understanding cities through data are vital.

Sensing Platforms

Data can also be generated by deploying an array of sensors with specific intent. Embedding technology into the urban environment can yield robust and fine-grained data to reveal humanity’s fingerprint.

Cooling the Desert

Sustainable Cooling for a warming planet. Implementing strategies to improve the way we live indoor and outdoor spaces in Dubai.

This will involve a range of proposals, from innovative ways to detect urban and environmental features in real-time to designing new solutions and reconsidering existing ones. By analyzing the digital layer of information and digital traces that we leave in our cities, we can uncover patterns of the natural and built environment.

Cooling Path
Cooling Path

How do the shortest and the shadiest paths converge to improve pedestrians' thermal comfort in warm cities?

Food AI
Foodscapes

How does the food landscape, based on restaurant menus, correlate with socioeconomic profiles and health outcomes in all neighborhoods?

Foodscape
Traveling Tastes

How far does your food travel? It depends on your income, food landscape, and your craving for a special meal.

Optimising Food Deliveries
Bundling Bites

How could bundling optimize delivery orders, decrease traffic, and achieve sustainability goals?

Re-leaf Dubai
Re-leaf Dubai

Using computer vision to create a comprehensive catalog of tree species including their micro-cooling effect

Octopus
Octopus

(A project by AMS Institute)
What if we empowered communities to monitor their environment through a maker-centric approach?

Events

  1. Senseable City Dubai

    Dubai Future Forum
    Nov 28, 2023

    The Dubai Future Forum is an annual event hosted by the Dubai Future Foundation at the iconic Museum of the Future that brings together futurists, foresight practitioners, thought leaders, and experts from academia and various industries as well as government to anticipate challenges, imagine opportunities, share foresight, and shape the future. The 2022 inaugural event brought together over 1000 such individuals and close to 50 foresight groups and organizations around four key themes: the Future of our World; Mitigating Existential Risk through Foresight; Value and Humanity; and Hedging our Bets through Foresight.

  2. Rethinking Hot Heart for Dubai

    United Nations COP28
    Nov 30, 2023

    In the three decades since the Rio Summit and the launch of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), the Conference of the Parties to the Convention (COP) has convened member countries every year to determine ambition and responsibilities, and identify and assess climate measures. The 21st session of the COP (COP21) led to the Paris Agreement, which mobilized global collective action to limit the global temperature increase to 1.5C above pre-industrial levels by 2100, and to act to adapt to the already existing effects of climate change.


  3. What Makes a City Timeless

    World Government Summit
    Feb 12, 2024

    The World Governments Summit Organization is a global, neutral, non-profit organization dedicated to shaping the future of governments. The Summit, in its various activities, explores the agenda of the next generation of governments, focusing on harnessing innovation and technology to solve universal challenges facing humanity.Since its inception in 2013, the Summit has championed the mission of shaping future governments and creating a better future for humanity. The past editions of the Summit have successfully established a new model to collaborate on an international playing field to inspire and enable the next generation of governments.

  4. How do we Cool the Desert

    MENA Transport Congress
    Feb 28, 2024

    Global Infrastructure Initiative Summit has convened many of the world’s most senior leaders in infrastructure and capital projects to identify ways to improve the delivery of major projects and get more out of existing assets. Our eighth GII Summit took place in Tokyo, October 19–21, 2022, and focused on creating the pathway to sustainable infrastructure.

  5. Senseable City Lab

    Dubai Police Summit
    Mar 07, 2024

    In a world where technological advancement and evolving threats keep arising, the World Police Summit 2024 stands as a pivotal platform where global law enforcement comes to meet.Brought to you by the esteemed Dubai Police, this unparalleled event gathers prestigious forces including the FBI, NYPD, INTERPOL, Australian Federal Police, Korean National Police Agency and the Metropolitan Police from over 138 countries.

People

Meet Our Team

MIT Senseable City Lab

Carlo Ratti Director

Martina Mazzarello Senseable City Dubai Lead



Dubai Future Foundation

Abdulaziz AlJaziri SCD Governing Board

Khalifa AlQama SCD Governing Board

Sevag Ohannessian SCD Management Team


Current Researchers

Fábio Duarte Principal Research Scientist

Paolo Santi Principal Research Scientist

Javad Eshtiyagh Research Fellow

Alaa Alradwan Research Fellow

Jianxiu Wen Research Fellow

Chada Elalami Research Fellow

Diaa Addeen Abuhani Visiting Student


Web Design

Jingrong Zhang with MM and FD

Join

We always seek outstanding candidates from a variety of backgrounds besides our specific position openings. We encourage applications from minorities and other under-represented groups. Apply today as a postdoc, research fellow or data visualization specialist.



Postdoctoral Researcher
Decarbonization, Urban Mobility, Urban Heat - Dubai, UAE

Research Fellow
Decarbonization, Urban Mobility, Urban Heat - Dubai, UAE

Data Visualization and/or UX/UI Specialist


APPLY HERE ➔