CITIES joined the Swiss Embassy in the UAE and accepted their invitation to participate in the Swiss – Middle East Circular Economy for Youth Initiative (SMECEYI), organized by the Swiss Pavilion at Expo Dubai in partnership with the swissnex Network. This initiative aims to develop innovative solutions for a cleaner environment, promoting the circular economy and encouraging youth empowerment. Student teams from universities across the UAE will propose innovative waste management solutions. The winning team will showcase their solution at Expo Dubai 2020.

Within this initiative, CITIES (Federico Bernardini) identified and started a collaboration with three faculty at NYUAD whose research (or interests) deals with waste (Philip Panniker, Daniel Johnson, and Goffredo Puccetti) and helped to create a multidisciplinary student team (students are from all four NYUAD divisions).

The team will present a comprehensive solution that addresses the problems of excessive waste generation and youth unemployment in a holistic manner. The team will propose a combined solution to waste management that is easy to implement in the Middle East and integrates many technologies seamlessly while making use of the natural local resources. The solution will deal with all waste types (water, food, plastic, electronic, and construction waste). Waste is turned into valuable resources through multiple pathways in a circular economy scheme.

The team will use CITIES resources and join the center (internships) to implement and/or scale up the conceived solution.