Here’s a list of the previous events held by the CITIES center:
- Presentation at the NYU Wagner Urban Initiative Workshop
- Abu Dhabi Smart City Summit
- CITIES Symposium
- Using Automated Data Sources to improve the performance of Public Transport Systems
- UN WUF Talk
- WUF 2020 Research Roundtable
- Two Artists Talks
During the first eight months of activities, CITIES organized and participated in a broad range of amazing events, including World Urban Forum 2020, the first international CITIES symposium, several public lectures and much more.
Abu Dhabi Smart City Summit
Prof. Monica Menendez (LPI & Center Director) was invited by the Abu Dhabi Department of Municipalities and Transport (DMT) to give a public talk on October 29th at the Abu Dhabi Smart City Summit.
She discussed CITIES’s goals and expected research outputs, exploring new avenues for collaboration and partnerships between the government, key industries, and academia to support pilot projects, collect data, and test technologies and solutions.
Abu Dhabi Smart City Summit
Date: October, 2019
First Cities Symposium
The 1st CITIES symposium took place on November 24, 2019, at NYU Abu Dhabi. It provided a forum to learn and discuss some new ideas for increasing the livability and sustainability of our cities, and how they can contribute in propelling our cities into a richer and more sustainable future.
It was open to the NYUAD community and selected guests and it was extremely successful in this respect with more than 60 participants. Local and international stakeholders took part in two roundtables to discuss smart city solutions that were particularly impactful for Abu Dhabi. The round table included representatives of Swiss Re, CITIES, NYUAD leadership, Abu Dhabi Municipality, Abu Dhabi Police, Department of Transport, Department of Urban Planning and Municipalities, IMKAN, and more.
First CITIES Symposium
Date: November 24, 2019
Lecture on the Use of Automated Data Sources to Improve the Performance of Public Transport Systems
In December 2019, CITIES collaborated with Prof. Monica Menendez (LPI & Center Director) on the organization of a public lecture by Prof. Nigel Wilson titled: Using Automated Data Sources to improve the performance of Public Transport Systems: a framework and applications.
Nigel Wilson is an Emeritus Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. His research and teaching focuses on urban public transport, with more than 100 articles and reports. He has directed major long-term collaborative research programs with urban public transport agencies including Transport for London, MTR (Hong Kong), Chicago Transit Authority and the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority; and has worked or served as a consultant for large transit agencies and a number of other North American transit authorities.
Automated Data Sources for Public Transport System
Date: December 2019
A conversation with the Executive Director of the United Nations Human Settlements Programme (WUF)
As part of WUF 2020, CITIES Hosted at NYUAD Ms. Maimunah Sharif, the Executive Director of the UN-Habitat, on February 5, 2020, for a conversation with the NYUAD and Abu Dhabi communities about her journey to the United Nations (UN) and the importance of the World Urban Forum 2020 in solving the unique set of challenges that cities as complex interdisciplinary intersections present.
The event was open to the general public and was very successful with about 60 people in the audience including NYUAD faculty, staff, and leadership, UN representatives, and UAE government agencies representatives.
Cities of Opportunities: Connecting Culture and Innovation
Date: February, 2020
WUF 2020 Research Roundtable
Prof. Monica Menendez (LPI & Center Director) presented CITIES at World Urban Forum 2020 (WUF2020). WUF is the foremost international gathering for exchanging views and experiences on sustainable urbanization and all its ramifications. The inclusive nature of the Forum, combined with high-level participation makes it the premier international gathering on urban issues.
More in detail, Prof. Monica Menendez participated in the WUF2020 Researchers Roundtable. There she talked about collaboration as a key component to produce cutting-edge innovative research that gets translated into real improvements for our cities. She discussed collaboration both across disciplines (including engineering, sciences, social sciences, arts, and humanities) and across stakeholders (academia, private sector, government) – an idea embedded in the DNA of CITIES. 
WUF 2020 Research Roundtable
Date: February, 2020
Two Artist Talks by Tobias Horrocks on Cardboard Architecture
In March 2020, CITIES collaborated with professor Felix Beck (NYUAD Investigator) on the organization of Two Artist Talks by Tobias Horrocks on Cardboard Architecture. NYUAD Community participated in this event to learn more about architecture, design, and product sustainability.
Tobias Horrocks is an architect, founder of sustainable design, and architecture practice Fold Theory. Specializing in cardboard and utilizing digital design and fabrication, Fold Theory aims to push the limits of cardboard engineering to realize forms and structures previously unimaginable.
Two Artist Talks by Tobias Horrocks on Cardboard Architecture
Date: March, 2020
Presentation at the NYU Wagner Urban Initiative Workshop
In March 2020, Prof. Pablo Hernandez-Lagos (Investigator) presented some of the CITIES research at the Urban Research Day, organized by the NYU Wagner Urban Initiative. He showed unique evidence on how Artificial Intelligence (AI) frontier knowledge is created across cities in the world. Beijing is by far the most productive. It is also the most cited city on the planet. However, Berkeley, Stanford, and Redmond WA (Microsoft’s headquarters) still engender the most disruptive AI research. The study casts light on the cities that are poised to be the next AI knowledge powerhouses.
Presentation at the NYU Wagner Urban Initiative Workshop
Date: March, 2020