This keynote presentation was delivered at the Arab ICT Forum 2018 in Bhrain. The presentation highlights the role of disruptive technologies in reshaping the future of our cities. main focus is on Arab cities. Examples of how new technologies are changing our cities are highlighted.

1. How Disruptive Technologies are
Reshaping the Future of Cities
Dr. Saeed Aldhaheri
Chairman of the board,
Smartworld
@DDSaeed
Arab ICT Forum 2018, Bahrain, 9 December 2018

2. 01Future cities & smart cities overview
02Smart city capability framework
03Disruptive technologies
04Use Cases: IoT, AI, open data
05Challenges
Agenda
06Recommendations

4. Urban
environment
Disruptive
Innovation
Digital
Technology
A Future city, or Smart City
What is a smart city?
Source: Deloitte smart cities report 2015

5. A Future city is
based on the
human itself
• Cater for the needs of its people
• More sustainable
• More social
• More exciting
• More Safe
• Lead to a more healthier life
• A great place to live, work and play
• More smart & intelligent (Technology is
an enabler)
• More efficient and effective
• More responsive
• Can predict and plan for the future

6. A future city is about
people living in the age of
technology
• “Cities are about people not technology”
• What a city should look like in the 21st century
• Technology is just one aspect…

8. • Openness for new
creative ideas
• willingness to experiment
and to take calculated risk
• try new types of
collaboration between
stakeholders
• Foundation networks for energy and
digital connectivity
• Fixed &Mobile broadband 4G & 5G
• IoT networks and platforms
• How to manage standards and
protocols to establish homogeneous
network
• New skills and competencies are
needed in the city
• Need many data scientists
• smart solutions aim at changing the
behaviour of people, cities need
experts who understand the
mechanisms of human behaviour
and changing human behaviour.
Vision & Strategy Data Technology
Skills & Competencies Innovation Culture Attractiveness Public Private ecosystem
Smart City Capability Framework
• Ecosystem to Co-create
smart solutions between
public & private
• Create value for all
• Role of gov as a facilitator
to bring different parties to
work together
• Need ecosystem to
attract businesses and
talents
• “war on talent” between
Mega cities
• Start-up ecosystem
• active policy to attract
businesses and talent
• Data combined from multiple
sources, including sensor data
give real insight into societal
challenges such as sustainability,
mobility, health, security
• Insight yield better and smarter
decisions
• A clear vision of what the city wants
to be and a strategy to realize the
vision
• Address challenges and
opportunities
• Clear economic and social vision
• Vision and strategy is important to
counterweight the push by vendors

9. Disruptive technologies and social innovation
are fueling smart solutions
Mobile: powerful mobile devices and apps, using
internet, act as front end for many innovative solutions
Cloud: on-demand access to rich application
functionality & computing power allow for exponential
scalable solutions in a “pay-per-use” model
Big Data: large volumes of data (structured data, sensor
data, audio, video, social media) form the lifeblood of
smart solutions
Artificial Intelligence: cognitive systems combine machine
learning with the ability to interact via natural language and
create insight from data
Internet of Things: physical objects equipped with
advanced sensors and connectivity transform into smart
objects and generate a plethora of data
Social Robotics and Drones: social robots and drones
replace human labor on a large scale, not only for routine
work but increasingly for providing services
Blockchain: algorithm that facilitates registering
transactions in an indisputable way without the use of an
intermediary or a central administration
3D Printing: additive manufacturing allows for efficient
production of unique products where and when they are
needed
Crowd Sourcing: the process of soliciting contribution
from a group of people to obtain needed services, ideas, or
content, and especially from an online community
Co-Creation: brings together parties to jointly create a
mutual valued outcome. In the context of smart cities,
these are (communities of) citizens, private companies,
knowledge institutes and public organizations that form an
ecosystem to solve societal problems in a creative way.
Gamification: the use of game thinking and game design
elements (competition, levels, badges, etc.) in non-game
contexts. The objective of gamification is to stimulate
people to change their behaviour In a desired way.
Digital Twins: Digital Replica of physical objects. In smart
city context, to build digital replica of a city. This is useful to
visualize the city with different layers including buildings,
utilities, services,etc. Helps urban planning with simulation

10. Disruptive technologies: Internet of Things
• The IoT: massive use of advanced sensors and wireless
communication in all kinds of physical objects
• 8.4 billion connected devices in 2017 and will reach
20.4 billion by 2020. Gartner
• The massive data generated by the wide scale use of
sensor technology can be used in smart solutions to
optimize the use of infrastructure and resources.
• Sensors: traffic, energy use, health, parking, waste,
lighting,,,,etc
• Connectivity: 3G/4G, Wi-Fi, LoRa
• Use cases: smart homes, smart buildings, smart
lighting, smart streets, smart devices

11. IoT example: the Edge – the
greenest building in the world
• The most fully realized vision of IoT in the world (the smartest and
most sustainable and connected building)
• Designed to provide excellent user experience:
• Smart parking, charging stations for electric cars
• Staff can choose in which office space to work
• An app for user guidance in the building and to adjust personal
preference for lighting and temperature
• Uses solar panels and generates more energy than it consumes
• Collects rain water and uses it to flush toilets and for irrigation to the
green areas around the building
• Equipped with more than 30,000 sensors (infrared, ambient light,
humidity, and temperature) and uses LED OE lighting
• Coffee machines and towel dispensers are connected for just-in-time
refill
• Data is used for preventive maintenance and reduce energy
consumption
• save 42 million kilograms of CO2 in 10 years, vs. to a normal office
building and the estimated energy consumption is less than 0.3

12. AI applications are growing and touching
almost every aspect of our lives
• Health care: diagnosing disease, personalized
medicine, and improving public health
• Ex. IBM Watson for oncology
• Transportation: autonomous cars, traffic control
• Optimizing infrastructure operations
• Infrastructure monitoring for predictive maintenance
• Improving service delivery
• Chat bots and virtual agents
• Public safety: Intelligent cameras and security
robots
• Shopping malls, corporate campuses, data centers
• Online retail
• Cashierless stores (Amazon Go)

13. Dubai Smart City program is unique and uses
a wholistic approach to Smart City
“Dubai will be the first city powered
By Blockchain by 2020”
“10 years ahead of other world cities”
Disruptive Innovation
25% autonomous transportation by 2030
UAE Centennial 2071 Plan
“Make Dubai the happiest city on earth”

14. Dubai Smart City: trying and testing new ideas

15. Reinventing Government Services using AI: UAE Examples
Shehab chatbot by DCT Abu Dhabi

16. Data is the lifeblood of smart city solutions
• “If there is one ingredient that makes a city smart, it is
data.” – Deloitte
• Real insight to drive decision making can be obtained
from the collective city data
• A need for city data strategy
• How to address City Data Challenges
• Organize city data hacks
• Provide data science scholarships
Future Cities Catapult launches a new AI
network that brings together industry and
cities looking to develop and adopt AI

17. Smart cities are data-driven
Open data portals to stimulate civic innovation
• Data provide insights to create new services & Businesses and
increase efficiency of Gov processes
• Cities provide city-service development through APIs to enforce
data governance
• eHelsinki – CitySDK project (now adopted by the European
Commision)
• Singapore – Smart Nation API CoLAB
• Smart Dubai open data guidelines

18. Example: Public engagement with city data
UAE Hackathon Data for Happiness
• Gov efforts to spread the concepts of artificial
intelligence (AI) and big data analysis
• motivate the UAE’s youth to innovate solutions to
the challenges of vital sectors
• 781 participants, distributed to 176 teams, from all
the emirates.
• female participation 60%
• Across all cities of UAE
• Hosted by national Universities in UAE

19. Challenges facing smart cities
• Unemployment & income inequality
• Due to automation, 30 - 45% of jobs will be automated by 2030.
• Privacy
• A billion camera to be deployed by cities by 2020
• People feel being monitored and watched
• Technology issues
• Algorithmic bias
• Immature technologies
• Ethical issues with AI
• Shortage of talents and skills
• Data science, cybersecurity, AI, Blockchain,,etc
• Cybersecurity
• Insecure IoT devices
• Security of autonomous vehicles
• Cybersecurity of critical infrastructure
• Legal framework
• To address privacy, open data, ethical issues
• Be fast and agile

20. Recommendations
• Arab and GCC countries need more cooperation
• Suggesting an Arab Future Cities Council
• Think of citizens and residents needs first and happiness of people
• Future cities are more about visions and strategies and the need to
address challenging issues
• Provide test beds and establish innovation labs to evaluate disruptive
technologies and address challenges
• Data is the lifeblood of smart cities. Engage your people through open
data and co-creation

21. A city is not a computer. Urban Intelligence is more than information processing
Shannon Mattern
A wall in Bairro Alto, Lisbon, covered with circuit boards painted white. [Daniel Gonçalves]

22. Thank you