UNIVERSITY OF BAHRAIN
7th IET SMART CITIES SYMPOSIUM,  3-5 December 2023

THE SMART CITIES SYMPOSIUM - THE WAY FORWARD

This University of Bahrain 4th Smart Cities Symposium (21-23 November 2021)  is being organized with collaboration of  the IET, (The Institution of Engineering and Technology), UK. 

Smart Cities, is a new and emerging concept that have received a substantial attention for a while. This is because of the fast development of Engineering Concepts, IT and ICT sectors.   In reality, Smart cities is a used term used to define employment of smart technologies and data as the means to solve cities’ sustainability challenges and prosper. In this sense, many cities are in the process of transforming themselves to be smart.  This can be achieved while relying and using data and technology to improve a number of sectors.  Sectors that are applicable for such transformations are:   

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{Transport, Energy use, Health issues, Health care, and Air quality, or to Drive economic growth}. Others are being built to be smart from the start.  So this is a term that relates to the present and to the future.  Nevertheless, in general notion, cities world-wide consume substantial resources and global energy supply, which make them much under demand to be transformed to smart.   Reports are also showing that, there are growing numbers of the world’s natural resources, global energy supply, healthcare issues, the need of fast and easy transports, and easy health care.  In addition, over the coming twenty years, it is expected that cities worldwide will generate not less than 60 per cent of global GDP.  In this sense there are potentials that, Engineering and High Technologies will help and participate to resolve a number of issues and demands of current cities. 

The regional infrastructure, and the ICT backbone, are developing very fast, that makes the concept of smart cities are very applicable concepts locally.   Therefore, the event will be an excellent  platform and a site for energetic and dynamic discussions between locally demanding parties,  possible international experts, and the  community of academics, decision makers, researchers, practitioners, real estate developers in Bahrain, investors and policy makers from the urban spheres. This is all with the aim to explore such emerging trends and innovative solutions to green and smart cities within the region.

The main purpose of the event is create awareness about the future prospects of Smart Cities.  The event will serve as a platform to exchange ideas and throughout in an international prospects.  The event objectives are also in emphasizing the role of academic institutions in promoting a smarter kingdom via its consultancy, building smarter ideas or continuity in the form of publications and creating innovative solutions.  In addition, such organization of the event, will also focus on networking opportunities, and that the event is a good starting point and could help in making networking opportunities for smart cities.

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The event venue will be at University of Bahrain, and will run for three days, 21-23 November 2021.  The symposium will involve both invited speakers (talking about load needs for smart cities), in addition to academic submitted papers (with review), as they will be published afterward within the IET (once satisfying the needed technical standards).

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