Dr. Oualid Ali is the President at the Future Cities Council. He's a futurist, technologist and future cities expert. We discuss trends and opportunities for African Cities, Artificial Intelligence as the ‘new electricity’, Smart Cities and its challenges in Africa, Smart City projects in Africa, the future of education and his vision of African cities in 2040.
Join the Future Cities Africa Newsletter
Ask how you can collaborate with Future Cities Africa
Key Takeaways
Introduction
Trends and Opportunities for African Cities
Artificial Intelligence as the ‘new electricity’
Smart Cities and its challenges in Africa
Smart City Projects in Africa
Oualid’s vision of African cities in 2040
On the future of education
About Dr. Oualid Ali and FutureCitiesCouncil
Founder and President of www.FutureCitiesCouncil.org, connecting the dots between government, academia, business and citizens in the field of smart, sustainable and innovative cities of the future: www.FutureCitiesCouncil.org
Now I'm in the Sultanate of Oman as Director at Training and Smart Solutions Center (TSSC) at the German University of Technology in Oman (GUtech), the number one tech and innovative university in Oman.
What do we do in FutureCitiesCouncil?
First of all “Future” here mean smart, sustainable, innovative, safe, creative, healthy, etc. cities, due to the confusion in the definition of these concepts, we preferred to come up with a generic name “Future” because the ultimate goal is to tackle Future challenges for cities.
In FutureCitiesCouncil (FCC), which is based in the smartest cities in the world Toronto, Canada, we are connecting the dots of the quadruple helix, cities (government), business (industry), academia, and citizens together to work on developing future cities. Building future cities needs a collaborative effort from everybody. In FCC, we are developing digital strategies and transformation strategies for both greenfield and brownfield cities in order to help them face future challenges and to be technology-driven and citizen-centric at the same time. We cover all the verticals of future cities (mobility, health, education, safety, etc.). We have more than +70.000 members from all the quadruple helix (government (Cities), Industries, Citizens, and Academicians) from all over the world.
We have studied more than +200 cities across the globe (from Konza City in Kenya to Rio in Brazil) in order to learn from their success and failure and advise other cities that want to become smart, sustainable, and innovative.
We provide the following services related to future cities (smart, sustainable and innovative): Consultancy, training, events management, etc. See all services in www.FutureCitiesCouncil.org
See: www.linkedin.com/in/dr-oualid-ali-490809106
About The-Mind.ai
The-Mind.ai offers an entirely new approach to Artificial Intelligence. Our Artificial Mind can see and perceive, understand our language, think as humans think and make decisions, learn like us on its own: A real intelligence. To make of the world where no one is alienated and everything is at our fingertips.
In The-Mind.ai, we want to push the limits and boundaries of AI to a whole new level. We work on long term goals of developing and commercialising the next generation of Artificial Intelligence engines based on the AGI and ASI theories. This engine can power a wide variety of intelligent applications in several verticals.
Karen Bosman is Strategic Advisor: Office of the CEO at Wesgro. In episode 1 of the 10 episode Wesgro Series on Future Cities Africa we discuss: Harnessing the benefits of foreign direct investment (FDI), exports and tourism.
Play NowKurtis Lockhart is Acting Executive Director and Head of Research at The Charter Cities Institute (CCI). We discuss New Cities With New Rules: The Rise of African Charter Cities.
Play NowEpisode 6 of the Series focussing on urban governance and how to get it right in managing urban growth in towns and cities in Kenya. Show guest: Dennis Abuya is a Registered Physical Planner currently working with the County Government of Kiambu. He holds a Master's Degree in Urban Management and a degree in Urban and Regional Planning - both from the University of Nairobi.
Play NowHenning Rasmuss is a Founding Director and International Projects Director at Paragon Group - Architects. He has personally worked in 23 countries in Africa. We chat about how cities will change, impacts on Covid-19 on architecture and the built environment, continued urbanization, positive vibes, the new 'normal' and do we actually need sport?
Play NowAbdullahi Ali Hassan has a Master's in Urban Studies and is very active in the Bellville Somalian community. We explore the importance of multiculturalism in urban centres, narratives and perceptions, the importance of strong leadership, how city governments can better support multicultural populations, and more.
Play Now