CITIES are rising at a fast pace. The MENA region has seen this with Dubai, and shortly after, Masdar City. In the meantime, millions of refugees are being displaced within cities throughout the UK, Europe, Middle East, and beyond, with nowhere to live and no infrastructure to support basic daily needs. How do we rebuild and redesign an ancient city like Damascus, while maintaining and honoring its history? In order to accommodate these needs we have to develop innovative approaches to urban planning, design, architecture, mobility, agriculture, and so much more. From Aug. 29 to Sept. 2, the MIT Media Lab, Community Jameel and Wamda will come together to convene 30+ designers, engineers, scientists, and artists at Al Serkal Avenue in Dubai. The goal is to bring together a vast range of skill sets, cultures, and areas of expertise to tackle big questions and prototype designs during a multi-day workshop focusing on redefining cities. Building strong relationships within a community of entrepreneurs and technologists who are able to build, redesign, and prototype for a future that is undeniably urban, in the process. Here is the link for the application. Attendees will have a chance to build new prototypes while receiving advice and mentorship from MIT Media Lab faculty, such as Iyad Rahwan, associate professor of media arts and sciences at the MIT Media Lab; J. Philipp Schmidt, director of learning innovation at the MIT Media Lab; and Ashley Shaffer, design researcher at IDEO, who is also supporting with on the ground organization and facilitation of the workshop. At the end of the week, each working group will present findings and outcomes. Ideally, some of the projects will be deployed with the help of regional collaborators. Workshop attendees will be sourced from the MIT Media Lab community and from the MENA region. We welcome a broad range of ideas and research expertise. Candidates matching the description will be contacted on a first come first served basis, so book your slot before space runs out. This is the second time Wamda and MIT Media Lab join hands to organize such an event. An Abu Dhabi setting, in 2014, saw hands-on instruction in four different tracks: food technology, health technology, sensors and networks, crowd-mapping and mobile experience. In 2003, Community Jameel was formally established as the social enterprise organization of Abdul Latif Jameel, one of the world's leading independent Toyota distributors. Today Community Jameel operates a considerable set of initiatives. From individual, community and Arab life as a whole in Saudi Arabia and beyond, Community Jameel has the welfare of its people at heart. By promoting Arab arts and culture in the Middle East and around the world, working against the unemployment, enabling research for poverty alleviation, and providing education and training opportunities, Community Jameel has successfully promoted positive social and economic sustainability. The MIT Media Lab is an interdisciplinary research laboratory at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology devoted to projects at the convergence of technology, multimedia and design. Actively promoting a unique, antidisciplinary culture, the Media Lab goes beyond known boundaries and disciplines, encouraging the most unconventional mixing and matching of seemingly disparate research areas. The Lab pushes innovation on the edges by learning and researching through doing and making. Wamda is a platform of programs and networks that are created to utilize its core competencies in community development, media, and research to constantly engage with young, innovative and promising entrepreneurs so they can start and create their businesses. In addition to rolling out services for corporations and governments to integrate them into the ecosystem, and link them to startups.
