MIT only gets a quick mention in today’s New York Times story about a new high tech, energy efficient city outside Abu Dubai in the United Arab Emirates. But, the university’s Technology and Development Program is working closely with the UAE to set up a mini-MIT in Masdar. The Times described the city as a technological wonder but notes that it also “reflects the gated-community mentality” that sees the only way “to create a truly harmonious community, green or otherwise, is to cut it off from the world at large.”
More from the Times
Designed by Foster & Partners, a firm known for feats of technological wizardry, the city, called Masdar, would be a perfect square, nearly a mile on each side, raised on a 23-foot-high base to capture desert breezes. Beneath its labyrinth of pedestrian streets, a fleet of driverless electric cars would navigate silently through dimly lit tunnels. The project conjured both a walled medieval fortress and an upgraded version of the Magic Kingdom’s Tomorrowland.
Well, those early assessments turned out to be wrong. By this past week, as people began moving into the first section of the project to be completed — a 3 ½-acre zone surrounding a sustainability-oriented research institute — it was clear that Masdar is something more daring and more noxious.
More here on MIT’s piece of The Masdar Institute:
MIT’s “role with the Masdar Institute is diverse and evolving, but currently is focused on four main areas: 1) development and management of joint collaborative esearch; 2) assistance in development of degree programs; 3) outreach that encourages industrial participation in Institute research and development activities; and 4) support for capacity building at the Institute in terms of its organizational and administrative structure as well as scholarly assessment of potential faculty candidates.
The Masdar Institute faculty, once chosen and appointed, spend up to one year working closely with faculty at MIT in Cambridge, Massachusetts in joint research projects on topics of relevance globally and to Abu Dhabi. The faculty also spend considerable time auditing the graduate-level classes they will eventually teach at the Masdar Institute.