A delegation headed by HE Saeed Mohammed Al Tayer, MD & CEO of Dubai Electricity and Water Authority (DEWA) has visited the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in Cambridge, Massachusetts in the USA. The visit is part of DEWA’s efforts to partner with international research centres and review best practices and latest research in energy, water, Artificial Intelligence (AI), smart grids, and data science, among others.

Al Tayer was accompanied by Waleed Salman, Executive Vice President of Business Development and Excellence, Marwan Bin Haidar, Executive Vice President of Innovation and the Future, and Dr Yousef Al Akraf, Executive Vice President of Business Support and Human Resources at DEWA.

During his visit, Al Tayer met with a number of MIT’s academics and researchers including Professor Sanjay Sarma, Vice President for Open Learning; John Lienhard, Founding Director of Abdul Latif Jameel World Water and Food Security Laboratory at MIT; Robert Armstrong, Director of MIT Energy Initiative (MITei) and Chevron Professor in Chemical Engineering at MIT; and Munther Dahleh, Director of the Institute for Data, Systems, and Society (IDSS) at MIT.

The meetings discussed MIT's latest developments in solar energy, photovoltaic and Concentrated Solar Power (CSP) systems as a viable option in the renewable energy sector. Al Tayer also discussed challenges to the world's food and water security, and adapting to the rapid changes in the Earth’s environment, scarcity of water and food supply around the world, data science, and information and decision systems.

Al Tayer highlighted DEWA’s efforts to achieve the vision of HH Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai, to make Dubai the smartest and happiest city in the world. This is done by building effective partnerships and exchanging best international practices with the finest research institutes. This includes energy management, automation, AI, Internet of Things (IoT), Big Data, cloud computing, smart grids, and disruptive technologies to keep pace with the Fourth Industrial Revolution.

Al Tayer and the accompanying delegation also visited the MIT Media Lab, which houses research groups in academic disciplines including technology, media, science, art and design, robotics, computing, and bioelectronics.