The SENSEable City

Professor Carlo Ratti with representatives from RMIT University and ISSI

Professor Carlo Ratti, Director of SENSEable City Lab at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology has delivered the first RMIT Business Lecture for 2014.

On Tuesday 25 March 2014, veski was delighted to partner again with EY to deliver The Senseable City, the first lecture as part of the RMIT Business Lecture Series event with special guest Professor Carlo Ratti, Director of SENSEable City Lab at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in Boston.

An architect and engineer by training, Professor Ratti practices in Italy and teaches at MIT. The SENSEable City Lab he directs aims to investigate and anticipate how digital technologies are changing the way people live and their implications at the urban level.

In this special presentation to an audience of leading professionals at the Melbourne offices of EY, Professor Ratti shared an array of innovative projects and future ideas in urban development, waste management, city and sensory technology, and the impact of these on local and global scales. Some of the innovations he presented included advances in city flows and smart infrastructures such as transportation and self-driving cars with autonomous intersection management, an autonomous flying quad copter and personal tour guide called Sky Call, garbage tracking and the global removal chain, along with the evolutions of industries and knowledge in our cities - particularly in the fields of healthcare, the sciences, engineering, and information technology.

Among many achievements, Professor Ratti’s work has been exhibited at venues including the Venice Biennale, the Design Museum Barcelona, the Science Museum in London, and The Museum of Modern Art in New York. He was featured in Wired Magazine’s Smart List 2012: 50 people who will change the world, he is a member of the World Economic Forum Global Agenda Council for Urban Management, and he is a curator for the Future Food District Pavilion for Expo 2015 in Milan. Hence this event was such a special opportunity to engage with such an innovative and enthusiastic professional and it was a privilege to host Professor Ratti in Melbourne.

The RMIT Business Lecture series attracts senior representatives from the government, business and education sectors and are part of veski’s activities to promote innovation across Victoria. Attendees left Professor Ratti’s presentation expressing how they were inspired for innovation, anticipating an exciting future in urban development and technology not only on a global scale but especially in the city of Melbourne for which there is such a strong advance and vision for the city already in place.

Professor Ratti's visit to Melbourne was made possible via a International Specialised Skills Institute Fellowship.