The Master of Science in Professional Studies: Smart Cities is the first program of its kind in the region and will provide you with the skills to lead the digital transformation agenda in both public and private sector contexts. Smart Cities is an emerging interdisciplinary approach that includes designers, technologists, and humanists working together to create and deploy smart systems, which can communicate live status updates through distributed networks on traffic patterns, pollution, parking, water, energy, and other vital information. The program has been created for thought-leaders who are fascinated by this fast-developing and extremely exciting area of Smart Cities; our current students include senior decision-makers from across the region who are helping to shape the future of the cities we live in. As a world leader in smart cities and urban development, Dubai is the ideal place to study this kind of program.

The curriculum of this unique and innovative program goes beyond the concept of the smart city to also cover important technological, social and sustainability issues that will help you to develop a comprehensive and holistic approach to creating the cities of today and tomorrow. Providing this all-encompassing view of the development of the city, the program also addresses key subjects such as water, food, waste, transport, education and energy systems, taking into account complex interactions between each of the elements.

The ultimate goal is to help you implement applied problem-solving and research methods to build and develop efficient, sustainable and community-based cities and cultivate an awareness of the interdisciplinary nature of urban economics, city development and planning theory, urban ecology and demography. The program specifically caters to working professionals through intensive seminars delivered in the evenings.

The program can be completed in as little as 16 months.

Program Learning Outcomes

Program Learning Outcomes define what you will be expected to know and what you will be equipped to do by the time you graduate. These relate to the skills, knowledge, and behaviors that you will acquire in your matriculation through the program. Upon graduation, you will be able to:

• Conduct a city impact assessment.

• Develop effective governance systems.

• Develop strategies for engaging citizens.

• Analyze and evaluate plans for urban design.

• Analyze and evaluate landscape design.

• Analyze and develop plans for urban housing.

• Analyze the capacity of urban utilities and infrastructure.

• Develop plans for mobility management.

• Assess the feasibility of spatial data infrastructures, smart grids, and next generation networks in urban settings.

• Measure city scale energy and environmental impacts.

• Apply the analysis of big data to common urban problems and service delivery.

• Analyze and evaluate basic and advanced city services.

• Assess the feasibility of smart city development plans and technologies.

• Apply qualitative and quantitative methods to develop and implement a smart city project plan.