Lately, there’s been a lot of talk about smart cities and intelligent buildings, so what defines a smart city and makes it different from a regular city? Why do we need smart cities? What makes smart cities successful? In this episode, Dr. Esmat Zaidan answers these questions and dives into smart cities! Dr. Esmat Zaidan is an associate professor in Public Policy at the College of Public Policy, Hamad Bin Khalifa University. She has twenty years of progressive experience in academic institutions (University of Waterloo, United Arab Emirates University, and Qatar University) and in international development organizations such as the World Bank, the Norwegian Agency for Development Cooperation (NORAD), and the European Committee. She has solid interdisciplinary scholarly work and activities; her research focuses on social and cultural, development, smart cities and societies, sustainable development policy and planning, smart transformation, and the actions of communities and demand-side in the transition to sustainability. In her publications, she integrates Artificial Intelligence (AI), Geographic Information Systems (GIS) techniques, spatial statistics, forecasting models, and future predictions for policy analysis, particularly in the State of Qatar and the gulf. She published a wide range of articles (more than 48) in top-tier ISI/Scopus journals (70% of her publication are in Q1 journals) with Springer Nature, Elsevier, Sage, Routledge, and Taylor & Francis. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.