Ashok Raiji Awarded Most Impactful Smart City Leader

POSTED ON: February 28, 2019

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During the most recent iteration of the annual Smart City Expo World Congress in Barcelona in November 2018, Professor Ashok Raiji was honored with the Most Impactful Smart City Leader award for his work as partner with Arup for the Songdo International Business Development project.

According to Gale International, one of the other partners on the project, “The $35 billion Songdo International Business District (IBD) is a new urban development, international business hub, free-trade zone and emerging travel destination in Northeast Asia that has attracted worldwide attention for its leadership in sustainability and smart-city initiatives. Songdo is being built on 1,500 acres of reclaimed land along the Yellow Sea in Incheon, South Korea, by Gale International, a premier international real estate investment and development company headquartered in New York, and POSCO E&C of Korea. Often called the largest private real estate venture in history, Songdo IBD will include one hundred million square feet of office, residential, retail, hotel and public space.”

The Smart City Expo World Congress is an annual event that strives to create dialogues on urban innovation between cities across the globe. By providing a forum for the exchange of ideas, the Congress promotes awareness of sustainability and social inclusion in an urban context.

  • Founded by inventor, industrialist and philanthropist Peter Cooper in 1859, The Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art offers education in art, architecture and engineering, as well as courses in the humanities and social sciences.

  • “My feelings, my desires, my hopes, embrace humanity throughout the world,” Peter Cooper proclaimed in a speech in 1853. He looked forward to a time when, “knowledge shall cover the earth as waters cover the great deep.”

  • From its beginnings, Cooper Union was a unique institution, dedicated to founder Peter Cooper's proposition that education is the key not only to personal prosperity but to civic virtue and harmony.

  • Peter Cooper wanted his graduates to acquire the technical mastery and entrepreneurial skills, enrich their intellects and spark their creativity, and develop a sense of social justice that would translate into action.