Photo: Dubai Diploma

First cohort completes Dubai’s smart city diploma

26 February 2021

by Sarah Wray

The first 35 participants have completed Smart Dubai’s Digital Service Design Professional Diploma.

Their work could now be developed to help close the digital divide, improve airport journeys and support remote teaching.

The training programme for government and private sector individuals working on smart city projects was designed in collaboration with the University of Dubai and the Dubai Institute of Design and Innovation (DIDI).

It aims to boost knowledge and skills to improve existing digital services and spur new solutions that are tailored to Dubai’s digital transformation. The city is working to rapidly adopt blockchain and artificial intelligence (AI) and has pledged to become a paper-free government this year.

Participating government and semi-governmental organisations included Dubai Municipality, Dubai Airports, Dubai Electricity and Water Authority (DEWA), the Telecommunications Regulatory Authority (TRA) and Dubai Police. From the private sector, companies such as telcos Etisalat and du; Emirates Airline; the Jumeirah Group hotel chain; and the GEMS private school network took part.

“Providing training for talented individuals and building expertise is a priority for us at Smart Dubai,” said His Excellency Younus Al Nasser, Assistant Director General of Smart Dubai and CEO of the Dubai Data Establishment.

“The Diploma is a significant step towards implementing the Smart Dubai Strategy, keeping pace with all global developments in smart city administration, and building on what has already been accomplished in this regard,” he added.

Real projects

The diploma consists of four modules and a concluding project where all of the programme’s learnings are applied to a real-life challenge.

The first module on digital technologies covers dynamic service integration, AI, blockchain, and information security. The second, Design Basics, looks at design thinking, information architecture, user interface, and content design.

The third module on research methods provides practical support on survey and interview design, quantitative and qualitative analysis, and data science. The fourth module explores how to bring all these threads together to create high quality digital services, and includes customer journeys and prototyping.

For the concluding projects, participants focused on issues such as resolving connectivity issues for non-connected customers (du); contactless airport journeys (Dubai Airports); an integrated platform to help teachers improve their work as they teach remotely during the COVID-19 pandemic (GEMS); and an integrated database of sports facilities (Dubai Sports Council).

“The objective is to apply course learnings towards a real-life project that is applicable in the real world, with an expectation of taking the project to actual implementation,” a statement from Smart Dubai said.

The diploma certificate is accredited by the Knowledge and Human Development Authority (KHDA) and Smart Dubai.

The programme will run again but a date has not yet been set, Hamad Al Awadhi, Project Manager, Smart Dubai, said.

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