Moving Beyond Smart Cities: Putting People at the Heart of Urban Intelligence

SPEAKER
Prof. Dr Thomas Schroepfer
Director,
Future Cities Laboratory Global,
Singapore-ETH Centre

Professor Thomas Schroepfer is Professor of Architecture and Sustainable Design at the Singapore University of Technology and Design (SUTD) and Director of Future Cities Laboratory Global at the Singapore-ETH Centre. His research focuses on future-positive urban development at the intersection of architecture and urban design, sustainability, and emerging technologies. He leads interdisciplinary research on high-density urban environments, exploring how AI, urban data and digital tools can support more liveable, resilient and sustainable cities. He works closely with government agencies and industry partners to translate research into planning, design and implementation.

SPEAKER
Chintan Raveshia
Principal APAC Cities,
Planning and Design Leader,
Arup

Chintan Raveshia is a Director and the Asia Pacific Region lead for the Cities, Planning & Design Business in Arup, a global planning, design and engineering consultancy. An architect and urban designer, he has worked with governments to shape and implement national, regional and precinct-level urban planning and design strategies, and deepened his local understanding and knowledge across many geographies. He sits on Design Singapore Council’s Advisory Board, ULI Singapore’s Executive Committee, Singapore URA’s Design Advisory Committee, is a visiting lecturer at the National University of Singapore. In over 20 years, he collaborated on and led some of the most iconic projects around the world including Indonesia’s new capital city, Smart Urban Habitat Masterplan in Singapore, Singapore’s food & sports masterplans, London’s Stratford City, and Dongtan – world’s first eco city, in China. Passionate about climate action, Chintan is undertaking research and work that galvanises the built environment against climate risks while exploring opportunities in food resilience, regenerative design, and active mobility.

SPEAKER
Huang Zhongwen
Group Director,
Design & Planning Lab,
Urban Redevelopment Authority

Huang Zhongwen is Group Director of URA’s Design and Planning Lab and leads the Singapore Government’s Centre of Excellence for Urban Planning and Design Technologies (URBEX). He oversees interdisciplinary teams that build strategic digital planning and design capabilities for URA and the wider urban-planning sector, while driving the transformation of land-use planning processes. As head of the former Digital Planning Lab from 2017 to 2021, he led the formulation of URA’s AI and Data Strategy and PLAN AI framework and architected the URBEX Strategy and Plan. Across physical and strategic planning roles at URA, he worked in land-use planning, policy, foresight, and industry and public engagement. He also helped established foundational data and analytical capabilities supporting land-use planning decisions and continues to champion the integration of data analytics into planning. Mr Huang previously led technology policy and planning work on smart-city strategy and cyber-physical infrastructure at the Smart Nation and Digital Government Group in the Prime Minister’s Office. He began his career as a naval officer and holds degrees in Cities and Geography from the London School of Economics.

SPEAKER
Cordula Oertel
Head of Google Maps Partnerships,
Google

Cordula manages Partnerships for Google Maps in South APAC (South Asia, Australia and New Zealand). In this role, she works with a range of diverse internal and external stakeholders, regionally and globally.

The overarching goal of her team is to create user value and win-win-partnerships - be it through data integration, data sharing, AI-solutioning or joint learning.

Prior to Google, Cordula managed Partnerships, Business Development and Strategy at Expedia, Dell, Samsung and Siemens Management Consulting. She has lived and worked in the USA, Europe (Germany, France, Switzerland) and Asia (Korea, Singapore).

Cordula holds an MBA from IMD in Lausanne, Switzerland, and a Masters of Business Administration from Ludwig-Maximilian-University in Munich, Germany.

MODERATOR
Alvin Chua
Acting Director
Data Science Division,
JTC

Alvin Chua is Acting Director for JTC Corporation’s Data Science Division and the organisation’s Chief Data Officer. He leads enterprise data strategy and governance, while driving the adoption and use of artificial intelligence across JTC.

He also holds a joint appointment at the National University of Singapore, where he leads the Cities Foresight Lab in studying the needs, perceptions and preferences of people and firms. Combining quantitative and qualitative methods, his research examines how behaviours, trade-offs and decisions shape cities, generating insights for more equitable, resilient and liveable urban outcomes. Alvin holds a PhD in Engineering Science from KU Leuven (Belgium) and a Master of Arts in Design from LASALLE College of the Arts (Singapore).