I recently had the pleasure of speaking about the work of our group at the Chevening Alumni Summit 2020. The summit had the theme of “Making an impact: technology for sustainability”, and featured both panel presentations and focussed group discussions.

It was fascinating to hear about work concerning peace building and technology (Arik Segal), achieving sustainable development goals through technology (Sunday Leonard) and EU green finance (Sumeet Manchanda) and strategies for renewable energy (Sergiy Maslinchenko). I was particularly impressed by the wealth of information available through the work of Dr Leonard (available online), and by the very high level of debate.

It was then possible to engage in some focussed discussion around the topic of smart cities and communities, including the roles of the communities themselves, and the connections between such emerging infrastructure and technology and sustainable futures.

My thanks go to Teja Rot in particular for the kind invitation. It was an honour to participate.

Richard Laing, December 2020