Abstract
We present a science-based multi-team, multidisciplinary international research partnership between the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and scholarly institutions in Kuwait. This collaborative research and education project known as the first MIT-Kuwait Signature Project (SP1) on “Sustainability of Kuwait’s Built Environment” was sponsored by the KFAS through the Kuwait-MIT Center for Natural Resources and the Environment at MIT. The flagship project aimed at the development of novel methodologies and solutions for the sustainability of physical infrastructure with a multi-scale approach including construction materials, buildings and skyscrapers, and cities to establish a new paradigm in engineering design. The project encompasses three interrelated thrust areas of innovative sustainable construction materials, performance-based engineering for skyscrapers, and energy efficiency and life cycle performance of buildings and cities.
Specific topics covered have included manufacturing of new structural concrete materials using locally available sustainable ingredients for durability and resiliency, structural modeling and sensing technologies, computer algorithms for monitoring and damage detection for tall buildings, and embodied and operational energy studies for materials, buildings, and neighborhoods in Kuwait.
This unique project has achieved significant science advances while maintaining open, bidirectional platforms for joint creation and dissemination of scientific knowledge and innovations as a basis for industrial developments. The project has resulted in numerous graduate and undergraduate theses, and extensive top journal publications, describing developed methodologies and results. An essential added value of the project is that it has provided the intellectual framework and a platform for follow-up projects for continued scientific research as well as technology transfer and start-up activities contributing to industrial, economic, and social developments in Kuwait. The Gulf Conference on Sustainable Built Environment held in Kuwait from March 10–13, 2019, is a final output from the successful completion of SP1.
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Acknowledgment
This project was sponsored by the Kuwait Foundation for the Advancement of Sciences (KFAS). I would like to thank Dr. Adnan Shihab-Eldin for his support of this project. I express my sincere thanks to Professor M. Nafi Toksöz for his role in the initiation of this project and for his valuable contributions. Thanks are due to Dr. Hasan Kamal of KISR for his contributions to the initiation and realization of this project and for his collaboration in the conduct and coordination of the work. Advice and suggestions of Professor Sidney Yip have been inspirational throughout the course of the project, and his technical contributions have been essential. Dr. Kunal Kupwade-Patil skillfully served as a researcher and the project manager and assisted me in organizing and managing the activities of this challenging project.
This unique project could not have been possible without the hard work and creativity of our undergraduate and graduate students, postdocs, researchers, and colleagues, in all participating institutions, who dedicated their time and efforts. We acknowledge the evaluation and advice of external panel review members during the course of the work by Professor Urs Meier, Swiss Federal Laboratories for Materials Science and Technology (EMPA); Professor Christian Grosse, Technical University of Munich; and Dr. Franca Trubiano, University of Pennsylvania.
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Büyüköztürk, O. (2020). Roadmap for a Sustainable Built Environment: A Science-Based Multidisciplinary Research. In: Bumajdad, A., Bouhamra, W., Alsayegh, O., Kamal, H., Alhajraf, S. (eds) Gulf Conference on Sustainable Built Environment. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-39734-0_1
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