Ali Jadbabaie Leads Oct. 28 Infrastructure Forum on Climate, AI and Aging Grids

1 articles · Updated · MIT News · Oct 28

Madrid hosts the World Infrastructure Forum on Oct. 28, where Ali Jadbabaie joins global experts to examine how climate stress, AI growth and aging grid systems are reshaping infrastructure needs.
Jadbabaie argues the challenge is not only engineering: infrastructure must be redesigned across financing, construction and operations to avoid repeating the 20th century’s carbon- and resource-intensive model.
AI and digital tools could help by improving sensing, control and design speed, but he says tighter links among power, water, transport and communications also raise the risk of rare, systemwide failures.
MIT co-founded the forum with UPM, the World Bank Group and the University of Texas at Austin, building five working groups and an advisory group of more than 30 leaders.
By 2028, the median person is projected to live on more than $10 a day, a shift Jadbabaie says will lift infrastructure demand especially in developing economies.