Prof. Reinhard König, who teaches Computational Architecture at Bauhaus-University Weimar, was the first speaker at the NCID Workshop on Urban Issues in Developing Countries. His presentation focused on how to use artificial intelligence for urban planning in Africa. König spoke about the different programmes and tools and the importance of digital planning with a network analysis that helps decode spaces and create a toolbox for improvement.

Explaining his work, he said that the most important is to combine both human and artificial intelligence. “We try to connect the human intelligence and machines, which are good to solve problems that you can formulate, but not difficult in terms of intellectual capacity. The idea is to combine both”, König said. “We try to create urban master plans that can adapt to different changes in transport systems, models, etc. You have to be flexible.”

The German professor ended his presentation speaking about projects he had done in places such as Cape Town and Addis Ababa. In this last one, they worked in the project Urbanize Ethiopia with the Ethiopian government, as they sought support to convert small existing villages into small cities with the objective of taking pressure off the capital, as there was the prospect of creating 800 towns in 5 years.