Beyond Smart Cities: Emerging Design and Technology

Social Studies of Algorithms

Ruby on Rails Engineer

Ethereum Blockchain and Smart Contracts Developer

Multiple Roles

Leadership Development

Open Data Barometer Reviewer

Production

Bachelor of Engineering (B.Eng.)

Master of Science (M.Sc.)

Kromatic provides professional training & coaching services to help companies get to market fast and reduce the cost of innovation.

Product Manager | Chief Technology Officer

MODOMOTO is a fashion e-commerce platform offering curated shopping services for men.

With the IT department of five senior developers and system administrators, my key responsibilities included:

• Using Ruby on Rails, MySQL, jQuery, and Google OAuth technologies;
• Planning and development of an in-house ERP system;
• Cooperating with sales and customer service departments to develop a platform solution for automatizing their processes;
• Maintaining database consistency;
• Continuous updates on the frontend of Modomoto.de website.

Software and Web Design Coordinator

Strawberry energy is developing solar-powered urban furniture for smart and sustainable cities. Its mission is to enhance people’s experience in public spaces and provide them with energy and connectivity on the go.

Urban Innovation Partner

Kišobran is a creative organization that promotes independent culture and art through alternative events. Started as a DJ crew, the organization soon expanded its activities to include VJing, creative workshops, podcasts and radio shows.

As a part of the Kišobran VJ Team, my contribution included:

• Providing live visual experience for alternative Belgrade nightlife events;
• VJing at the main stage of EXIT Festival;
• Decorating venues with 3D projection mapping and interactive installations;
• Exploring generative art algorithms;
• Using tools such as Resolume Arena, Processing, openFrameworks, OSC, OpenCV, and MIDI controllers.

Software Developer

Future Cities Laboratory is a research program established by ETH Zurich and Singapore’s National Research Foundation that aims to develop new knowledge, technologies, and approaches for a sustainable urban future with an Asian perspective.

Working in the Simulation Platform team, our main mission was to investigate visualization methods beyond traditional software systems (such as GIS), and utilize live and dynamic data for improving communication to various stakeholders. As part of this short-term position, my key responsibilities included:
• Developing visualization solutions of dynamic energy data, used for decision-making and educational purposes;
• Design and implementation of an interactive Sankey diagram tool in D3.js;
• Optimizing application for multiple viewing modes on Value Lab Asia 16x55'' video wall display.

Software Engineer

Antler is a global early-stage venture capital firm that invests in the defining technology companies of tomorrow.

Entrepreneur

LaptopFriendly is a community of remote workers who help each other find and map laptop-friendly spaces such as cafes, restaurants, hotel lobbies or libraries.

Co-founder | Product Manager

Product Research Principal

Khalifa University of Science and Technology (previously: Masdar Institute) is a graduate-level, research-oriented university focused on alternative energy, sustainability, and environmental issues.

As a research assistant, guided by the institute's faculty members and the Interim Provost, I conducted an investigative study that explores the barriers to accessing Public Sector Information in the UAE, used in the local R&D and innovation efforts. 

Main responsibilities:
• Field research with local and expatriate scientists about experiences requesting public datasets from government authorities;
• Field research with the UAE public officials about data sharing procedures, government–academia relationship, and the main concerns related to data disclosure;
• Literature and policy reviews of worldwide Open Government Data practices;
• Proposing a data sharing policy strategy for the Emirate of Abu Dhabi.

Graduate Research Assistant for Public Data Infrastructure

Urban Data Visualization Researcher

AWST builds products and infrastructure to help brands and creators transition from Web2 to Web3 with ease.

Co-Founder | Chief Product Officer

Santiment is a blockchain and financial insights platform. It provides tools for reporting and visualizing crypto market behavior by analyzing social and development information of cryptocurrencies.

Product Manager | Customer Development Lead

SHARE Foundation is responsible for hosting weekend-long hybrid events blending Internet culture and technology related workshops by day, with dynamic cutting-edge music festival by night.

My contribution helped digitalize the ticketing process for events held in Serbia, Croatia, and Lebanon. Specific deliverables included:

• PHP, CodeIgniter, and frontend development;
• Development of custom participant management solution with email communication and voucher systems;
• On the spot hardware and network setup.

Student Brand Manager

As a student brand manager in the Red Bull Serbia branch, my responsibilities included:

• Communicating the Red Bull brand to the core target group, mainly student population;
• Working in teams on creative marketing projects and event management;
• Collaborating with university representatives and student organizations.

Student assistant for Assembly, Pascal, and C programming courses

Mobilinet was a Berlin-based startup, an affiliate network aiming to help carsharing companies build better brand awareness. The startup decided to close its doors in February 2014, shortly after I joined the team. (I hope I wasn't the reason!)

As the first employee and the only technical person, my responsibilities included:

• Ruby on Rails, WordPress backend and frontend development;
• Planning and implementing a custom database solution and internal database management system;
• Rewriting WordPress themes to work seamlessly with Rails backend.

VJ and Creative Developer

Eudaform Labs is an umbrella organization for R&D activities in the intersection of urban well-being, culture, and web3 technologies.

Founder

Hypermaps is building an AI-native, interoperable, and legally reusable geospatial infrastructure for AI agents and next-gen location apps.

Building maps and crowdsourcing tools

Know about Aleksandar Abu Samra's work experience, education, bootcamps, certifications, and much more. Aleksandar Abu Samra