Fulbright Scholar Mikey Abela’s Journey to KTH and the WaterCentre
Mikey Abela came from the US to KTH and Stockholm on a Fulbright scholarship to work on one of WaterCentre’s projects.
“Our collaboration with Mikey as a visiting Fulbright student has been highly successful, and we warmly welcome more students from the US to reach out and collaborate with WaterCentre,” says Zahra Kalantari, WaterCentre’s Director.
Mikey Abela received his bachelor’s degree in computer science from Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island in May of 2022. He then worked for two years at a philanthropy called Schmidt Futures, where he worked with climate technology non-profits to build out their software. In September 2024, he arrived in Stockholm on a Fulbright Scholarship from the United States.
Why did you choose KTH?
“Given that I had spent a couple of years working on climate technology – mostly remote sensing for deforestation and greenhouse gas emissions monitoring – I focused my search on KTH, where I knew a lot of exciting research was taking place at the intersection of technology and sustainability. When I came across Zahra Kalantari’s and Jessica Page’s project, which was seeking to make AI modeling insights for sustainable urban planning accessible to urban planners via a software interface, I knew it would be a great fit.
I wanted to get a chance to learn about the modeling work that they were doing, which predicted urban residential development zones and then derived the carbon emissions associated with following that development pathway. And I thought that I could also contribute to the visualization and web-interface software work that they were planning. I reached out to them, and they were kind enough to sponsor my Fulbright research.”.
What has it meant for you, being at KTH?
“It has been a life-changing experience. I got such great exposure and experience in higher level research. My contributions to the project were very core to its success and I really felt that Jessica and Zahra trusted me as an equal contributor. They even supported me in hosting a workshop on the KTH campus with planners from Region Stockholm so that I could get feedback on the interface I had designed and developed. I am coming out of my Fulbright with invaluable research skills and strong connections at KTH and beyond.
I highly recommend the Fulbright program and the KTH WaterCentre to other students and researchers. Zahra and Jessica were amazing hosts, and I’ve learned and grown so much with them. I felt very welcomed by the whole department and they invited me to attend their department Julbord back in December which was a real highlight. We had glögg, pickled herring, and other traditional Swedish food while we sang Christmas carols,” says Mikey Abela.
Zahra Kalantari, WaterCentre’s Director, says that the collaboration with Mikey Abela has been highly succesful.
“We warmly welcome more students from the US to reach out and collaborate with WaterCentre,” she says.
Text: Åsa Karsberg
The project that Mikey Abela has been working on at the WaterCentre is called AI-powered knowledge integration for Carbon-neutral Cities.