Apolitical spoke with Fábio Duarte, Associate Director of Research and Design at Senseable City Lab, an initiative between the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and the Municipality of Rio de Janeiro, which uses advanced sensing tools to map informal settlements (favelas). Most smart city projects start with researchers presenting technology to government. Favelas 4D reversed that: the idea came from Rio’s Head of Urban Planning, who approached MIT with a problem to solve.