Follow-up project on its way

mercredi 21 Oct 2020

We had the pleasure to welcome French colleagues from the UTBM (Université de Technologie de Belfort-Montbéliard) at the HEG Arc. They have a longstanding expertise in AI applied to Smart Cities, human-computer interaction, intelligent transport systems, and so forth. UTBM and HEG Arc have been cooperating for many years.

We discussed the possibility of submitting a follow-up project to Smart CityZens, starting in 2021. The project would include academic, public and private partners from different countries, as it was the case this year. We worked on the project objectives and discussed which topics would be relevant for Smart Cities of tomorrow.

We will see our colleagues again in Belfort and in Neuchâtel, with the support of the Communauté du Savoir, and will meet with potential project partners from France and Switzerland. Let us hope that Smart CityZens will live further!

Post: G. Chappuis. Photos: J. Wirth.

Ensuring Economic Security of Administrative Center of the Russian Entity

jeudi 30 Juil 2020

A really interesting article entitled « Ensuring Economic Security of Administrative Center of the Russian Entity » and written by I. A. Svetkina has been published recently. It talks about the « smart risks », « smart threats » and « smart challenges » for the economic security of smart cities. Go check it out! https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-030-47458-4_63

How Corona virus could affect Smart Cities

mercredi 27 Mai 2020

In the past month, several apps such as the CovApp have surfaced on the internet.

Their main goal is to target infected individuals and retrace their whereabouts to help identify potentially infected people.

But why and how could this affect Smart Cities ?

Well, the answer is simple. Data management is one of the key activities of Smart Cities.

By controlling traffic flux in heavily frequented areas such as public buildings, parks, train stations and airports, Smart City data centers could easily target and identify virus carriers.

The information could then be passed on to local Healthcare centers which will contact the aforementioned individuals and invite them to a medical check-up.

The Covid-19 crisis has shown the world the importance of traceability, transparency and a country’s capacity to take immediate action.

In this regard, could Smart Cities be part of such a solution ?

CNET – Explaining contact tracing apps that could save us from COVID-19