#Smart City Academy
Projects

The primary objective of this research project is to enhance an understanding of the concept of inclusion and its criteria in Smart city discourse. The research ambition is applying the result as a tool for benchmarking inclusive smart cities, which can assess and improve them. To apply the result, we aim to work with cities like Amsterdam, The Hauge, and Rotterdam.

While many national and local governments in the world these days are placing their bets on smart city development in countering challenges , few know exactly how to develop them in practice. A high and rising number of publications has appeared addressing the concept of ‘smart city’, but not many address implementation issues. This paper aims at a conceptual understanding of the smart city by describing its various facets and using them to develop an Input-Output model helping policy makers and analysts make reasoned design choices. Using this model allows policy-makers and analysts to further their conceptual understanding of smart cities, envisage design choices they will face during implementation and understand the effects of these choices. Finally, the model and design variables are illustrated by introducing the case of ‘Smart Dubai’. Overall this paper provides an enhanced understanding of the smart city development process which can be used as a support tool for decision making.

Pavnext´s solution consists of a road pavement equipment that allows kinetic energy to be extracted from vehicles and consequently reduce their motion speed without any action of the driver and without impacting the vehicle, thus promoting road safety at locations where it is required to circulate at low speed. The energy captured is then converted into electrical energy, which is produced without associated emissions and can be used in public street lighting, crosswalks, sensors, traffic lights, charging electric bicycles or even injected into the power grid. Additionally, Pavnext also provides real-time data regarding traffic and velocity, as well as generated and consumed energy, which are sent to the cloud and later used to generate reports and to optimize energy consumption in real time, promoting energy efficiency.

We are looking for new international partners that are interested in implementing pilot plants with us, to help us validate our product and reach TRL9. Please don´t hesitate to contact us if you´re interested.

Voor dit onderzoeksproject zijn we nieuwsgierig hoe kunst kan helpen om bewoners en andere stadsgebruikers een mening te laten vormen over de slimme stad.

We doen dat in drie rondes, waarbij we steeds meer de diepte ingaan:
* De eerste ronde vindt plaats op straat; voorbijgangers worden geprikkeld om over de slimme stad na te denken door middel van kunstinstallaties en onzichtbaar theater.
* Ronde twee vindt plaats in buurthuizen; bewoners en andere stadsgebruikers worden gestimuleerd om een mening te vormen over de slimme stad.
* Ronde drie vindt plaats bij het NEMO Science Museum en brengt bewoners in gesprek met slimme stadsmakers, zoals technologieontwikkelaars en beleidsmakers.

Daarbij hebben we steeds drie vragen:
* In hoeverre helpen de kunstinstallaties en theaterstukjes om de slimme stad relevant te maken voor deelnemers? Wanneer ervaren deelnemers het als leuk en belangrijk om een mening te vormen over de slimme stad?
* In hoeverre helpen de kunstinstallaties en theaterstukjes deelnemers om de verbeelding te stimuleren? De slimme stad is voor veel mensen een abstract begrip. Hoe kan kunst helpen om de slimme stad tastbaar en bespreekbaar te maken?
* In hoeverre helpen de kunstinstallaties en theaterstukjes deelnemers om gefundeerde mening te vormen over de slimme stad? wat helpt deelnemers om niet alleen een mening te vormen, maar ook van zichzelf te begrijpen waar deze mening vandaan komt?

We onderzoeken deze vragen op een kwalitatieve manier, namelijk door middel van observaties en interviews. De publieksactiviteiten vinden plaats in Amsterdam tussen september 2018 en januari 2019.

Circular Organic Waste in Amsterdam is a thesis project carried out in a collaboration between the UvA Faculty of Science, the Amsterdam Business School and the Van ’t Hoff Institute for Molecular Sciences (Research Priority Area Sustainable Chemistry)The aim of the project is to investigate on the potential of separate organic waste collection and treatment in improving the circularity of Amsterdam. Amsterdam wants to become a sustainable and circular city by 2050 and increase recycling to 65% of waste by 2020 (currently around 27%). In addition, in April 2018, the European Parliament has adopted the revised Waste Framework Directive which declares that all member states shall ensure that biowaste is separately collected by 2023. Therefore it is clear that the separate collection of organic waste represents both an opportunity for the city to get closer to its targets and a necessity.

Currently, organic waste is not separately collected and it is just incinerated with the residual waste. In this way, energy is produced but all the nutrients and organic matter are lost and so all the value. Other treatments, more specific for organic waste, could allow for the recycling of nutrients, the retention of the value and even the upcycling of some materials. However, the introduction of another waste stream separately collected raises organizational, logistic and transportation issues. Therefore, this research aims at analyzing various potential collection solutions that could minimize costs and environmental impact making feasible and convenient the separate collection of organic waste and different possible treatments for this waste stream.

The analysis will be based on interviews, case studies and literatures and will be performed from different perspectives in order to have a systemic vision. Parallelly also the city of Amsterdam and its different sub-environments will be analyzed in order to understand the specific needs, limitation and opportunities of each different area. Combining the results, the most successful case studies that fit best in the characteristics of the city will be selected and integrated in different sustainable business models.

The set of business models proposed will produce an overall strategy for the management of organic waste following the principles of sustainability and circular economy as much as possible.
At the same time, the research will be backed by a social analysis performed through a questionnaire in order to get data on the real perception about this issue among Amsterdam’s inhabitants. The questionnaire will also help to get data on what would be the best instruments to incentivise the separate collection of organic waste and what the biggest barriers to its realisation are.

You can access the questionnaire through this link:

https://goo.gl/forms/8ApXVDSepWmlsyBH2

The role of the storyteller is to translate information into something that humans react to on an personal level. To develop narratives that engage us deeply to help us better understand the world.

For this summer academy project, the team Solar Flora search for an ongoing projects at Amsterdam Smart City platform and found the Rooftop Revolution then we decided to go for the topic Rooftop gardens. We contacted an enthusiast in Amsterdam and created the story.

Sustainable Storytelling Team SolarFlora 2017