Requests

Do you know a great example of high density living environments built within the last 30 years? Share your knowledge and contribute to the creation of an open repository via Crowd Creation. To be truly exemplary, the area should include a mixture of functions (at least some of them high-rise) where the physical fabric retains a human scale at street level despite the high density.

You may wonder who's asking for and compiling this information: the Chair of Spatial Urban Transformation at the Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences is committed to building an open-access repository. Sharing best practices across the globe is becoming increasingly vital, especially as many of our western cities are on the eve of unprecedented densification. As a humble thank you for helping to guide this societal challenge, they've allotted 12 rewards for contributors. Click here to submit a project.

Societal Context
Like many of our Western cities, Amsterdam is on the brink of intensive urban densification. The metropolitan area of Amsterdam plans to add 100,000 new dwellings, mostly within the existing urban fabric. Compact studio apartments and new situational typologies of high-rises are part of the program, which will increase the densification even further. How are we to retain a human scale in these new high-density environments, especially at the street level where our social fabric is shaped? This calls for a new array of examples and precedent studies of successful existing "Great High Density Environments." What are their design properties and how are they programmed? How do they succeed in retaining a human scale?

Amsterdam - Image Courtesy of Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences
Sensing Streetscapes Project

These questions are central to the Sensing Streetscapes Project initiated by the Chair of Spatial Urban Transformation at the Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences (AUAS). In a consortium of spatial design offices and clients of large scale projects, action research is explored along three lines. First, building on the classic works of Allan Jacobs, Jan Gehl and the like, six of the most-used reference locations for these new environments are deconstructed by research through design. Second, neuro-architectural technologies (eye-trackers) are deployed to uncover the visual impact of the applied design principles: What are the patterns? Do these design solutions indeed mitigate the high density and intensity to a human scale on the level of the streetscape? Finally, an algorithm is developed to trace the most suitable best practices via AI. That’s where you come in.

Cassilis Road, London - Image Courtesy of Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences

Repository of Great Examples by Crowd Creation
Some high profile examples of great high density environments are well known, like in Vancouver, Toronto, London, Manchester, Amsterdam, Hamburg, and Manhattan. Yet what lesser-known examples of Great High Density Living Environments are out there for us to learn from? Share your knowledge and contribute to the creation of an open repository via Crowd Creation.

In order to frame the search, a list of desired characteristics:

• Residential environment in an inner city area
• Built within the last 30 years – or about to be 'opened' soon
• Built for High Density with some high-rise buildings
• Success in creating a human scale at eye-level on the street
• Some level of mixed functions, green design, etc. - anything that increases the livability of the environment

Click here to submit a project.

Hardman Street, Manchester - Image Courtesy of Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences

You are, of course, allowed to offer one of your own projects as an example. The deadline for submissions is January 29th, 2021 and as a modest gesture of thanks for helping address this societal challenge, 12 rewards are available to contributors. Out of the projects that fit the characteristics, consortium members will select the contributors who delivered either multiple great examples, surprisingly interesting examples, or in-depth descriptions and pictures. 12 entrants will be randomly selected to be rewarded:

• 2 will receive personalized book selections on this topic (favorites of the Chair)
• 6 will receive an Amazon gift card with a value of €50
• 4 will receive a ticket to the Media Architecture Biennale 2021
• Winners will be notified personally

Visit the results at https://sensingstreetscapes.com. The website will remain open afterwards, so feel free to keep sending your examples!

Hey! I am a student from Finland looking to write my dissertation about the way city based festivals can thrive sustainably in a 'post-Covid-19' world and tackle sustainability issues with the support and co-creation of initiatives of the 'smart city' as well as city council.

Essentially I am aiming to argue how 'smart city' initiatives such as seen in Amsterdam and Helsinki could help festival management engage better with tackling sustainability issues cheaply, by for example offering event spaces, expertise, waste management which can be expensive processes...

Any advice is much appreciated, thank you !!

Hello guys, I am seriously needing help in framing a topic for myself. I am currently a MSc Risk student at Durham University. I have always been interested in smart cities and urban analytics in relation to flooding. I will also like to expand on my selected topic for my PhD. Thanks in anticipation for your help.

Hi im currently doing a dissertation on smart city technology in Amsterdam im really wanting to have peoples views on it. How they feel about the tecnology and whether they have liked the changed around roads and bike lanes etc in the past 10 years or so, im really wanting to know if people know about all the tech incorporated into the city. If anyone would like to get intouch if you feel you could help please send an email to sunnyhowd@outlook.com or message me on here would love to hear from you all!

Kind Regards
Sunny

Interested in implementation of data privacy in digital twins. Contact me for projects in health & citizen data.

For my master degree in engineering, I am looking for an internship in the smart grids or smart buildings fields. It will start in April 2021 and last 4 to 5 months. My subjects of study are energy (electricity, Heat transfer, renewable energies) and IT (programming, embedded systems, IOT). I want to use my skills to help your community on any project related to energy. I'm particularly interested in programming and IOT.
Currently, I'm working on a smart street light network project. The idea is to design energy efficient street lights that communicate with one another and prevent night time disorders by recording any noise over a given threshold and pushing the data to a supervisor.
Feel free to contact me if you need any further informations.
Warm regards,
Aymeric

For my Master's Thesis, I am pursuing the topic of Smart Cities from the perspective of the citizen. Primarily, focusing on first, the awareness among citizens about their cities "smart initiatives" and secondly, the extent to which they participate and would like to participate in such initiatives. My sample population consists of normal citizens as I would like to investigate how much the average citizen is aware of these things. However, I am looking for people on this forum who have somewhat of a previous experience either about or working with smart cities who I could hopefully conduct a short interview with so I could use that as sort of a benchmark when compared to normal citizens of a city.

Hello everyone,
I am seeking employment opportunities within the urban solution and smart city community. I am really eager to get some experience and expand my knowledge in Digitalisation, energy revolution, E mobility, Mobility as a service, sensors, open data. From November onwards, I am available to join an exciting and innovative project which I could collaborate with you on!

I just completed a Master's in Smart City Design from Macromedia university of applied science, Berlin. My master thesis is about the Optimization of existing EV charging infrastructure. I have worked on projects with companies on the topic of digitalization of city, Car-free city, and the use of blockchain. All of the projects include solutions to the challenge, business proposal, and urban solution.

Any known opportunities or advice would be greatly appreciated. Please email me on vrusti.kiri@gmail.com for my resume. Thanks in advance:)!

MozFest is a unique hybrid: part art, tech and society convening, part maker festival, and the premiere gathering for activists in diverse global movements fighting for a more humane digital world.
That’s why I’m excited to invite you and your community to participate in the first-ever virtual MozFest! Details and submission page here: mzl.la/proposals2021
Anyone can submit a session – you don’t need any particular expertise, just a great project or idea and the desire to collaborate and learn from festival participants. Submit your session idea today! Deadline is November 23: mzl.la/proposals2021

Dear expert,
In February I will start with my master thesis. Even though I have gained a lot of knowledge in academia about sustainability-related topics, I would now like to hear from YOU, the real experts in 'the field' which topics according to you are insufficiently explored and deserve more attention?

What is according to you missing in current studies, e.g. translation from academia to practice?

Rather than simply producing a thesis to conclude my masters I want to really contribute by creating something that is useful for practice and can make a change. Hence, your knowledge, expertise and potential examples of interesting cases/projects are very welcome!

The Association of Public Administrators in Romania (AAPRO) was founded in 2010, as a follow-up of a pilot project called“Public Administrator – a success factor for an efficient management at local level” carry out by the Central Unit for the Public Administration Reform (a structure within the Romanian Ministry of Administration and Interior Affairs).

AAPRO is commited to form a national, relevant, elite and professional Body of City Managers, who must have a clear image on the background of this career and become responsible for their professional conduct and self-improvement.

The initiative to introduce the Public Administrator position at each local level in Romania targets an higher lever of professionalism at counties, municipalities, cities and communes staff.

The romanian equivalent of the city manager can be hired upon the Mayor’s proposal or the one of the local council (wich must give the final aproval anyway), after a transparent selection process.

His main responsibilities are to coordinate some of the public administration affairs and services (on an agreed agenda) and to do other specific tasks delegated by the Mayor / President of County Council, all of these concluded in a management contract, based on clear management objectives and performance criteria.

The City Manager is one common thing among the efficient and successful local governments
all over the world. Adopting him in the romanian administration was a step from public adminsitration to public management, focusing on delivery good qaulity services for the citizens.

The Public Administrator, as we call it here, is not another birocrat, but a strategist, a visonary, balancing day-to-day (organizational) problem solving with planning and shaping the future, acording to the adopted local strategy and the community aspirations.

At the local level, the elected body and the technical staff, coordinated by the Mayor or the President of County Council and the Public Administrator, must first find aut and understand what people want, need and hope, then come up with a strategy, an action plan, seek for solutions, means and resources, involve the local actors such as bussines community and civil society, and communicate at any moment what has been done so far, and what is is comming.

In this picture, the Public Administrator has a leading role, he is an communicator, technology facilitator, and can be, if the Mayor delegates him, even budget chief authorizing officer.

Since 2013, the Association of City Managers in Romania, is a member of ICMA (International City / County Management Association), the most important and strong association internationally in terms of management in local public administration.

In 2019, the Association of City Managers in Romania hosted the most important event, the International Regional Conference ICMA, an event attended by over 220 representatives from 15 countries around the world.

Currently, in Romania activate more than 450 Public Administrators (the number varies from month to monyh), as follows :
- out of 41 counties, 26 ocupied positions and 7 vacancies
- out of 103 municipies, 40 ocupied positions and 37 vacancies
- out of 216 cities, 54 ocupied positions and 65 vacancies
- out of 2850 communes, 340 ocupied positions and 350 vacancies

Those above figures makes 459 vacancies in total, with the observation that, in many cases, we are talking about small comunes with scarce budgets.

The Romanian City Managers Association (AAPRO) conducted a survey among its members that identified the needs for training, building local capacities on climate protection, urban regeneration, structural changes and energy policies, concept of smart city and creatively intelligent communities.

Establishing appropriate training structures for the now and future City Managers is essential for supporting the development of the cities and climate strategies (it aims to encourage cities and municipalities to take concrete actions for climate protection in Romania), urban regeneration and structural changes, concept of smart city and creatively intelligent communities.

This project focuses on the competences that the city managers must have in order to achieve a multiplication effect through their contribution.
The nationwide implementation of a systematic local energy management using the City Managers can thus make an important step to tapp existing saving potentials in different regions and to establish a sustainable portfolio management.

We hope that, with your support, that the outcomes of this important project, can be forwarded on an extended scale to the local institutions (schools, hospitals, etc) and communities, as good practices, improving the energy efficiency status and reducing the energy poverty, urban regeneration and structural changes, concept of smart city and creatively intelligent communities.

The pilot group will be composed of 50 to 80 city managers upon their self enrollment and applying few clear selection parameters : level of municipality, experience, english language, etc.
The target group will be afterward authorized to further train other city managers and employees of the local municipalities. This core team is expected to disseminate the information and to act as an experts group in our Association.

As Romania has (at this moment) a deficit of at least 250 city managers, the learning and workshops center will be powerful tool, a public management academy and a testing facility for the ones applying for this position.

Hey everyone,
I'm in my last semester right now and I'm supposed to submit a Master's Thesis by February. I have always been interested with everything regarding smart cities. Previously, I had done sort of a mini thesis if you will, on the awareness among citizens about smart cities and how they can be involved more in the planning and development of such cities and not just solely focusing on the technology aspect. I would like to further explore how people from different cultures think differently and basically have different mindsets and opinions about smart cities. Would like to know from the people over here if this is a good topic to pursue and/or if you have suggestions for any other topic in the same field I could do.

Thank you.

Hi everyone, I'm Olivia, a student from TU Delft. In one of our course projects, my fellow students and I are researching on what can we deal with the energy collected from the road surface (either heat energy or electricity energy). We have done some research on projects like solar roads. But we find a lack of practical information in this field. Therefore, we're trying to look for some people willing to share their experiences in related field. Please feel free to contact me.

Ben of ken jij eigenaren van horecazaken en bedrijven waar wij kunnen helpen bij het gescheiden inzamelen van koffiedrab? Wij zijn op zoek en horen het graag in de comments.

Door met Seenons je afval - nee reststromen - gescheiden op te laten halen wordt het duurzaam opgehaald en circulair verwerkt. En kunnen hier weer mooie producten van worden gemaakt die anders zouden zijn verbrand.

Het inzamelen gebeurt uiteraard op de meest duurzame manier, want in samenwerking kunnen wij de koffiedrab in geheel Amsterdam ophalen met de elektrische wagens van onze partners GroenCollect BV en Pantar.

Van deze koffiedrab kunnen we heel veel mooie circulaire producten maken zoals bijvoorbeeld de zeep van Kusala Gifts of de personal care producten van Unwaste.

Samen maken we de cirkel rond!

Kijk voor meer informatie:
https://seenons.com/koffie/

Do you have an innovation that can help limit the number of people in shared bathrooms? I.e. a real-time display, a system with indicator lights, etc.? Or an innovation that helps people at events and meetings keep 1.5m distance?
Are you just entering the market & open to testing and showcasing this innovation in a hotel in Amsterdam?
Contact me at anke@innovationlighthouse.org

hi there everyone,
I am Maasoome, Master of Urban Planning, from Iran.
I work in an office in a rural area that has just joined the city (located in east north of Iran). Our job is to help the people who are living in this area to improve the social and economic situation of their lives. Unfortunately, we have faced the problem of a lack of funds to improve the economic situation of this area by the government.
Can you give me a solution or a new idea to change this situation?
The population of this range is equal to: 15560
Thanks for your attention

Hey there,
I am recently graduated student in Strategic Innovation Management from the University of Groningen. I am looking for a job related to business development or project management concerning smart city solutions. If you know about any vacancies available also for non Dutch speaking people (I am fluent in English, Spanish and Italian) feel free to reach me out. I am super motivated to start working in this area

The wait is almost over. On the 1st of September, the Netherlands will launch its own contact tracing app to combat COVID-19. In a few weeks time, all Dutch people will be able to use the Coronamelder. But, are people really waiting for this app? Usage is voluntary, however, it is often said that 60% of the population should use the app to ensure effectiveness. Will 60% of the Dutch install an app? What can the government and other stakeholders do to ensure high rates of adoption? And what lessons can we learn from other countries already using contact-tracing apps? Join the international exchange!

Amsterdam Smart City is organizing a Data Dilemmas event on this topic on the 3rd of September! More information can be found here: https://amsterdamsmartcity.com/events/how-to-get-people-to-actually-use-contact-tracing

Have you been involved in the development, testing or roll-out of a contact-tracing app for covid-19 and would you like to share you experience as a user or professional? Get in touch with Nancy via nancy@amsterdamsmartcity.com with a short explanation on how you would like to contribute to the discussion!

Having spend a decade researching microbial barrier coatings that address surface sanitation challenges, I'm delighted to now look for distributors who are seeking eco-friendly products and services to enhance the urban environment. See www.ingeniatouch.com for details.

As a campaign leader, you ensure that the story of Amsterdam Energie is heard in the city, you build our network and inspire even more Amsterdammers to join our cooperative. You devise campaigns and make them a success. You work independently and proactively, ensuring that ideas lead to concrete results.

Activities
- Your main task is to develop and execute campaigns for the growth of Amsterdam Energy in the number of members, our green energy generation, and our network in the city.
- You strategically use both online and offline communication tools. You are responsible for communication via our own website, newsletter and on social media. You maintain contact with (local) press, develop promotional material for the cooperative together with designers and organize events.
- You involve members in the (campaign) activities of Amsterdam Energie. The cooperative has a large network in the city. Our members come from all parts of Amsterdam and have a multitude of backgrounds. That is the strength of the cooperative. You mobilize members and involve them in our campaigns.
- You support the director in project development. Amsterdam Energy has various solar roofs in the city. That should be much more. In collaboration with the director, you recruit new roofs, draw up business cases for interested parties and advise and guide them in the development process.
- You support the board in organizing events such as the general meeting of members.
- You are the contact for members and partners of the cooperative, including the sustainable network 02025 and the municipality of Amsterdam. Good cooperation with our cooperative energy supplier to | new energy is very important in this.

Profile
- Relevant work experience, for example as a campaign employee
- You have experience in designing, starting and leading campaigns
- You like variety and enjoy performing different tasks
- You have experience with writing texts and creating content
- You are familiar with Wordpress, Mailchimp and the use of social media
- You have an affinity with sustainability, for example in the field of energy transition or urban development

Profile
- Relevant work experience, for example as a campaign employee
- You have experience in designing, starting and leading campaigns
- You like variety and enjoy performing different tasks
- You have experience with writing texts and creating content
- You are familiar with Wordpress, Mailchimp and the use of social media
- You have an affinity with sustainability, for example in the field of energy transition or urban development

Competences
- Entrepreneurial, independent, a go-getter and you can work well together
- You have good communication skills and are good at networking
- You like to actively promote your campaigns and the cooperative
- You like to come up with new plans, and you want to realize them yourself
- You can plan your work well, and it works quickly and accurately
- Good oral and written expression skills in the Dutch language.

offer
- Freelance function for 2 days a week at € 1500 per month.
- assignment for half a year, with a chance of extension
- The opportunity to make a concrete contribution to the energy transition in Amsterdam

For more information visit: https://www.amsterdamenergie.nl/amsterdam-energie-zoekt-een-campagneleider/