The UPC, at the Smart City Expo World Congress 2022
UPC innovations to improve life in cities, at the Smart City Expo World Congress 2022
November 15, 2022
AIRA, the Artificial Intelligence Research Alliance in Catalonia, is founded
November 24, 202217/11/2022
The UPC, through CIT UPC, presented its technological capabilities and solutions and some of the latest projects developed by its research groups and centres at the Smart City Expo World Congress 2022 (#SCEWC22), held from 15 to 17 November.
Cities should be made more liveable and resilient. With this objective, the UPC presented its innovative technologies in the fields of urban design, artificial intelligence and new materials, among others, at the Smart City Expo World Congress (#SCEWC22). For the first time, at this edition the University exhibited a 12 m² model of the city of Barcelona, which was created by the model workshop of the Vallès School of Architecture (ETSAV) and provided by the Architects’ Association of Catalonia (COAC). The model showed how climate change affects the city, based on the results of the X-ClimPlan project developed by the Centre for Land Policy and Valuations (CER-CPSV).
Detail of the results of the X-ClimPlan project, developed by the CER-CPSV, projected on the model of Barcelona showcased at the UPC stand.
To improve life in cities, the urban space must be adapted to heat waves, more sustainable materials must be used in the construction industry and spaces such as the roofs of buildings must be transformed to adapt them to new uses by neighbours. Other solutions include promoting sustainable tourism, safe and efficient mobility and using artificial intelligence to improve the services offered by local government to citizens.
In this context, researchers from the UPC presented at #SCEWC22 the latest technological innovations that they are developing to respond to these challenges. This took place at the session “People-centred solutions to make cities more liveable and resilient”, held at the UPC stand on 16 November.
The projects that were presented are listed below:
- Blanca Arellano, researcher at the Centre for Land Policy and Valuation (CPSV). Project: X-ClimPlan: urban heat islands and heat waves. How can we adapt our cities to climate change?
- Pere Joan Ravetllat, coordinator in charge of the Architectural Rehabilitation and Restoration (REARQ) group. Project: REV-TER: revive the rooftops.
- Mariana Palumbo, researcher at the Interdisciplinary Group on Building Science and Technology (GICITED). Project: SAVASCO. A building made of corn and sunflower. Biology-based solutions for decarbonisation of the construction sector.
- Josep Lluís Larriba, director of the Data Management Group (DAMA). Project: Diskover. Towards a new tourism model: personalised, “slow” and of quality.
- Ramon Morros, researcher of the Image and Video Processing Group (GPI). Project: RideSafeUM: smart solutions for micromobility.
- Deniz Kizildag, researcher at the Heat and Mass Transfer Technological Centre (CTTC). Project: TOOL4HEAT. A tool to assess urban infrastructure and the effects of mobility on heat islands.
- Karina Gibert, director of the Intelligent Data Science and Artificial Intelligence (IDEAI) research centre. Project: INSESS-COVID19. Artificial intelligence as a knowledge tool for a sustainable, people-centred city.
Related Projects
- The research group Barcelona Innovative Transportation (BIT) and the innovation and research laboratory of Barcelona School of Informatics (inLab FIB) at the Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya - BarcelonaTech (UPC) is taking part in the project eBRT2030 (European Bus Rapid Transit of 2030: electrified, automated, connected).
- Currently, buildings are becoming smart organisms due to a wide range of distributed sensors and software programmes that provide them with a certain degree of intelligence. In this context, SUST(AI)N emerged. Participants in this project include researchers from the Instrumentation, Sensors and Interfaces Group (ISI) and the Components and Systems for Communications Research Group (CSC) at the Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya - BarcelonaTech (UPC).
- A study by the Centre for Land Valuation Policy (CPSV) at the UPC analyses the average increase in temperature and heat waves in the main cities of Spain. The average increase in temperature was 3.54°C between 1971 and 2022. Over these last 50 years, summer days have increased from 90 to 145, which represents a two-month increase in hot days. Tropical nights have gone up by 18 from an average of 45 to 63.
- The Centre of Applied Research in Hydrometeorology (CRAHI) of the UPC participates in the European project RESIST. The aim of this project is to study the use of tools to improve preparation for weather emergencies and thus to increase resilience in the face of climate change.
