A digital application through which citizens can report in real time any problem found in their locality will be made available to local authorities, as part of Smart City Highlights, a national event dedicated to academic urban innovation, organized by the Polytechnic University of Bucharest, the executive director of City Cluster, Gabriel Petrea, told AGERPRES on Tuesday.
"There are several concrete solutions that we have presented and that we will discuss in these days, starting from the digital application that we make available to city halls, through which citizens can report in real time any problem they find in that locality, whether it is a pothole, a branch that is about to break, or a stray dog, and, going further, to solutions for digitizing the health system with telemedicine," explained Petrea.
According to him, Smart City Highlights is the first event of this kind organized by City Cluster.
"This cluster, established by the Bucharest Polytechnic, is an umbrella that brings together both city halls, universities, research centers and companies, so that together we can find solutions to the problems that communities are really facing. We discuss 'smart city' as an idealistic concept, which cannot be applied from one city hall to another, not to say that we cannot really import magical solutions from outside. You will never be able to change the culture of one state with that of another state, so that you can adopt those magical solutions. And then, together with our partners from companies, together with our professors and students, we come up with concrete solutions," the executive director of City Cluster also said.
The event was organized over two days and was divided into large cities and small communities because "the issues are different and the money management is different."
"Our partners come up with solutions in small towns, which will never have a hospital or a permanent doctor, but which can connect the patient with a doctor or a medical center, moving on to systems with sound-absorbing materials that solve the problem of noise in crowded spaces, such as old centers, where there is a communion between clubs and residential areas. Basically, for all the problems that mayors raise or citizens identify, we look for solutions that are primarily sustainable, long-lasting and in step with technology. We talk a lot about digitalization, but we also need to educate citizens so that they can use this technology," Petrea concluded.
The first edition of Smart City Highlights, the largest national event dedicated to academic urban innovation, takes place on Tuesday and Wednesday, organized by Politehnica Bucharest, together with CITI Cluster (International Technical Center for Smart City Innovation) and in partnership with AMR (Association of Romanian Municipalities).
According to the organizers, the event transforms Bucharest into a hub of ideas for smart cities, bringing together in a neutral and strategic platform representatives of central and local public administration, top technology companies, academia and cutting-edge research.
Participants can visit interactive exhibitions and watch live demonstrations, including a mobile data center, an electric vehicle exhibition, a smart bus station, along with solutions for IT infrastructure, document management and smart street lighting. Among the participants are the robotics teams AI Citizens (world champion) and Cyberlis76 (European vice-champion) in robotics competitions.
On Wednesday, the second day, solutions will be sought for small communities and the rural environment: smart public lighting, accessible digital infrastructure, telemedicine, sustainable agriculture and energy efficiency.
Smart City Cluster is an initiative of Politehnica University Bucharest, a cluster built on the model of the triple helix of the Smart City value chain (companies, universities and research institutes, authorities and other catalytic organizations). The cluster facilitates and integrates communication and collaboration between members to provide solutions for green and sustainable cities, through digitalization, research and innovation.
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