Uncategorized : Strategy
This project focuses on the concept of future city as an urban environment that is centered on human needs, while exploiting the massive use of ICT embedded in the city fabric.The intelligent use of low-cost ICT solutions in advanced urban systems that support large-scale sensing, sustainable mobility and citizen engagement, can go a long way in improving the environmental sustainability and quality of life in the cities, while providing new opportunities for business and technology commercialization. The use of ICT within the Future Cities Project will cover several areas.
» City-scale sensing capabilities can help protect critical infrastructures and support better law enforcement, provided that the fundamental privacy rights of citizens are upheld;
» Transportation - ICT will enable more efficient and comfortable multi-modal mobility with optimized route planning;» Utilities - one can foresee smart appliances and easier forecasting of energy demands for smart grids;
» Environment - Distributed monitoring of the quality of the water supply network and improved management of sources of pollution such as vehicles and factories will no doubt be key towards ensuring environmental sustainability.The Future Cities Project has the potential to place the University of Porto at the forefront of innovative future cities technologies, thereby increasing its competitiveness in a rapidly growing field and allowing researchers and companies in Portugal to rise their participation in the European Research Area.The strategic concept of the Future Cities Project is based on a set of twinning activities with three centers of competence based at reputed European institutions (Supélec, KTH and UCL). In all cases, these institutes are widely recognized for the impact of their research in matters related to Information and Communication Technologies with applications in Future Cities.