Last week, the second edition of our Smart and SHARED Cities symposium took place. The symposium, which takes place annually, is organized at the end of our Smart and SHARED Cities minor. During the event, the minor students present the research they carried out in the final module of the minor to their research commissioners.
At the beginning of the fifth and final module of the minor the students are presented with real life research questions. These questions are provided by external research commissioners from various companies and institutions.
During the ten weeks that follow, the students are challenged to apply the knowledge they gained during the last four months of their minor and do (academic) research to come up with creative solutions to and recommendations for their commissioner's question.
The students carried out research divided in three themes: Digital Twin Technologies (commissioned by Sail Amsterdam and Argaleo), Sustainable Urban Solutions (commissioned by Erasmus University Rotterdam, de Bazaar and Paviljoen 3) and Smart City Experiments (commissioned by The Future Mobility Network and TechTics).
What stood out from the presentations was the fact that students made use from a large range of research methods to come to their conclusions. The group that carried out research commissioned by BOLD Cities researcher Suyoung Kim for example used a range of qualitative surveys to analyze how different people experience power dynamics of food delivery platforms. Another group build a Python model to predict the amount of visitors of a large indoor market (De Bazaar), while others used in-depth interviews to get to the bottom of their research problem. One group did a real life experiment to analyze consumer behavior when it comes to waste seperation.
All in all, it was a fun and insightful afternoon and we are very proud of our students who provided their commissioners with interesting insights and possible solutions.
We want to say a big thank you to our commissioners, who provided the projects and supported our students along the way: Barbara van Veen from de Bazaar, Jeroen Steenbakkers and Joost Adorf from Argaleo and Martijn Lukaart from TechTics, Linde de Jonge and Wouter Voskuijl from Paviljoen 3, Lucien Linders and Tim Klein The Future Mobility Network, Suyong Kim from Erasmus University Rotterdam and Elisabeth de Jong from SAIL Amsterdam.
And of course a big thank you to Roland Ortt, moderator of the symposium and teacher of the fifth module of the Smart and SHARED Cities minor.
Lastly, to our 2023-2024 Smart and SHARED Cities minor students: good luck with the finalizing of the report! We look forward to welcoming you to the symposium next year.
Photos by Tiffany Konings:
