i3 - January/February 2016 - 36

Beyond Smart Cities: The Future of Urban Mobility Keynote
January 7, 11 AM, Westgate Theater
* Dr. Volkmar Denner, CEO and CTO, Robert Bosch GMBH
* Kent Larson, director, Changing Places Group, MIT Media Lab
* Professor Amnon Shashua, co-founder, CTO and chairman, MobileEye
* Secretary Anthony Foxx, U.S. Department of Transportation
* Steve Mollenkopf, CEO, Qualcomm Inc.
significant number of patients and greatly
improve outcomes. These early interventions then yielded significant financial
gains, leading to shorter hospital stays and
the avoidance of more expensive treatments. After doing the math, the study
found that extending the program for the
entire year could bring the hospital overall
savings of more than $200,000 (against
an annual running cost of $20,000).
But smarter hospitals are not the only
way to deliver better healthcare services
directly to the people who need them.
Increasingly, consumers and health professionals alike are grasping the significance of using personal electronic devices
like fitness bands or smart watches as
powerful tools for medical research and
cure. For example, Apple recently introduced HealthKit, a software framework
available in iOS 8 that provides developers the ability to create health and fitness
apps that communicate with each other.
These e-health apps can access user data
such as weight, blood pressure, glucose
levels and asthma inhaler use, which can
then be sent to third-party devices and
apps. E-health developers can use this
valuable information to detect or treat
multiple modern-day diseases, including
asthma, cancer, cardiovascular conditions,
diabetes or Parkinson's.
36

JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2016

TODAY'S SMART CITIES
l Amsterdam might ultimately be known
for its bikes but the Dutch capital has
really upped the game for technology
adoption in recent years. For example,
the Amsterdam Smart City is a glorified
urban laboratory that incubates more
than 40 smart city projects ranging from
smart parking to the development of
home energy storage for integration with
a smart grid.
l Barcelona is another bustling city
rapidly adopting smart technology. The
city council has been deploying a variety of
sensors to measure everything from noise
and air contamination to traffic congestion and even waste management. Barcelona has also set up 22@, an innovation
district known for its urban planning
and entrepreneurial spirit. The metropolis not only has been advancing its own
initiatives, but also is trying to provide a
framework for others to understand and
address the challenges of modern urban
life. Barcelona is now home to multiple
annual summits and events dedicated to
the smart city movement.
l On the other side of the planet, China
is definitely not getting left behind in this
race. Its government is investing heavily in

various smart city projects to combat pollution, overcrowding and reduce energy consumption. For example, Shanghai recently
launched a three-year environmental
action plan with investment expected to
be around 100 billion yuan. Beijing is also
spending up to 160 billion yuan (about
$25.2 billion) to improve air quality by 25
percent in two years.
l In Southeast Asia, Singapore has built
a 250 acre green development called Gardens by the Bay which features three buildings that collect solar energy during the day
and reuse it for lighting after night fall.

Metropolitan communities need to
develop a personal vision of their smart
city based on the particular needs of
their citizens. However, many common
requirements can be addressed today with
intelligent hardware systems and cloud
platforms, with strategic investments in
areas related to public transportation,
energy, healthcare or water and waste
management.
Technology companies need to work
together with government bodies, the
town hall, standards committees and
citizens to develop new and scalable
solutions to existing problems, encourage
innovation and calculated risk-taking and
promote the tangible benefits of increasing the smartness of a city.
Alexandru Voica is senior marketing
specialist at Imagination Technologies;
its silicon IP includes the key processing
blocks needed to create the SoCs (Systems
on Chips) that power mobile, consumer
and embedded electronics. Alexandru.
voica@imgtec.com.
I T I S I N N O VAT I O N

http://www.bosch.us/en/us/startpage_1/country-landingpage.php https://www.media.mit.edu/ http://www.mobileye.com/en-us/ https://www.transportation.gov/ https://www.qualcomm.com/ https://imgtec.com/

i3 - January/February 2016

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