Sharan Jhangiani

Aarhus Smart Cities Research Proposal

February 09, 2020

This is a copy of a collaborative research proposal I sent to the Aarhus city council in Denmark. Having worked there for a month, I wanted to increase the relationship between UW students and the city, as I saw a lot of potential, and this was the first step in doing so.

Proposal:

In a world of growing climate issues, the importance of a smart city and an efficient government is ever present. In a collaborative paper written by the most advanced and trusted machine learning (ML) experts in the world, the impact of local and national governments in helping solve climate change issues is highlighted throughout, indicating the stark need to act fast and efficiently.

Seeing first hand the open minded and innovative culture within the City of Aarhus, the potential for a collaborative partnership between the University of Washington’s technological prowess and the city’s forward momentum to develop advanced and sustainable solutions seemed like a perfect fit.

Below, I outline a slew of points that help further express the ideas in my head. In short, I’m asking if there is an interest within the City of Aarhus partnering with an group at the University of Washington to kick-off what can be understood as a research and development initiative to bring Aarhus to the forefront of the smart city discussion as an example of success.

This document is meant to gauge interest on both sides of the relationship, exploring if the City finds the prospect valuable and if the University finds the opportunities interesting.

Below lie a series of points that I believe help outline the proposal:

Problems/Inadequacies in current situation:
- Problems: Lack of ML talent/engineers within the City of Aarhus to develop systems internally that help fulfills the Vision set in place by Smart Aarhus.
- ML is the future of computing and at the core of all modern innovation, providing the ability to create a platform that allows for the continued and automated development of city systems. Currently, there little to no focus on implementing these solutions.
Proposed Solutions:
- Partnership between UW and City of Aarhus that slowly over time tackles and implements solutions to urban development problems in Aarhus, transforming Aarhus into a truly forward moving smart city.
Data and Tools:
- Data: Depending on project, but data will need to be provided by City and accessible by University. Current systems in place (i.e. OpenData DK) are a good start, but system is often incorrectly setup which results in a foray of issues (i.e. only real time data and no historically stored systems).
- Tools: Again, differs per project project, however, primarily tools will leverage advanced programming languages and packages to provide cutting edge solutions, built with sustainability and longevity in mind. The goal is to build sound, solid systems, that will continue to remain in place with little to no maintenance effort.
Experiments to evaluate solutions:
- Evaluation is again, fluid on different projects. Every project will be defined by a series of success parameters, which will be established by scope of project and goal for stake holders involved, primarily focusing on City of Aarhus and the goals they establish. From a UW perspective, success will primarily be defined by research prowess, funding opportunities resulted from the project, and the ability to adapt and expand research beyond this single project.
Responsibility share between UW/City of Aarhus:
- We can envision this partnership as something similar to the relationship between consultants and their clients. UW will undertake the project in return for funding, support, and data from Aarhus.
Special Advantages:
- For UW: Potential for good PR, advancement in funding due to high visibility and high value projects given current situation with Climate Change, and an opportunity to expand research focuses to a whole new field. UW becomes the forefront of urban based climate change research.
- For Aarhus: Increased efficiency within government functions. Recognition as a truly forward moving city across the world, acting as a model for other cities to mimic, hopefully bringing Aarhus to global recognition as a “smart city” hub. This recognition in turn should also lead to economic advancement as private companies recognize the technological advancements in the city, furthering the notion that Aarhus is a smart city test bed. Could lead to events such as autonomous vehicle development, integrated city culture, etc. being based out of Aarhus. On a micro scale, this should help increase benefits to citizens and create a better society for all.

External Sources:

https://arxiv.org/pdf/1906.05433.pdf