IoT applications for cities

The Internet of Things (IoT) refers to networks of technologically enabled physical objects that can communicate with each other to exchange data and interact with their external surroundings. This allows remote access and control of smart devices which has been successfully used by local governments to improve management of urban mobility issues such as waste collection, tracking of goods, and multimodal transportation.  

To maximise its potential, a less technical and business-oriented approach is required. To this end, the IoTa Competence Hub is creating and conducting an online training programme that fosters lateral thinking, focuses on how to achieve a high return on investment on IoT initiatives, and challenges participants to understand in greater depth how IoT processes and systems work. 

Women in Urban Mobility 

Women in Urban Mobility airms to raise awareness of female perspectives and gender equality
in the urban mobility sector. Building on the thriving cormunity established in 2021, partners
from three European cities – Barcelona, Spain; Sofia, Bulgaria; and Munich, Germany – are
creating and conducting an online training program to equip profesional women working in the
urban mobility sector with leadership, networking and collaboration competencies. Over six
modules, participants work on their sales and negotiation skills, reflect on their role as future
dleaders, and network with peers. The course will culminate with an event that includes
presentation of the Female Innovator in Urban Mobility 2022 award.

Remaking the Street 

Remaking the Street is a hands-on summer school programme where students learn how street experiments can make small changes to public spaces that lead to big impacts on a citizen’s quality of life. Street experiments can improve the liveability of public spaces by reducing pollution and noise, improving safety, and giving communities a sense of ownership. 

Students complete a two-week online course followed by a two-week in-person study tour visiting current street experiments in Amsterdam and Munich to learn about the rapidly changing streetscapes. The final project challenges students to pitch an original street experiment to an expert jury.  

Modules consist of online coursework taught by experts from EIT Urban Mobility projects. The curriculum will also use content from selected massive online open courses (MOOC) and the Street Visualisation Tools short course, and new content produced will be added to existing MOOCs. 

New trends on Urban Mobility 

The New Trends in Urban Mobility (NewUM) project is developing a course for professionals working in the mobility sector who want to promote innovation in their institutions, and start-ups keen to provide solutions to pressing urban mobility issues. 

Participants learn about how the mobility sector has evolved, new technological innovations in urban mobility, and key trends such as mobility-as-a-service (MaaS), public-private partnerships in the mobility sector, and mobility infrastructure and logistics. 

The program consists of five modules that combine in-person sessions and an online component. Face-to-face sessions in Barcelona will include lectures with practical coursework delivered by academics and industry experts, while online work will include content from massive open online courses (MOOCs) and a mentored project. Streaming is available allowing registration from anywhere in the world. 

Summer School Milan-Rennes of Future Green Mobility 

The universities of Politecnico di Milano, Italy, and Rennes 1, France, will design and host a two-week summer school focusing on the transition to a better mobility system that minimises air pollution and improves quality of life. 

Through intensive innovation and entrepreneurship training, concrete business case studies, and teamwork projects, students will identify key challenges and design green mobility solutions, considering social, economic sustainability and environmental implications.  

The summer school is mandatory for all the students of the EIT Urban Mobility Master School but also open to external participants such as Masters and PhD students, researchers and professionals in the mobility sector, transport and traffic engineers, and educators who want to deepen their knowledge of green mobility. 

InnovaCity 4.0 – Academy 

Currently running for its fourth year in a row, InnovaCity Hack is a three-day tech challenge inviting participants to work in cross-sector teams to solve specific urban mobility challenges identified by municipal governments. This year the event will be held from 30 June to 2 July in Barcelona, Budapest, Munich and Paris. The teams will learn how to apply a design thinking approach, prototype solutions, and pitch the ideas to a panel of industry and city leaders. 

Winning teams from each location will receive coaching and have the opportunity to engage with potential customers, improve their prototype, and develop a viable blueprint for the launch of the solution.  

During a final event at the end of the year, all winning teams will present their solution at the Tomorrow.Mobility conference in November. 

Incentives to motivate active mobility 

Walking, cycling and other forms of active mobility can improve citizens’ physical fitness and wellbeing. Yet it is difficult to change the habits of sedentary citizens who continue to rely heavily on motorised modes of transport. This project is creating a training program to encourage people to adopt active forms of mobility by evaluating best practices across Europe and develop gamified digital training courses. The best practices will shape the development of four specific use cases that reflect the needs of target groups. 

Healthy Liveable Cities 

 RMIT Europe and FutureLearn is delivering an online training program, ExpertTrack, where participants learn about measuring health impacts of urban mobility interventions and adapt plans to achieve better air quality. The program is also creating a community of professionals from the urban mobility and sustainable urban development fields.

The ExpertTrack training programme will attract both private and public sector professionals in Europe working, or with an interest in, urban mobility and sustainable urban development such as designers and planners already working in the industry, start-ups, multi-national firms, and city officials, civil servants, and NGOs. The ExpertTrack features three online courses, with content always available and free for the first seven days. 

CrossInnohack 

Two hackathons are being organised in Madrid, Spain, and Lisbon, Portugal, to find solutions to two common city challenges, and develop them to become fully-fledged pilot projects. 

The first challenge will ask participants to design a solution that encourages active mobility, especially cycling, and ensure residents feel safe and secure to ride around the city. Applicants will also need to consider how public transport can be used in conjunction with cycling, and how to incentivise local businesses to promote active mobility. In the second challenge, interventions that address regulation of motorised cars in low-emission zones will be sought, to help cities decrease air pollution and congestion. This includes promotion of electric cars and other vehicles, and public transport options. 

Street Experiments Tool

SET (Street Experiment Tool) develops a platform for knowledge, information and inspiration for urban street experiments as cities across the globe witness an increased need for innovative uses of public spaces. 

The SET guidelines kit is a tool that supports cities in the transformation process. 

InnovaCity

InnovaCity is a 2-day Design-Thinking Workshops, where participants will be working in cross-sector teams to tackle prevailing challenges, prototyping viable solutions and finally pitching their results in front of a panel of experts. The winning teams will receive coaching sessions and a pitch-training to be able to participate in a final event, where they pitch their developed ideas once more. 

Women in Urban Mobility

Women in Urban Mobility aims to raise awareness of female perspectives and gender equality in the urban mobility sector. The project strives to empower women to take entrepreneurial action; encourage companies, cities, and governments to foster gender equality; and enrich the innovation process in urban mobility with female perspectives to increase social inclusion and shape the future of urban mobility for everyone.  

The three European cities – Barcelona, Sofia and Munich – come together to contribute their knowledge about urban mobility and passion for empowering women to:  

  • build a thriving community and fostering creative exchange on innovative urban mobility concepts and perspectives. 
  • contribute a more gender diverse perspective to urban mobility. 
  • enable rich and immersive collaboration between cities, research fields, corporates, and start-ups.