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“Charting a Sustainable Future: Sign up for ‘Advances in Water Management and Climate Adaptation’ Lecture Series!”
“Charting a Sustainable Future: Sign up for ‘Advances in Water Management and Climate Adaptation’ Lecture Series!” 1764 720 ide3a

While the ide3a project has concluded, the Smart Water Networks department of TU Berlin is continuing education  in the thematic realm of ide3a, as exemplified by the lecture series titled “Advances in Water Management and Climate Adaptation.” This course is scheduled every Tuesday from October 17th, 2023, to February 6th, 2024, taking place in person at TU Berlin and being streamed online, guest speakers will be either in person or connected online.

The lecture series on “Advances in Water Management and Climate Adaptation” is a comprehensive course designed to explore the latest techniques, tools, technologies, strategies, and policies in managing water resources and adapting to the challenges posed by climate change. Tools and technologies will include, among others, advanced modelling techniques, digital technologies, remote sensing, geographic information systems. Water management and climate adaptation strategies and policies will unpack the intertwined relationship between environmental, technological, societal, and economic stakes, and include topics related to climate justice, multi-objective optimization, risk and conflict management, and multi-sector dynamics under uncertainty.

Following an introductory session, different early-stage researchers from international universities, research institutions, technology centers, and policy institutes will present cutting edge research, projects, lessons learned, challenges and visions on water resources management and climate adaptation. Each lecture will have an approximate duration of one hour, followed by interactive discussions involving attending students and the lecturer.

Assessment includes weekly quizzes based on the lecture content and a concise final report focusing on one of the topics covered in the lecture series.

While a background in topics related to water resources management, hydrology, hydraulics, environmental systems analysis, or related fields is recommended, it is not a strict requirement for participation. Participants will earn 3 ECTS credits for their engagement in this course.

We extend a warm welcome to external participants, for details follow the link below.

 

Register here!
© reflection videos of CID 2023 participants

3rd ide3a CID concluded
3rd ide3a CID concluded 2550 1394 ide3a

During the third and final iteration of the “Critical Infrastructure & Digitalization (CID)” lecture series, which took place from April 18th to July 28th, a total of 23 students from PoliMi and TUB actively engaged in the program. This last iteration was part of a comprehensive series of weekly online lectures thoughtfully organized to explore various facets of the digital and technological transformation of different urban critical infrastructure sectors, such as water, energy and mobility.

Throughout this extensive series the students had the privilege of gaining invaluable knowledge and insights from a dynamic blend of senior and junior researchers hailing from different faculties of TU Berlin, as well as guest speakers from the ide3a partner university PoliMi and esteemed international institutions such as TU Delft, Exnation and MIT to name a few. These experts – among which was Ashlynn Stilwell from the University of Illinois – presented cutting-edge research projects, shared lessons learned, illuminated ongoing challenges, and visionary perspectives.  The primary goal of this intensive course was to equip students with the ability to critically analyze and discuss pressing technical problems and innovative solutions related to critical urban infrastructure systems. Additionally, students were empowered to envision and outline future developments and challenges in this evolving landscape.

Moreover, participants developed the capacity to identify and elucidate the synergies that exist between various infrastructural components. They also gained competence in understanding the basics of simulations and scenario analysis within these domains.

To successfully complete this course, students undertook weekly quizzes, ensuring their grasp of the subject matter. Additionally, they were tasked with creating a video reflecting on one or more topics they found most relatable within the CID course. From among these submissions, we would like to highlight the two most interesting videos, offering an opportunity to showcase the students’ remarkable insights and contributions to this dynamic field.

Giulia D’Aleo – A student from PoliMi with expertise in user experience design and service design, Giulia’s unique perspective focused on the citizen’s viewpoint. She gained a fresh and insightful perspective on the intricate processes related to water management systems and energy grid networks. This newfound understanding allowed her to envision the city as an organized resource management system.

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Hasti Makdhoum, studying energy engineering at PoliMi, displayed exceptional creativity and an illustrative prowess in explaining the complexities of digitalization within the energy sector, particularly focusing on the Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA) and Energy Management Systems (EMS). Her approach involved simplifying intricate technical concepts into easily understandable and visually engaging explanations, making them accessible to a broader audience.

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© Samira Frenzel

ide3a project closing meeting: Building connections that endure
ide3a project closing meeting: Building connections that endure 2560 1920 ide3a

The ide3a project will end after three and a half years on 31 October 2023.

While this chapter may be drawing to a close, the relationships and collaborations we have nurtured will continue to flourish. We have achieved milestones, tackled challenges, and left an indelible mark on the fields of e-learning, e-research, and e-mobility. The knowledge and experience gained are invaluable, and they will undoubtedly influence our future endeavors.

Before we embark on our individual paths, we invite you to join us for the closing meeting of the ide3a project on 11 October 2023. This gathering is not only a celebration of our collective achievements but also an opportunity to strengthen the enduring connections we have cultivated. This will be a fantastic opportunity to revisit the project’s outputs and hear about the outcomes of the individual sub-projects presented by Prof. Dr. Andrea Cominola, Lisa Westphal, Markus Fischer and Leonie Dornbusch. These presentations will be streamed online, ensuring that colleagues from around the world can be part of this event.

Program 11 October 2023 :
4pm – 5pm (public, online): ide3a re-visited and presentation of the main outputs of the ide3a part projects e-learning, e-research and e-mobility, future collaboration possibilities


Your presence and input at the closing meeting are invaluable to us. We are eager to hear your feedback and insights as we reflect on the ide3a project’s journey and its impact on our collective knowledge. If you are interested in joining us we kindly ask you to register via the following link. The Zoom-Link to the event will be shared after registration.

Register here!


Thank you for being an integral part of the ide3a project, and we look forward to seeing you at this event.

ConnectiCity at LNDW 2023
ConnectiCity at LNDW 2023 1920 2560 ide3a

Climate change and urbanization are posing major challenges to sustainable urban development, which needs to address the increasing risk of extreme hydroclimatic events such as flooding, population growth, growing demands for resources, housing shortage, and increased traffic. ConnectiCity is a serious game which has been developed by the ide3a project partners with the aim to provide its player base with comprehensive understanding of the aforementioned challenges, their impact on interconnected critical urban infrastructure systems, and possible solutions to effectively mitigate them in an interactive educational environment.

With the official release of the serious game ConnectiCity on the 20th of March this year it was finally time to introduce the game to a wider audience using any opportunity. Such opportunity presented itself during the Long Night of Science (German: Lange Nacht der Wissenschaften, LNDW) on the 17th of June 2023. This renowned annual event serves as a platform for scientific institutions to engage with the public, and ConnectiCity was proudly featured at both the FSD Chair at TU Berlin and the Einstein Center simultaneously.

Teams of experts were assigned to each location, instructing visitors allowing them to not only learn about the scientific background of ConnectiCity but also to experience the game firsthand with guidance from these knowledgeable teams. The response from visitors of all ages was overwhelmingly positive, as they immersed themselves in the gameplay and engaged in thought-provoking discussions about the challenges facing sustainable urban development.

The ide3a team is delighted by the level of interest and enthusiasm shown by the participants who didn’t show a single sign of exhaustion when nearing midnight.

 

 

 

 

on air: the CID Podcast
on air: the CID Podcast 1865 916 ide3a

The ide3a network is proud to present the CID podcast. The CID podcast series is a production created as a part of the ide3a project and the associated lecture series “Critical Infrastructure & Digitalization” (CID).

The CID podcast provides not only an overview of digital and technological transformations in different urban infrastructure systems such as water, energy or mobility but also valuable insights into the different research areas of the interviewed experts. The series is featuring David Bermbach, Andrea Cominola, Rita Maria Ugarelli, Sangyoung Park and Monica Vitali.

Urban water systems are increasingly pressured by a growing number of challenges, such as water scarcity, pollution, ageing infrastructure etc. Digital transformation of the water utilities can play a crucial role in improving the resilience of these critical infrastructures. In our interview with Prof. Dr. Andrea Cominola (Chair of Smart Water Networks -Technische Universität Berlin) we go on a journey around the globe to see where water utilities are currently standing in the process of digitalisation.

While digital technologies bring great opportunities, it is important to talk about the downsides as well: critical infrastructures are increasingly popular targets of physical and cyber attacks. STOP-IT is a pioneering research project focusing on developing solutions to protect the water infrastructure against such threats. Prof. Rita Ugarelli (Department of Hydraulic and Environmental Engineering – Norwegian University of Science and Technology) is one of the lead scientists of this exciting project. In our second podcast we learn about how such cyberphysical attacks look like, and we also discuss the importance of educating professionals in the water sector to be prepared to deal with such challenges.

Another industry facing various challenges and opportunities in the age of digitalisation is the mobility sector. In the third episode of the CID podcast our guest is Prof. Dr. Sangyoung Park (Chair of Smart Mobility Systems – Technische Universität Berlin) who specializes in the electrification of the transport sector while also tackling the question of how to enhance the safety of vehicles by means of digitalization and connectivity. Prof. Park helps us get a better understanding of the numerous trends influencing the transport industry, from electric vehicles, through autonomous driving to shared mobility.

In podcast no. 4 starring Prof. Dr. David Bermbach (Chair of Mobile Cloud Computing – Technische Universität Berlin) we continue our journey in the field of sustainable urban mobility. If you also believe that a bicycle is one of the best means of transport to get around a city, this episode is for you! Prof. Bermbach tells us about the biggest challenges and most important tasks the sector must face to transition towards more sustainable solutions. We also get to know SIMRA, an app developed by Prof. Bermbach and his team, aiming to increase safety in bicycle traffic. (If this is a mission close to your heart, you can also become part of the project by installing the app on your phone.)

Data centers play a major role in our every day life enabling a level of comfort and accessibility to a huge amount of data which wasn’t imaginable 30 years ago. However, the same data centers are notorious for their high power consumption. With the climate crisis in sight, the demand for more energy-efficient data centers is growing stronger. In our final podcast episode with Prof. Monica Vitali (Department of Electronics, Information and Bioengineering – Politecnico di Milano) we explore the future of cloud computing and imagine how a sustainable data center could look like.

All interviews were moderated by Dóra Hegyi (Chair of Smart Water Networks – Technische Universität Berlin) and edited by Bea Meyer (Central Institution Scientific Continuing Education and Cooperation – Technische Universität Berlin). The entire ide3a team would like to thank Dóra and Bea, as well as the experts for this amazing collaboration. All the podcasts are independent entities and can be listened to in any order.

© Guiseppe Angelini

AGU Fall Meeting 2022 recapped
AGU Fall Meeting 2022 recapped 1600 1200 ide3a

The ide3a network is proud to announce that this year’s AGU 2022 Fall Meeting taking place from the 12th to the 16th of December in Chicago was attended by our dear colleagues Giuseppe Angelini and Markus Fischer in person.

This year’s AGU conference was attended by around 25,000 participants representing scientists, teaching personnel, as well as policymakers from more than 100 countries in a hybrid manner fostering a breeding ground to form international collaborations for a sustainable future; therefore offering a great opportunity for the ide3a network to promote the network itself and to  present the serious game ‘ConnectiCity’ to an international scientific audience to obtain valuable feedback and for further improvement.

The oral presentation of Giuseppe Angelini entitled Playing = Learning? Learn about Modelling and Simulation of Interconnected Urban Infrastructure while Playing with ConnectiCity was held on the first conference day. Markus Fischer took it up on him with a poster presentation on Thursday entitled ide3a – A Multidisciplinary and International Eduaction Platform on Interconnected Urban Infrastructure Systems Under Review. Both presentations were very well received by the audience showing ide3a’s great potential in the scientific community.

We once again, would thank Giuseppe Angelini and Markus Fischer for the participation as well as the organizers of AGU for this amazing opportunity.

© ECDF/PR/Felix Noak

ide3a Smart City Hackathon 2022 concluded
ide3a Smart City Hackathon 2022 concluded 2470 1475 ide3a

The ide3a Smart City Hackathon 2022 took place at the ECDF from the 30th of November to the 2nd of December, 2022. The in-person event concluded the Smart Sensing and Smart Cities schools, which were held online during this Winter Semester. The two schools focused on the digitisation of urban critical infrastructure across the water, mobility, and IT sectors and are taught by experts from different faculties of the TU Berlin and international guest speakers from some of the ide3a partner universities NTNU, DCU, PoliMi, PK, and Hasso-Plattner-Institut (HPI). This year also featured guest speakers from the University of Western Australia, the University of Hong Kong, Friedrich Alexander University, the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, and companies such as Ramboll and Form Follows You. The program included lectures and practical trainings on topics related to digital sensors, open data, distributed IT systems are explored, as well as how they relate to governance and relevant stakeholders.

During the hackathon, 50 students from TU Berlin (TUB), Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU) and Politecnico Di Milano (PoliMi), who attended the two Smart Schools, joint forces to solve one of four challenges related to the different sectors introduced over the past weeks. Challenges for this year included blue-green infrastructure placement, privacy of smart meter data, resilient edge computing, and urban mobility monitoring. ide3a was pleased to have Dr. Aurel von Richthofen – Cities Team Leader, Arup (Semantic data for the next generation of Universal Digital Twins) and Ana Chubinidze – Founder and CEO, Adalan AI (AI Governance and ethics) on board as keynote speakers. The Jury members were Sangyoung Park (Assistant Professor of Smart Mobility Systems, TU Berlin), Betül Özdemir (Open Data Officer, Berliner Senatsverwaltung für Inneres, Digitalisierung und Sport), Morgan Geldenhuys (Entrepreneur in the digital health sector), and David Steffelbauer (Hydroinformatics Group Leader, Kompetenzzentrum Wasser Berlin).

For the students, it was a great opportunity to come together in Berlin to unleash their creativity in finding solutions to smart city challenges, while leveraging the knowledge acquired with our online courses. The goal was to put their new knowledge and tools into action, build some viable prototypes and most importantly work together in international and multidisciplinary teams. In addition to the work, ide3a also offered a social programme, for example yoga classes in the morning, a visit to a typical Christmas market at the banks of the Spree river and a sightseeing tour. At the end of the ide3a Hackathon, all groups presented their work to the assembled participants and received detailed feedback from the jury. Finally, the best team with the name “404” who worked on the challenge BGI (blue green infrastructure) placement was awarded an Arduino board and prototyping kit.

Copywrite all pictures: © ECDF/PR/Felix Noak

© Johannes Reheis

3rd ide3a conference recapped
3rd ide3a conference recapped 1593 782 ide3a

After several years of travel restrictions due to the global COVID-19 pandemic the ide3a network is proud to announce that its 3rd annual conference was successfully concluded from the October 24 till 25  as the first in-person meeting in Berlin. While complying to applicable COVID-19 measurements the conference was attended by 21 partners representing the various partner universities and institutions such as CUT Cracow, DCU Dublin, NTNU Trondheim, HPI Potsdam, and TU Berlin to wrap up the third year of the ide3a project and to provide an overview of the on-going developments in the ide3a project focusing on several aspects regarding the three pillars of the ide3a project: e-learning, e-mobility and e-research. Opportunities of future collaborations where discussed as well.

One of the highlights of the conference was the presentation of ConnectiCity which is a serious game on urban water networks and interconnected infrastructure. Despite the game still being under development by a research group of the ide3a team the game already shows a promising potential regarding its teaching purposes receiving not only positive but also insightful feedback from the participants of the conference to tune the further development of the game. The goal is to release ConnectiCity as an open-source game allowing students to get a grasp about the relation between urban water networks and urban mobility while also allowing the students as well as teaching personnel to customize the settings of the game.

Each day was completed with a get-together event allowing to wind down and catch up with old acquaintances but also established new social networks between the partners. We would like to thank everyone for their attendance and hope to meet again soon.

© Lisa Westphal

Update on the ide3a scholarship holders
Update on the ide3a scholarship holders 2560 1920 ide3a

ide3a is very happy to announce that several of its scholarship holders have started their stay abroad at the host universities. Some of them have been there for a while, some have just recently started. All students receive funding to work on their thesis projects at the respective host university and are supervised by two ide3a supervisors, at home and at the host university.

Topics range from data mining and machine learning, leak detection, urban water demand modeling, model-based risk assessment to the exploration of blue-green infrastructure and a comparative approach of water sensitive city jouneys. The scholarship recipients come from a variety of disciplines and operate in an interdisciplinary context that is in line with ide3a’s understanding of mobility and research.

At the moment, three TU Berlin students are at NTNU in Trondheim, Norway. Three students from Politecnico di Milano are at TU Berlin and we are already looking forward to welcoming another scholarship holder in Berlin in December.

©Markus Fischer

Registration closed: Smart Sensing & Smart Cities Schools
Registration closed: Smart Sensing & Smart Cities Schools 2126 1417 ide3a

For the third time ide3a is hosting its winter schools this year. We are inviting all students from our partner universities to participate. If you are interested please follow the registration link below.

The Smart Sensing School focuses on digital measurement techniques used in urban critical infrastructure. During the Smart Cities School students will learn to outline and discuss latest advances in digitisation and urban innovation at the city scale, including open data, distributed IT systems and how they relate to governance and relevant stakeholders. Participants from both schools will than come together to Berlin for the Smart City Hackathon where they will be challenged in international teams to solve current problems of critical urban infrastructure.

Dates

Smart Sensing School (Online): 5th – 7th & 12th – 14th October 2022
Smart Cities School (Online): 2nd – 4th & 9th – 11th November 2022
Smart City Hackathon (Berlin): 30th November – 2nd December 2022

***The hackathon is mandatory for all participants of the schools and will take place in person in Berlin if possible depending on the evolving COVID-19 situation. ide3a will provide funding for all foreign participants of the hackathon to cover travel and accommodation expenses.***

Credits

After attending both one school and the hackathon students will be awarded 6 ECTS and receive a certificate. Please enquire in advance about the form in which the course can be credited to your degree programme: the best way to do this is to contact your study programme coordinator or examination office.

For TUB students: The following Master study tracks have enlisted the Smart Sensing course as “Wahl-Pflicht-Modul”: Computational Engineering Science, Maschinenbau, Patentingenierwesen, Physikalische Ingenierwissenschaften, Planung und Betrieb im Verkehrswesen. The Smart Cities course is part of the curricula of the Master study tracks Physikalische Ingenierwissenschaften and Planung und Betrieb im Verkehrswesen. All other study tracks the courses can be accredited as “Freie Wahl” or as “Zusatzmodul”.

Registration and further information

If you are interested to join one of these courses, please follow this registration links below. You will find more detailed information on the content of the courses and the registration form. After the end of the registration period we will inform all students whether they have been accepted to the course (mid-September). We are looking forward to all participants!

Registration for Smart Sensing School + Hackathon here.

Registration for Smart Cities School + Hackthon here.

Registration period is from August 22nd to September 13th 2022. It is now closed.

© ide3a 2021
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