Q: How do you envision the city of the future?

1. “EXPRESS YOURSELF”
How do you envision the city of the future?
THE PROMISE OF SMART CITIES
C L E L I A C E RV E T TO, M Sc A P P L I C A N T
MSc Business Analytics and Big Data (Fall 2017 intake)
Double Degree MSc Management & MSc Business Analytics and
Big Data (February 2018 intake)

2. Smart cities will be equipped with a
state of the art digital infrastructure
consisting of sensors, networks and
data analysis to monitor resources
and services.
The understanding of the volumes of
data emitted “by the city” will help to
support short term decision making
thanks to a real-time flow of
information, but it will also allow to
proactively anticipate the needs and
issues that citizens could face in a
more distant future.
From that understanding players of
the private and public sectors will
have the opportunity to accordingly
drive the evolution of their cities
towards their goals, may they be
economic, social or environmental.

3. An early example
in Transportation
IBM IN ZHENJIANG, CHINA, 2012i
IBM partnered with city officials and provided a mix of
hardware, software, services and technologies
brought together through the IBM Intelligent
Operations Centre (IOC) for Smarter Cities.
The IOC combined with IBM Intelligent Transportation,
provides a comprehensive, real-time picture of the
city’s traffic network to alleviate congestion and
improve traffic management. A Real-time Monitoring
System, based on a "Geospatial Service Accelerator",
is used to manage the city’s bus lines so that dispatch
and bus routes could be modified based on demand to
improve efficiency and lower emissions.
China is building more public transit systems than all
other nations combined. Smarter transportation ideas
seem to be driving the country’s interest towards
smarter cities, and for good reason. The growth in
number of cars, +25% a year, is creating a traffic crisis.
Jingsang temple,
Zhengjiang,
China

4. For some, smarter solutions are a a growing necessity. Along with
urbanization (70% of the world population will be living in cities by 2050),
population growth and environmental challenges, comes an urgent need for
problem solving and urban planning. In such contexts, smart cities can’t
come soon enough.. The race to build a functioning, workable and
sustainable city model is fiercer than ever and harnessing Big Data
capabilities is crucial for that purpose.
IBM estimates that “by 2020 the Asia-Pacific smart city
technology market will be worth $5.5 billion annually”
But are smarter cities such a distant reality?
Well, it depends where you’re looking.

5. Songdo, South KoreaA leading example
Welcome to Songdo, the “world’s smartest city” for
some and Korea’s city of the future created from
scratch in 10 years. Here an Automated Waste
Collection Plant sucks all of Songdo’s trash into
underground pipes, automatically sorts, recycles,
buries or burns it for fuel. Pipes connect all apartment
buildings and offices; forget about street-corner trash
cans or garbage trucks. This system currently
requires just seven employees for the entire city. The
water pipes on the other hand are designed to prevent
drinkable water from being wasted in showers and
toilets.
Inhabitants can control lighting, heating, air
conditioning etc on a control panel. A smart city is
made of smart homes, makes sense right?
Sensors gather information on things like
traffic flow and energy use which can be
converted into alerts that tell citizens
when a bus will arrive, or notify the
authorities of a crime being committed.
The data is controlled from a central panel,
where the handling of Big Data is part of
the everyday routine.

6. When I think of the city of the future in terms of
consumer behaviors and social interactions I see Voice
Assistants powered by Artificial Intelligence and
Augmented Reality becoming pervasive and driving
frictionless user experience and increased
engagement. Using social media, getting directions,
visualizing reviews of stores and restaurants before
getting in, getting access to city services will be
increasingly lived as a seamless continuum of digital
moments by citizens of all ages and social conditions.
I see stores with radio beacons blending physical and
digital customer experience, providing context-aware
offerings and services like virtual changing rooms and
shopping assistants.
I also see deliveries made with drones and “just walk
out” check-outs in an AmazonGo style.
By then I would probably even see the possibility of
placing a customized orders for selected goods that
can be delivered instantly thanks to 3D printing.
Artificial intelligence,
Augmented Reality,
3D printing

7. ‘Greenification’
The city of the future as I see it will have
undergone a so-called “greenification”,
growing and driving its attractiveness from
its liveable standards, resource efficiency,
eco-friendliness, and quality in services. As
a young individual, I know that would be a
place I’d like to live and work in.
Eco-friendliness would mean that instead of
imagining my waste being dumped into
distant landfills or oil prices dictating
economic crises, renewable energy plants
would be integrated in the landscape as well
as in the life of the community. A great
example in my opinion is Copenhagen’s
waste incinerator and energy generator
turned into a ski slope and hiking trail, which
along with clean energy also promotes
healthy living.

8. Eco-friendly and ward-winning
Tietgen Student Hall,
Copenhagen, Denmark
Copenhagen
The Amager Bakke waste-to-power incinerator
plant will be a publicly owned facility but also an
attraction as from its roof will run one of the
world’s longest artificial ski slopes.
Designed as part of an aim to become the world’s
first zero-carbon city by 2025, the Danes decided
to move away from the usual industrial look to
embrace a fun and clean eco-friendly space for
danish families, in pure scandinavian style. Once
again, quite futuristic (and genius) in my opinion.

9. The greenification and liveability of the city of
the future also translates into the streets we
will walk in. That means reimagining the role
of cars, roads and highways in the urban
scenery. In Shenzhen, China, the studio “Avoid
Obvious Architects” proposed a rather
futuristic project to the city council. This
chinese city built 25 years ago and often called
the “silicon valley of hardware”, producing to
this day 90% of the world’s drones, finds itself
in need of a highway. The studio proposed,
with a 2045 horizon, to build elevated tunnels
instead of a classic “american-sized highway”.
In these tunnels would transit electric
driverless cars, leaving space for green areas
instead of asphalt. Less noise and air
pollution, traffic incidents, more space for
pedestrians and bicycles. See renderings of
the project on the next slide.
‘Greenification’

10. Shenzhen, China
Highway tunnel project renderings
AVOID OBVIOUS ARCHITECTS
Studio

11. If you ask me, the city of the future is a little bit of Zhenjiang, Songdo, Copenhagen,
and so many others. More importantly, it’s not so far down the road. I don’t see it as
out of reach, but rather behind the corner.
The city of the future is smarter, greener and connected. It’s the fruit of innovation
and technology and the harnessing of the potential of big data to change the lives of
everyday people. It requires changes in transportation, infrastructure, resource
management and communications, and if it sounds as the product of a third
industrial revolution it’s because it will be made possible by the wave of digital
transformation.
I want to see it happen, but not as a spectator. I want to drive change and be at the
forefront of the digital revolution and the turnaround of our society.
I feel a sense of eagerness but also responsibility in the face of those challenges, as
my generation is given the chance to not just “go with the tide”. I am convinced that
the MSc programs in Business Analytics and Big Data at IE offer an exposure
towards that future I seek, with a right blend of business, technology and analytics
skills to contribute to the value creation mechanisms of the future.