Innovation Hub & Living Labs on Artificial Intelligence for Smart & Connected Cities is a research project whose objective is to create a big digital and physical ecosystem, named Innovation Hub, for the gathering of vast amount of data and the development of algorithms used to implement solutions and services to improve the life quality of the citizens of the city of the future.
The project, recognized by Regione Lombardia as a project of excellence under its Research and Innovation Hub Call, is coordinated by MediaClinics and includes as partners Santer Reply, Università degli Studi di Bergamo, Italtel, Comftech, Marlegno, Orobix, Aries More, as well as involving Cluster Smart Cities and Communities and Talent4Rise (Fondazione Triulza).
In order to provide advanced and customized services to the citizens, the gathering of a significant (both quality-wise and quantity-wise) amount of data is necessary, to adequately train A.I. algorithms. The analysis of these data then allows for the identification of needs that are expressed by the citizens, sometimes unawarely, through their daily behaviours.
The project aims then at setting up of a network of Living Labs on the Lombardy territory: centers of gathering and sharing of data that involve the final users – i.e. the citizens – in the processing of this information and in the design of services and solutions based upon this knowledge.
The innovation Hub operates as Coordinator of the Living Labs network. More specifically, it defines the requirements for “Living Labs” status validation and the working methodologies; it acts as management and distribution center of the A.I. services for the involved subjects, facilitating the meeting between supply and demand and providing infrastructure, know-how and data access; it manages the common dataset that will be populated and exploited by the Living Labs and the stakehoders (research centers, start-ups, big companies, public entities).
To talk about quality of life means embracing several perspectives and points of view, from the health status to the chronological age, to the level of social inclusion: all these different angles define the citizens’ needs. The quality of life improvement must be based also on the ability to intercept these needs: therefore, to develop truly innovative services addressing at these issues, the technologies on which these services are based must be able to acquire these information in a reliable and accurate way.
The services realized are aimed at every population group, and include services of physiological parameters monitoring for preventive purposes, services for the improvement of one’s food habits that integrate existing food delivery services, services for the improvement of lifestyle and sport performances, urban walkability services, women safety and company welfare.
These services result in opportunities to anticipate the times and embrace new challenges, to choose healthcare prevention with a relative resources optimization, to foresee innovation phenomena to support the cities of tomorrow.
The project foresees the launch of three initial Living Labs, but the intention is to foster and support from the start the activation of more in different possible locations, such as college campuses, places of interest and landmarks, sanitary structures, technological hubs and research centers, the objective being the establishment of a real network distributed on the Lombardy territory.
The first three Living Labs will focus their activities on specific areas of interest, respectively:
The Living Labs obtain data from (and populate at the same time) a wide, common, constantly-growing dataset, composed by data and information coming from different sources:
The Innovation Hub and the Living Labs are going to be integrated within the wider European Network of Living Labs (ENoLL) and are intended to survive as permanent innovation centers after the lifetime of the project.
The designed solutions will be validate in a real environment through their application in specific contexts, i.e. starting eight Pilot projects gathered in two macro-areas: