SCD'17 sketched out promising scenarios for an intelligent city at the service of citizens

Alp ICT has been a proud supporter of Smart City Day since its first edition. The 2017 theme, centered on people, was a great collective success. We would like to take this opportunity to congratulate Innobridge, who did a fantastic job organizing the event, as well as all the partners, speakers, exhibitors and participants. We would also like to thank the Haute Ecole du Paysage, d'Ingénierie et d'Architecture (HEPIA ) for welcoming us to its premises. For a full report on the event, please read the press release issued by Innobridge, available online here.

Our Marketing Officer Yohann Perron had the privilege of moderating the afternoon of this rich day, representing for the occasion the three partner platforms Alp ICT, Micronarc and CleantechAlps. The Innovation Pitch illustrated the morning's debates by highlighting theinnovations of start-ups making cities more human, with solutions that create emotions. Our team is delighted to share these highlights with you.

 

Perched vegetables

Winners of this spring's Smart City Hack, "Les légumes perchés" are based on the observation that most of the vegetables on our plates are polluted or full of pesticides. Their initiative aims to promote access to local, affordable vegetables. This is thanks toagriculture 2.0, sustainable, local and organic farming. Their ambition is to create an eco-neighborhood to meet the demand for this food by installing intelligent crops on the roofs of houses in the city of Lausanne. In this way, the project will make forgotten land fertile by combining agriculture and technology.

 

Cortexia

The startup(which we present in more detail here), has the slogan "Living happily in a clean city". Its aim is toimprove the cleanliness of cities by controlling costs and reducing the environmental impact of cleaning. Cortexia has created an intelligent vision system that recognizes waste using mobile cameras attached to sweepers. This systematic identification makes it possible to build a detailed, up-to-date map and calculate a cleanliness index.

 

Wave

A company that organizes electric car rallies in order to change preconceived ideas about electric cars and give them a positive image, notably with the round-the-world solar car tour. Today, Wave organizes annual rallies across Switzerland, with more and more participants each year. Wave has also announced that it is looking for partners: if you are interested, go directly to www.wavetrophy.com.

 

Open Geneva

Last but not least, we're pleased to announce the new format of Open Geneva 2018, to be held throughout the canton next April. Open Geneva organizes over 20 hackathons a year spread across Geneva, with around 400 participants getting involved to develop the City; a hackathon being a 1-2 day process that brings together multidisciplinary teams to find simple, practical solutions to well-identified problems. This initiative began in 2015 with the topic "Improving the quality of life in Geneva". It was redirected in 2016 to healthcare. In 2017, Open Geneva teamed up with Innobridge to organize a Smart City Hack on the theme ''A citizen in the city'', which achieved a very high participation rate.

A whole ecosystem of urban innovation is emerging. This dynamic confirms the role of Smart City Day, which enables everyone to equip themselves and exchange ideas to effectively accompany the digital revolution in Cities. We therefore look forward to seeing you on Thursday, September 6, 2018 in Fribourg for the next edition of this flagship event in French-speaking Switzerland on urban foresight.