Since the new Modi government came into power in May 2016,
we have been hearing a lot about Smart Cities. There has been great buzz around
which are most likely to be smart cities in India whereas government has
already proposed name of few cities based on different criteria. Now all of
this sounds so romantic and catchy to us but are we really ready to make our
cities smart cities. Though there can be different level and type of smart
cities but there are some minimum aspects that must be in every such city. Technolultion event organized by Mind Ignited was one such event where
we got to know about requirements to make a city Smart city and how that smart
city status can be sustained in long run.
Event started with some beat boxing performance by Emcee of
the show Vineeth to get crowd excited for the evening and then it was turn of
the first speaker of the evening, Mr
Bernard Charles, Vice Chairman of the Board of Directors, Chief Executive
Officer Dassault Systèmes . He has been working on Data points and
simulation for last so many years and as per him the same simulation logic must
be applied in case of smart cities not only to develop smart cites but also to predict sustainably of
those smart cities. Smart cities must be Vertical like human body and he cited
example of Paris as such vertical city. Simulation needs lots of data inputs to
predict the future requirement of a smart city, which can go to as low as where
to plant trees in that city keeping future growth in mind. The Noise level, the
traffic, altitude all play essential role in making of a smart city and
simulation is must to predict future of smart cities on these parameters. He
shared examples of few of cities globally those have used these simulation technique
and have benefited a lot to cater future need of its citizen. The best part of simulation
is that it can create multiple scenarios in one go and predict the outcome accordingly
and then it is up to the administration on how to take decision on that
outcome.
Then it was turn of Harini
Nagendra, writer of Book “Nature in the City” and who has worked excessively on
Urban evolution to talk about ecological viability of smart cities and what
needs to be done to differentiate those from normal cities that are not so
ecological. She showcased different statistics from across the world and
especially India on how our cities have evolved sacrificing ecological aspect.
City like Bengaluru city where precious lakes are frothing and now it is the 3rd
most air polluted city in India. It has developed leaps and bounds but by sacrificing
ecological aspect. A city can never become smart city if it can’t let its
citizen breathe fresh air, drink clean water and let them live in less noisy environment.
She explained how cities across globe have developed so rapidly in last few
years but failed to cater need of a good environment.
Vishal Chahal of
IBM Watson talked about what role industries will play in future of smart
cities. The new advancement that will take place in Artificial intelligence will
play a key role in how future of smart cities will be like. He quoted several examples of how systems and
machines will be self-activated tasking decisions on its own rather than
depending on some server somewhere on cloud system. Systems will predict things
in advance rather than individuals asking for it. He concluded his presentation
with comments that almost all technical ingredients of smart city in future will
be cognitive.
The last presentation was by Divakar Vaish who is one of the genius minds in India when it comes
to Robotics and is developer of India’s first ever indigenous robot “Manav” and
also word’s first brain controlled wheel chair. He explained about robotics industry
has grown up on Artificial intelligence and cognitive intelligence and the next
step will be to master Real Intelligence which is probably at first step of its
growth. Artificial intelligence has grown up leaps and bounds when it comes to
robotics and has given great results too but Real intelligence is future of robotics
and machine system. In real intelligence system robots and machines will be
able to take decision ion its own rather than being programmed to react. As per
him it is still a long distant dream to fully conquer Real Intelligence but
things in robotics industry are going in right direction. He showed few of his
developments related to it where robots could replicate what a normal person
does just with use of brain sensors. The brain controlled chair is one such
creation and many more are yet to come soon in near future.
There were session By Saumya Lohia Agarwal on how not only
Public-Private collaboration is needed to get things done, it is time for
individuals to get involved actively on individual basis as well. Event also
had a soulful and melodious musical performance by VarijaShree Venugopal who is
award winning singer and flutist.
More information of the event and videos can be found at
Mind Ignited facebook page.