Tomorrow's cities are smart, but we have to start today
What would it be like if I could charge my car at any streetlight? And then, I could answer a few emails on the way to work while the car drives me safely to my destination. These scenarios sound like science fiction but are closer to reality than you may think.
My visit to the Smart City Expo in Barcelona impressively showed me the great potential of innovative technologies and networked systems for urban life - and the humans' central role in this.
Making a city "smart" means more than just implementing technologies and making everything digital. It's about combining quality of life, sustainability, and efficiency in a way that truly improves urban life. As innos, we have realized in recent years how crucial an integrative approach is in connecting people, ideas, and technologies, putting the needs of citizens at the center instead of just focusing on technologies.
For many, innovation is a somewhat unwieldy term that is often used to describe something new. For me, an innovation is an open thought experiment, a way of thinking that is open in all directions except backward. Innovation is the coming together of ideas and the enthusiasm to create something meaningful. This is how progress is created.
Well connected: Paving the way for innovation
innos can draw on years of experience in the fields of mobility, regional development, digitalization, and materials research. This expertise allows us to shape the development of smart cities in a way that is not only technologically but also socially and ecologically sustainable. Thanks to our many years of work in these key areas, we have built up a wide-ranging network of partners and maintain valuable contacts in politics, business, research, and various associations. This network pools expertise in a targeted manner and creates effective synergies.
With projects such as the Competence Network for Automated and Connected Mobility - innocam.NRW, CharIN e.V. and the Innovation Campus Lemgo, we offer a space for innovation, but above all, one for people. Whether it's smart mobility solutions such as autonomous vehicles and networked infrastructures or sustainable energy supplies that make our cities more resource-efficient - innos creates the conditions for great ideas to be realized.
There is no such thing as being a little bit smart.
A technologized city is not automatically "smart". Rather, it requires a large number of projects that have to mesh together like cogwheels to ensure that the entire system functions smoothly.
Smart cities not only open up new perspectives for cities, but also for the people who live in them. Efficient technologies enable better resource management, reduce energy consumption and promote sustainability. Smart traffic control systems, intelligent traffic lights and e-mobility help to improve urban traffic by getting people from A to B faster and with less stress.
The smart city is more than a model for the future - it is part of our present. However, it is not a closed system built under a dome. It thrives on its fluidity and has an open design. Many different people live and work in a city, have different needs and their own daily rhythms. A smart city should adapt to people, not the other way around.
The impressions of the Smart City Expo will definitely stay with me. The eye found a new discovery around every corner and it was particularly exciting to talk to people who share my enthusiasm for technology and innovation. The international perspective is a great way to broaden your horizons and see where the journey can take innos.
Colleagues can already look forward to many fresh ideas in the upcoming Leadership Board meetings.
