Trento is one of the world’s ten smart cities, selected to become a laboratory to apply solutions to everyday problems of citizens: from traffic to pollution, from economic development to the sustainable management of natural resources.
Gilles Betis, chairman of the working group IEEE Smart Cities Initiative, in the awarding letter declares “We considered Trento as an ideal candidate because it gave complete explanations to all criteria of the call for selection, providing for convincing proves that Trento is well positioned to use the resources made available through the IEEE Smart Cities Initiatives, demonstrating the rewarding value of financial and HR investments in the project of Trento as a smart city.
Last spring, the municipality of Trento had applied to participate in the “IEEE Smart Cities Initiative”, a project aimed at selecting and involving 10 cities all over, which made a difference for their solutions and programs, thus becoming smart cities and capable to be a point of reference.
The IEEE objective is that each of the ten selected cities shares the achieved results and above all the learned lessons, with its IEEE team members and other cities. Each of the selected cities is called upon the development of a project in a specific sector.
Trento was chosen as the site where IEEE - the most important organization in the field of electric engineering, electronics and information technologies - will challenge the topic of quality of life. According to the current models, the smartness of a city is disclosed through its capacity to solve the community problems in a sustainable manner.
“The Municipality of Trento, according to the general manager, Chiara Morandini - is extremely satisfied with the IEEE Smart Cities decision, which represents a good result, but also an additional tool to further enhance the quality of life of our community. Trento demonstrated to have all necessary features to be a smart city, where the cutting-edge ICT technologies are applied to the management of daily issues. Trento will do its best to meet the IEEE high standards, reinforcing the sense of belonging of all citizens in a community now renowned at international level”.
The Rector of the University of Trento, Daria de Pretis underlined that “This result is an important recognition and contemporarily a great challenge. The project to develop Trento as a smart city in the field of the quality of life is based on the environment where the city, the university and the research centres work for different missions, which converge towards the promotion of the wellbeing and growth of the citizens. On the other side, it is a challenge: being selected by IEEE puts Trento in the spotlight at international level. At the same time the University of Trento creates closer networks with other stakeholders in the system of advanced train and research and with the city, to face together current issues and new challenges”.
Fausto Giunchiglia, President of the Innovation sector of ICT Trento Rise, expressed his satisfaction, “The recognition by one of the most significant and authoritative scientific actors at global level confirms that in Trento, and more in general, in the entire Trentino province, we are really active in the fields of systematic social innovation, aimed at the wellbeing of citizens and the quality of life. In our area we were able to create a true ecosystem of innovation, which makes such great results possible. Definitely, we still have to work hard, because innovation is a daily, slow and tiresome challenge, requiring great efforts, above all at cultural level”.
Dario Petri, chair of the IEEE Italy Section and professor at the Department of Industrial engineering remarks “The Italian IEEE Section is particularly proud of the choice of Trento as one of the world’s ten cities which IEEE considered as a global reference model to implement the concept of smart city. This important result is the recognition of the high quality of research carried out in Trentino and of the capacity of the different institutions to work together in a single ecosystem. IEEE is indeed aware that the success of the project requires the active participation of all involved stakeholders, ranging from the local administrations to the University, to the research centres, industries and schools, to foster the involvement of citizens in the prioritization and experimentation of solutions made available by the state-of-the-art technologies”.
The “IEEE smart cities – Trento” project involves the entire Trentino network of advanced training and research. Together with the Municipality of Trento, the main stakeholders are the University of Trento and Trento RISE, various businesses and institutions whose R&D are in Trentino: Dolomiti Energia, Engineering Ingegneria Informatica, Reply Communication Valley, Telecom Italia and Trentino Network. The project supervision will be carried out by the IEEE Italian Section.
The selection of Trento as a smart city implies the organization of a workshop and other meetings to dialogue and get an insight, as well as initiatives to support students. Trento, being a participant in the “IEEE Smart Cities” initiative, may become a global reference model in the field of the quality of life.
More information is available in the attached Press release.