i-City programme on Smart Cities

The first Dining with Dinosaurs of 2023 got off to an exciting start with a talk by Reuben Official Fellow Kostas Margellos on the mathematics of smart cities and the launch of the i-City Competition.

Kostas is an Associate Professor of Engineering Science and his talk provided insights into the application of mathematics and algorithms to the control of complex systems – in this case smart cities.  As a social scientist, I have to admit I was quite relieved when Kostas explained that he had removed all equations from his slides. Instead, he explored what makes a city smart and how maths tools can help regulate and improve the performance of systems.

Put simply, a smart city is one that uses technology to achieve goals such as safety, efficiency and sustainability. Kostas drew on examples of work on transportation and energy management to illustrate how maths tools such as game theory, networks and learning can improve sustainability. The smart city ecosystem produces data which can be used to create schedules that can, for example, reduce congestion.  Another application of this approach is to create a more even rate of demand for charging electric vehicles, an important ingredient in a sustainable transportation system.

Over dinner we discussed questions of trusting AI decision support tools, actions needed to improve building sustainability performance, and what the Oxford might be like in 2050.  Current controversies about the proposals to create Low Traffic Neighbourhoods in Oxford gave us an example of how an understanding of the social and political dimensions of cities is needed in addition to mathematical tools.  Similarly, we discussed how technological solutions to improving energy management in buildings intersects with the structure of the housing economy and cultural differences in understanding what might be possible and acceptable in different cities at different points of time.

The i-City programme offers postgraduate students interested in these kinds of challenges the opportunity to get involved in creating an intelligent, sustainable and networked city. I- City, sponsored by Mathworks, is a competition run jointly between Reuben College and the Mathematical, Physical and Life Sciences Division. Teams of students from diverse disciplines can enter the competition by proposing new ways to use AI and Machine Learning tools in smart cities.  The programme is organised around four pillars, or key challenges:

Connected mobility: How can we use AI tools to regulate traffic? Can we use aerial vehicles to monitor ground ones?

Energy efficiency and sustainability: How can we enhance integration of renewable energy sources? How to control building efficiently?

Smart electric vehicle charging: Can we achieve vehicle-to-grid and/or vehicle-to-home charging?

Robotics: Can we achieve autonomy and safe interaction with humans?

Teams who enter the i-City competition will get involved in a series of training workshops and talks during January and February before they are asked to pitch their solutions to a panel of judges. The programme offers skills development as well as the chance to get involved in tackling important challenges. More details can be found here.