NGIoT held two workshops on Smart Cities and Communities and Agrifood and Rural Communities as part of a thematic workshop series on IoT and Edge computing, organised by the NGIoT and EU-IoT Coordination and Support Actions in collaboration with the European Commission and relevant associations, networks, and projects.
The objective of these thematic workshops is to mobilise the community in anticipation of the upcoming Horizon Europe and Digital Europe programmes, and to consolidate priorities from the communities of stakeholders in a roadmap for Europe (the main objective for NGIoT), both relating to technologies and with respect to supporting the range of relevant policies, including the green deal. Special attention was given to the role of “Edge Nodes”, which are mentioned in the Commission communication on ‘Europe’s Digital Decade, with reference to the goal of 10,000 climate-neutral edge nodes.
NGIoT workshop on Smart Cities and Communities
Access the recording and presentations here.
Better quality of data and real-time data can improve the quality of the indicator instruments deployed by cities (e.g. air quality, GHG emission, etc.). In many cases however, data is fragmented or access to data is delayed. With limited data on the local level application the operational means of gathering data at central level loses its value. Citizens could benefit from accurate local services, e.g. for automated traffic management, parking, charging, etc., cities could provide incentives for the installation of local edge nodes (e.g. lamp posts or charging points) and make use of the ability to abstract of single local edge resources to drive an application mesh across different sectors like mobility, transport, energy, renewables, etc.. The event was hosted by NGIoT and EU-IoT projects with Living-in.EU, OASC, EUROCITIES, AIOTI, FIWARE Foundation and the European Commission.
NGIoT Workshop on Agrifood and rural communities
Access the recording and presentations here.
The afternoon of 30 March 2021 was dedicated to presentations and discussions in the domain of agrifood and rural smart communities. The workshop brought together the visions on smart communities from several associations and projects: Living-in.EU, AURORAL and dRural and the more sectoral aspects DEMETER, ATLAS, IoF2020 and SmartAgriHubs.
In the agricultural sector, the geographical conditions are essential parameters, e.g. growing cereals in North of Europe may be totally different from growing it in South of Europe. Interventions of farmers have to be based on thorough analysis of a maximum of local data from fields and farms. The deployment of edge computing capacities in rural areas, e.g. grouping farms at co-operative level or any other trusted intermediaries, will offer local data from field sensors and machinery from neighbouring farms to be analysed in a local, regional and wider geographical context. Edge nodes entails the provision of new functionalities (e.g., AI algorithm implementations) for IoT applications by more sensors and equipment providers (e.g. tractor manufacturers) as to enable more autonomous operations (e.g., ploughing or spraying a certain farm field) or coordination of multiple neighbouring vehicles or devices, e.g., tractor or drones.
In the agrifood domain, the quality of products may largely depend on local conditions (water, sun, animal welfare, environmental conditions, fertilizers..) – instead of requesting farmers to disclose massive datasets a local aggregation at the edge would safeguard their knowledge and allow a minimum transparency in the food chain. Edge computing nodes will facilitate an effective flow of information between farms and their cooperatives, however, the role of and potential investments in Data Gateway Platforms and Decision Support Systems has to be widely explored
The Webinar series continues:
27 April NGIoT Thematic Workshop: Automotive Industries and Mobility
27 April NGIoT Thematic Workshop: Manufacturing
18 May NGIoT Thematic Workshop: Energy
18 May NGIoT Thematic Workshop: Health and Care
ALSO DON’T MISS THE IOT & EDGE STRATEGY FORUM
22 April IoT & Edge Strategy Forum
