SEOUL, KOREA – We are now in the century of the city. With the rapid pace of urbanization, IBM has predicted that 70% of the world’s population will live in cities by 2050. This will require more intelligence to be infused into the way our cities work. The concept of the smart city has been introduced placing emphasis on ICT(Information Communication Technology) to make cities more sustainable. In essence, all of the public functions of the city are networked in every corner to increase economic efficiency. Employees can work from home without having to go to their workplace, which can reduce the burden of traffic and environmental problems, and improve the convenience of life. Cities can also improve public security and welfare through systematic and integrated city management.

Concept of Smart City

“Smart cities are necessary for maximizing the utilization and functionality of space, as well as increasing the value of the city. Other important goals that have recently arisen are how to link the city internationally and dealing with environmental issues such as reducing air pollution and climate change. A city can be defined as ‘smart’ when investments in human and social capital as well as traditional and modern ICT communication infrastructure fuel sustainable economic development and a high quality of life, with a wise management of natural resources and participatory governance.” said Young-im Cho, Professor of the University of Suwon. She is a well-known smart city expert in Korea, serving as a committee member of President's Council on National ICT Strategies. This organization has recently put forth great efforts to develop and design the smart city for the improvement of citizens’ quality of life. She also formerly led the ubiquitous Pyeongtaek city project. Under her leadership, the city successfully built ‘SuperNet’, capable of monitoring and analyzing all of the city projects to improve administrative efficiency and the convenience for the residents. The local government received an award from the Ministry of Public Administration and Security for the city informatization project.

mDOSA to Challenge EDM Market

“Smart paradigm is just an extension of ubiquitous paradigm called the post-ubiquitous age.” She stated that there are four types of viewpoints in ubiquitous computing. “In the aspect of computing paradigm, the technology is changed from static community to automatic community. In the application domain, the technology is changed from healthcare to environment preservation. In the third aspect of application area, the technology is altered from home to building. The fourth aspect concerns technical principles in which technology is changed from situation awareness to self-growth. Situation awareness means that computers are aware of the situation of users and can act appropriately. For example, if a call arrives in my absence after I leave the office, the system finds my location and then forwards the call to the current location. If I am in a meeting, the system saves the call as a voice message. This is a scenario of situation awareness.”

“Among many application areas of ubiquitous, smart city is the constructed city by ubiquitous technologies and paradigm. Usually, many ubiquitous services and hybrid technologies using RFID, USN, IPv6, sensing devices, monitoring, auto-control and real-time management are involved in making a smart city. There are currently three important issues in order to qualify as a smart city. The first and most important issue is the infrastructure of the smart city such as platform, security, and service scenario. The second issue is the paradigm of smart city such as role play between government and local government. The third issue is the consulting to have the best service model according to many types of organs, and business models.”

University Industrial Technical Force

Recently, Professor Cho has supported the plan to design the U-City of a small size company to win a contract from the government. It was through the mentoring system from the University Industrial Technical Force (UNITEF), where she now serves as a chairwoman. Its R&D consultancy services tailor-made approach helped paved the way for the company’s Eco-Smart city. This model introduces environmental concepts to Smart City, and marks the first time this has taken place from the Korean government and industrial complexes.

UNITEF is an organization that was set up by 500 professors spontaneously in 1996, aiming to promote university and industry collaboration. Now, it has become the first and largest brain pool system of Korea comprised of 6,000 members where 3,500 university professors are mentors and 2,500 corporate members are mentees. “The main goal of UNITEF is to assist and strengthen the competitiveness of industrial companies in particular small and medium size companies as a mentor.” UNITEF has been carrying out many joint programs such as mentoring programs, networking system among the industry, university, researchers and government, and industry-specific R&D programs. “UNITEF also publishes a Journal regularly to introduce the excellent patient and achievements or outstanding laboratories to share each other. Now it has a technology upbringing program for young boys and girls. Annually, 50 professors assist young boys and girls’ to help them realize fresh technical ideas. It is a well known program amongst young boys and girls that will aid them with university admission.”

As a professor, a mentor, as well as a leader, Prof. Cho seems to get the most out of her engineering background to create a better city and better life with ICTs. Asked about the driving force behind her work, she says it is her belief that ICT can lead to human well-being and quality of life. “The advancement of ICT should no longer remain as a mere technology, but move toward softer, warmer, and human-centered technology in the future,” she emphasized. 

Shin Ji-hye (info@koreaittimes.com) 다른기사 보기