Digital City, Smart City and Beyond
Abstract: In the 2000s, activities known as digital cities or community networks were vigorously explored, particularly among non-profit organizations and universities in Europe, America, and Asia. Then in the 2010s, the construction of urban infrastructure for citizens’ lives, referred to as smart cities, began to be actively driven by governments and corporations. It is easy to assume that the initiatives of digital cities have been supplanted by those of smart cities; however, this is not the case.
Digital cities primarily focused on creating virtual spaces to foster community formation among citizens. In contrast, smart cities have centered on real spaces with sensor technology, aiming to enhance urban infrastructure. With advancements and excitement in new technologies like virtual reality and IoT, the two movements are now converging — the future infrastructure of urban life. This talk will provide a dialogue between researchers of digital cities and smart cities, offering insights into the past and discussing the future.
Toru Ishida
Professor Emeritus, Kyoto University
Toru is a Professor Emeritus at Kyoto University and a Life Fellow of IEEE. He was a member of the Science Council of Japan (2011-2017), and the President of IEICE (2021-2022). He has contributed to research in Autonomous Agents and Multi-Agent Systems and was a General Co-Chair for the first AAMAS (2002). His research projects include Digital City Kyoto and Language Grid. At Kyoto University, he founded a Design School alongside colleagues from Informatics, Architecture, Mechanical Engineering, Management, and Psychology. He has been a visiting professor at institutions like Technische Universität München, Paris 6, University of Maryland, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Tsinghua University and Hong Kong Baptist University.
Mika Yasuoka
Associate Professor at Roskilde University, Denmark
Executive Advisor at Smart City Institute Japan
Born in Japan, and educated in Japan, the US and Denmark, Mika has received international education in Computer Science, Informatics and Interaction Design. Mika has applied Scandinavian design methodologies, especially stakeholder involvement methods (from in-depth user studies to co-creation) to design advanced IT systems and services in collaboration with large global companies and public organizations. In the 2000s, Mika worked on a digital city project, which led her to current e-government and smart city projects both in Japan and Scandinavia.
Large Language (Multimodal) Models: The Secret Sauce to Make Intelligent Environments Truly Intelligent
Abstract: TBA
Paul Lukowicz
Full Professor, Technical University of Kaiserslautern
Paul Lukowicz is Full Professor of AI at the Technical University of Kaiserslautern in Germany where he is heading the Embedded Intelligence group at DFKI. His research focus are context-aware ubiquitous and wearable systems including sensing, pattern recognition, system architectures, models of large-scale self-organized systems, and applications.
Robotic Disassembly for Intelligent Remanufacturing
Abstract:
Robotic disassembly is the main step in dealing with End-Of-Life (EOL) products. It is a key enabling technology for autonomous remanufacturing, where the core components of a product at its end-of-life stage are retrieved and remanufactured to produce a new product with the original warranty. It sits centrally within the concept of Industry 4.0 and offers the objectives of net zero circular economy. The push towards remanufacturing has been gaining significant momentum in recent years and in line with the UN sustainable development goals. For example, it is expected that the global automotive parts remanufacturing market to grow with a compound annual growth rate of 7.1% from 2021-2027 reaching USD25.3bn.
Furthermore, the advancement of robotic disassembly has a significant potential to bring together a number of modern concepts, tools and technologies including digital manufacturing, human-robot collaboration, virtual and augmented reality, AI, and intelligent systems to name a few. This keynote talk is aimed at presenting an overview of the current challenges of autonomous remanufacturing with a special emphasis on robotic disassembly as its key enabler.
Mozafar Saadat
University of Birmingham, United Kingdom
Dr Mozafar Saadat leads the Automation and Intelligent manufacturing (AIM) research at the Department of Mechanical Engineering, School of Engineering, University of Birmingham. He holds an Honours degree in mechanical engineering from University of Surrey, and a PhD in manufacturing automation from University of Durham. His research interests are in the areas of automation, robotics, and intelligent manufacturing with active research groups in autonomous remanufacturing and medical robotics including robotic rehabilitation, and assistive reproductive technologies. His recent innovations have resulted in filing three patents either granted or pending in EU and USA. In 2020 he co-founded and became Director of Technology of a spinout medical technology company with significant grant and private investment funding to develop an automated medical device for infertility treatment. His previous research experience were in aerospace manufacturing, and in particular, aircraft wing assembly automation. He has obtained various research funding from EU, EPSRC, Innovate UK, and a number of companies including British Aerospace and Airbus. He has published in excess of 150 scientific papers in prestigious journals and international conferences and has supervised ~30 PhD students.
Am I redundant? How AI will shape the Future of Work
Abstract:
The world of work has undergone many challenges in recent times. The newest disruptor, Artificial intelligence (AI), in the backdrop of Remote and Hybrid work, is yet again transforming work in ways that are unprecedented. AI can augment human capabilities, automate tasks, create new jobs, and disrupt existing ones and enable organizations to revamp their working styles to achieve desired outcomes. How can workers and employers adapt to these changes and leverage the potential of AI for social and economic benefits? This talk will provide an overview of the current state and future trends of AI and its impact on the labor market, skills, education, and ethics. It will also discuss challenges in determining success metrics for AI in its impact on the future of work.
Dr. Shamsi T. Iqbal
Microsoft
Dr. Shamsi T. Iqbal is a Principal Applied and Data Science manager in the Data, Platform and Growth Organization at Microsoft where she leads research to bring science and data-backed innovations in the Viva Insights product. Her primary expertise is in the domain of Attention Management in multitasking domains. More recently her work has focused on leveraging Co-pilot experiences to augment humans in their productivity and thriving goals, redefining productivity in the context of hybrid work, introducing novel ways of being productive through leveraging micromoments and balancing productivity and well-being in interaction design. Shamsi has published over 80 peer-reviewed academic papers and has given 50+ research presentations. Her work has gained attention in the media in recent times on topics related to the Future of Work, Attention Economy and Microproductivity, Virtual Commute and the Triple peak day – including an interview with The Atlantic on Virtual Commute (2021), interview with the NBC Lx on the Triple Peak day (2022), podcast on Microproductivity at part of the Freedom Matters series on the Future of Work (2022) and 30+ media articles on the topics above since 2020. Her past work on driving and distraction has been featured in the New York Times, MIT Tech Review among others, and also featured in the King 5 News (NBC affiliate in the Seattle area).
Shamsi has served on many organizing and program committees for Human-Computer Interaction conferences, served as an ACM TOCHI Associate Editor from 2017-2023, was guest Editor for IEEE Pervasive Special Issue on Future of Work in 2021 and was the General Co-chair for UIST 2020. She is one of the co-authors of the Future of Work reports Microsoft released in 2021-2023. Shamsi received her Ph.D. in Computer Science from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 2008 and Bachelors in Computer Science and Engineering from Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology in 2001.