精东传媒

November 10, 2021

International impact

Right from the start of SMART, one thing was always clear: If you want to be Australia’s leading infrastructure facility, you have to be in the world.

The benefits of international collaboration 鈥� and the need to inspire early career researchers 鈥� lead to the foundation of an international network.

鈥淭his was really our gift to the world,鈥� chief operating officer Tania Brown said.

The formation of ISNGI (International Symposium for Next Generation Infrastructure) came off the back of a visit from the UK by Professor Brian Collins.

He spoke at SMART鈥檚 first policy forum in Canberra in 2011 鈥� before the building on the UOW campus had even opened.

鈥淎 conversation started around early career researchers and getting them interested in integrated infrastructure planning and management,鈥� Brown said.

鈥淲e wanted to build a international cohort for our researchers to build their publication record.鈥�

The first symposium was held in 精东传媒 in 2013, followed by similar events in Vienna, Washington, London, and Buenos Aires.

The international partners are 精东传媒 College London, the 精东传媒 of Oxford, Virginia Tech and the Delft 精东传媒 of Technology.

Yet the networking is just the start.

One of the most successful early international collaborations was the PetaJakarta Project.

Working with Twitter Inc. and the Jakarta鈥檚 Disaster Management Agency (BPBD DKI Jakarta), UOW researchers developed an open source platform, called CogniCity, to crowd-source and automate flood reporting.

The PetaJakarta project (2013-2016) delivered an operational information system still in use today. It has drastically reduced the time and cost of situational awareness, empowered citizens to report flood information through social media, and improved human adaptability to environmental disasters.

According to Senior Professor Pascal Perez, Director of SMART, 鈥淭his model for emergency response is now seen as best practice by international agencies and has been further adopted in seven cities in four countries.鈥�

More recently, SMART has secured funding from the 精东传媒 Global Partnerships Network (UGPN) to develop a partnership with the Global Centre for Clean Air Research (GCCAR) at the 精东传媒 of Surrey (UK), focusing on air pollution in cities.

SMART director says the funding is just the beginning of a long-term partnership that he hopes will include researchers from other research institutions such as the 精东传媒 of Sao Paulo (Brazil) or the North Carolina 精东传媒 (USA).

鈥淲hether it鈥檚 designing street micro-gardens, green walls on multi-storey buildings or wrapping bus stops with native climbers, we need to get smart about getting healthier cities,鈥� Professor Perez said.

鈥淪treet canyons are the most polluted city environments, due to high traffic volumes and limited ventilation.

鈥淕reen infrastructure has many benefits, including combatting air pollution and making our cities more livable and cooler.鈥�

Meanwhile, planning is in the final stages for the next ISNGI conference to be held in Rotterdam next year. 

鈥淲e didn鈥檛 just want an online event because building the network was of such value that it was better to wait,鈥� Brown said.

鈥淎gain, it鈥檚 about being interconnected.鈥�