Institute to develop computer solutions for sustainable cities

The Intel Collaborative Research Institute for Sustainable Connected Cities will also collaborate with the emerging Tech City cluster in East London, using the social media expertise of start-ups based there to identify and analyse emerging trends within cities.

ICRISSC will be a core member of the newly formed Intel Labs Europe UK R&D network.

This will consist of nine R&D locations including London, Brighton, Swindon and Aylesbury, with others to be added by the end of 2012.

The network has been set up to facilitate further collaboration between Intel and the UK R&D community and will act as a subset of Intel Labs Europe, focusing on research areas such as information security and high performance computing.

The new London based institute aims to address the social, economic, and environmental challenges of city life with computing technology, helping to provide practical solutions to problems ranging from droughts and long commute times to wasteful use of energy.

Using London as a test bed, researchers will explore technologies to make cities more aware by harnessing real-time user and city infrastructure data.

For example, a sensor network could be used to monitor traffic flows and predict the effects of extreme weather conditions on water supplies, resulting in the delivery of near real-time information to citizens through citywide displays and mobile applications.

“In 2050, most of the nine billion people in the world will live in cities,” says Justin Rattner, Intel chief technology officer and director of Intel Labs.

“Therefore the demands of cities will be highly representative of the demands of humanity.

“Addressing these demands will be at the heart of the Intel Collaborative Research Institute for Sustainable Connected Cities, driving the development of new services to enhance people’s quality of life.”

ICRISSC is part of a wider Intel Collaborative Research Institute programme, which has seen similar institutes launched in Germany and Israel.

“Now, more than ever, it is vital that universities collaborate with each other and with businesses on projects such as this,” says Prof. Stephen Caddick, Vice-Provost Enterprise at University College London.

“Delivering research which can be taken out of the lab and onto the market, creating new business opportunities and jobs, and contributing to the growth to the UK economy we so urgently need.”