Denmark’s Aarhus University keen to extend help to Smart City project

Bhubaneswar: Denmark’s Aarhus University is keen to extend technical assistance towards transforming Bhubaneswar into a Smart City, Prof. Ramjee Prasad, the university’s Professor of Future Technologies for Business Ecosystem Innovation, said on Friday.
Aarhus University would help in transfer of technology for shaping the Smart City in collaboration with other institutions of higher learning in the city like IIT-Bhubaneswar and SOA University, he said while addressing the valedictory session of the two-day 29th GISFI Standardisation Series Meeting and IEEE 5G Summit at the SOA University here.
“I will come back with representatives of Aarhus University in November next and sign a MoU with the SOA University for establishment of a ‘Living Lab’ in the university,” Prof. Prasad, who is President of the Global ICT Standardisation Forum for India (GISFI), said.
A ‘Living Lab’, he explained, was a user-centred, open innovation ecosystem which helped integrate concurrent research and innovation processes.
Mr. Tom Sebastian, who spoke at the Summit earlier representing the Danish Innovation Centre, had also said that Denmark was already involved in development projects in several Indian cities, including Nagpur, and would be keen to participate in Bhubaneswar’s metamorphosis into a Smart City.
Prof. Raja Kumar, Director of IIT-Bhubaneswar, said Information and Communication Technology (ICT) was required for Smart City projects in which institutions like IIT-B and SOA University had research interests. “Institutions like ours can contribute a lot and we are willing to provide support in improving power system, communication, traffic management, waste disposal and healthcare in Bhubaneswar,” he said.
The CEO of Bhubaneswar Smart City Ltd, Vineel Krishna, who attended the conference earlier, had explained the Bhubaneswar smart city concept to the participants of the Summit.
SOA University’s Chairman, Advisory Board, Prof. Damodar Acharya said the conference had been successful in bringing captains of the industry, academia and students on the same platform to discuss relevant issues.The details of the deliberations would be submitted to the state government, he said.
Prof. Jayashree Ratnam, Associate Professor of SOA University and Dr. Debu Nayak from the industry presented reports on the conference while Janhvi Inamdar, Trustee, GISFI, proposed the vote of thanks.