Smart Cities – The opportunity is now Thursday, 16 June 2016

Message by Tim De Grauw FIEAust CPEng EngExec NER RPEQ, Engineers Australia Newcastle President 2016.

The opportunity is now for the Newcastle region to become a Smart City so to realise the commercialisation of emerging technologies and innovations. Newcastle was among the 10 cities invited worldwide to participate in a National Geographic program promoting smart cities of the world.

Smart City vision for Newcastle was highlighted by Dr Nathaniel Bavinton from the City of Newcastle, Dr Andrew Mears representing SwitchDin, Clean Energy Technology Integration and Dr Gary Ellem from Future Industries at a recent forum hosted by Engineers Australia College of Leadership and Management.

Newcastle already has the right ingredients for a Smart City. There is a thriving education and research sector, highly skilled and capable workforce and a diverse industry base with significant growth potential. There is also significant potential for Innovation Infrastructure.

To date, five key bodies of work have contributed to create and progress the Newcastle Smart City Initiative. City partner collaboration and the Hunter Innovation Project seeking to establish critical enabling infrastructure have been chief contributors. Major works were also carried out in strategic planning for a smart innovative city and strategic economic development of the local innovation ecosystem. Additionally, input received from citizen and community engagement has added much value to the overall project.

It was also identified that the Newcastle region is well placed to become a living laboratory of innovation and commercialisation. The region has all forms of infrastructure, including port facility with spare capacity, heavy and light rail interface points, and other modes of transport such as bicycle, bus and car.  The region also comprises residential, commercial and industrial areas that are ready to use for this important initiative.

The Smart City Infrastructure and Applications to be developed, utilising city-wide WiFi, could range from:

  • Consumer Services
  • Interactive Environments
  • People Movement Analytics
  • Smart Street Lights (eg: Digital interaction)
  • Smart Parking Management
  • Smart Crime Prevention

This initiative has received strong support by multiple organisations such as Regional Development Australia’s Smart Specialisation Strategy for the Hunter Region and the Smart Cities Plan.

The reality is between Newcastle and Lake Macquarie council areas, the living laboratory could be extended to the region and explore the full demographics of CBD and residential suburbs, including Autonomous Electric pool vehicles such as uberPOOL that already exist but just need the government framework to enable the outcomes. More information can be found in Engineers Australia Create Magazine June article on ‘Plugging the Whole World In’.

We look forward to bringing our members updates on this exciting program.

Photo: At the Smart Citites event held in Newcastle, Leon Fabrikanov (EA CLM Chair), Tim Crakanthorp (Newcastle MP), Helen Link (EA Newcastle General Manager), Tim de Grauw (EA Newcastle President 2016), Gunilla Burrows (Eighteen04 Chair and MC for the event).