Prof. Marketta Kyttä
Aalto University
Built Environment
Combine participatory and collaborative approach to urban planning with computational planning methods and tools.
Theme lead
Key research areas
- Smart communicative city planning: combining participatory and collaborative approach to urban planning supported by computational planning methods and tools. It focuses on usable digital tools and methods (e.g. PPGIS and 3D city models) that make it easier to understand the possible design options for e.g. residents or local decision-makers.
- Smart human living data: multi-perspective, participatory data collection and analysis from the usage and users of urban space using variety of digital tools.
- Smart support systems: co-developed planning and decision support systems for smart city planning and visioning, including a smart planning room.
- Qualities of the built environment: Smart communicative city planning enables rethinking and integrating the diverse qualities of urban spaces and makes these quality perspectives visible and debatable.
- Bio-digital architecture and urban design (including circular bio-economy): Offering an experimental approach to designing the built environment from a simultaneously biological and digital perspective.
- Smart urban space solutions: human-centric solutions for a smart, livable city and its service.
Main researchers involved
- Professor Kimmo Lylykangas – TalTech, Landscape Architecture
- Senior Research Fellow Aija Staffans – Aalto, Architecture and Urban Studies
- Researcher Pramod Bhusal – Aalto, Electrical Engineering and Automation
- Post-doctoral researcher Pilvi Nummi – Aalto, Built Environment
- Researcher Veronika Valk-Siska – TalTech, Architecture and Urban Studies
Research groups of Built Environment
- Built Environment research group (prof. Marketta Kyttä)
- GreenTwins pilot group (prof. Fabian Dembski)
- Lighting group (Pramod Bhusal)
Smart Energy
Prepare energy plans with smart grids which involve how areas of the city as well as individual buildings are heated.
Theme lead
Prof. Jarek Kurnitski
Tallinn University of Technology
Adjunct Professor at Aalto University
Key research areas
- Integration of smart nearly zero energy buildings (nZEB) with energy networks to find smart control, storage, low energy and demand side management solutions for future smart zero energy buildings and smart grids.
- Operation of smart electricity and district heat markets operation and business models, control, communication and algorithm development for electricity and heating markets benefiting from buildings with smart electricity, automation, storage, heating, ventilation, air conditioning and lighting systems; connected meters and sensors.
- Identification of cost-effective actions, instruments and measures for energy efficiency and energy market policies and action plans, sharing of best policy practices e.g. optimisation of energy demand to avoid peaks.
Main researchers involved
- Professor Argo Rosin – TalTech, Smart Grids
- Professor Targo Kalamees – TalTech, Building physics
- Professor Sanna Syri – Aalto, Energy technology and energy economics
- Research Professor Dmitri Vinnikov – TalTech, Power Electronics
- Associate Professor Risto Kosonen – Aalto, Mechanical Engineering
- Senior Scientists Juha Jokisalo – Aalto, Mechanical Engineering
- Post-doctoral Researcher Ville Olkkonen – Aalto, Mechanical Engineering
- Post-doctoral Researcher Roya Ahmadiahangar – TalTech, Electrical Power Engineering and Mechatronics
Research groups of Smart Energy
- Prof. Sanna Syri’s group (of international energy market and district heating)
- RESTO pilot group (of large-scale renovation support for buildings, Dr. Einari Kisel)
- Nearly zero-energy buildings (prof Jarek Kurnitski)
- DigiAudit pilot group (Dr. Kalle Kuusk)
Urban Analytics & Data
Develop and promote standards and systems that make it technically possible to publish Open Services through standardized interfaces.
Theme lead
Assistant Professor Hadi Ghanbari
Aalto University
Key research areas
- IoT, Digital twins and Open Services are the cornerstone technologies for implementing what we call the System of systems (SoS). SoS is a set of standards, recommendations and services implemented as so-called micro-services that can be easily integrated with existing IoT platforms and other relevant systems, also supporting the concept of serverless computing.
- Many of the non-technical challenges are real business challenges.
- Adding value to big data and other more conventional data sets by including different socio-economic and sensor-based built-environment data streams into existing data pools is another core research topic of this stream.
Main researchers involved
- Professor Anu Masso – TalTech, Data Governance
- Associate Professor Matti Rossi – Aalto, IC
- Post-doctoral Researcher Hadi Ghanbari – Aalto, ICT
- Adjunct Professor Kary Främling – Aalto, DIEM
- Visiting researcher Avleen Malhi – Aalto, DIEM
Research groups of Urban Analytics & Data
- Distributed and Networked Control Systems(DNCS) (Themistoklis Charalambous)
- IS3C (Information systems Science Mart City) (ass. Prof. Hadi Ghanbari)
- The Data Lab (prof. Anu Masso)
Smart City Governance
Structure and contextualise smart city developments thanks to economics and innovation capacities of smart cities
Theme lead
Prof. Erkki Karo
Tallinn University of Technology
Key research areas
- Economics and innovation capacities of smart cities: How can cities become smart in the sense of supporting technological development, innovation and employment in local communities as part of smart city initiatives?
- Sustainability and governance of smart cities: How can cities become smart in the sense of sustainable development, including goals of climate neutrality, environmental and technological self-sufficiency?
- Politics and public policies in smart cities: How can cities become smart in the sense of providing functional citizen-participation platforms for public policy and service co-design and co-delivery as the basis for legitimacy and happiness?
- Internationalisation and integration of smart cities: How can cities become smart in the sense of political, policy, service and technological integration, collaboration and/or interoperability while maintaining local development concerns from innovation capacities and sustainability to participation and legitimacy?
Main researchers involved
- Professor Vasilis Kostakis – TalTech, P2P Governance
- Professor Marko Nieminen – Aalto, Computer science
- Senior Research Fellow Veiko Lember – TalTech, Governance
- Professor Erkki Karo, TalTech, Governance
- Assistant Professor Ralf-Martin Soe, FinEst Centre for Smart Cities
Research groups of Smart City Governance
- Meta-Group (of national innovation policies, prof. Erkki Karo)
- Strategic Usability Research Group (prof. Marko Nieminen)
- The Data Lab (Anu Masso)
Smart Mobility
Design and implement a collaborative system to operate future transport systems safely and efficiently.
Theme lead
Ass. Prof. Claudio Roncoli
Aalto University
Key research areas
- Smart Urban Mobility: Development of smart mobility strategies and applications for cities and urban regions based on data analysis, solutions and cyber-physical systems, aiming at efficient and sustainable mobility systems.
- Twin City infrastructure: Further multi-faceted evaluation of twin cities’ integration and direct and indirect impact assessment for digital and physical infrastructure.
- Smart Mobility Lab: Creating a mobility-specific set of living lab activities within the UOP. A lab that allows for testing future technologies, transport solutions, business and innovation models, monitoring systems for social processes, with the goal of building an efficient ecosystem that allows also for large-scale pilots.
Main researchers involved
- Assistant Professor Milos Mladenovic – Aalto, Transport Planning
- Visiting Professor Themistoklis Charalambous – Aalto, Department of Electrical Engineering and Automation; FinEst Centre for Smart Citie
- Senior University Lecturer Jaakko Hollmen – Aalto, Computer Science
- Post-doctoral Researcher Vladimir Kuzmanovski – Aalto, Computer Science
- Tenured Associate Professor Raivo Sell – TalTech, Autonomous vehicles
Research groups of Smart Mobility
- Mobility systems operations and planning (ass. Prof. Claudio Roncoli)
- Autonomous vehicles (prof. Raivo Sell)
- Pilot – Future mobility (prof. Raivo Sell)
- The Data Lab (Anu Masso)