Smart City

According to UN estimates, two out of every three people will be living in cities by 2030. Inevitably, this growth in the urban population brings with it a series of challenges, to which the "smart city" seeks to respond. The term reflects a city's ability to use new technologies to improve services for its residents. The objectives are manifold: to optimize resource management, to make public and private transport more fluid, to improve waste treatment, to reduce energy consumption, to get citizens more involved in democratic life...

But moving from traditional city management to a smart city raises a number of questions. First and foremost, there is the issue of data management, which is essential for a smart city. How can their anonymity and confidentiality be guaranteed? What measures should be put in place to ensure end-to-end security? How do you process and analyze large volumes of data?

The smart city also involves challenges on the hardware front. The city's network infrastructure must be able to adapt to increased connectivity requirements. What's more, the approach requires the use of a large number of connected objects (IoT), particularly sensors. We therefore need to think about their characteristics: how can we reduce their size, so that they can be integrated into street furniture? What is the best solution for supplying them with energy (battery, connection to the power grid, etc.)? How can we protect them from piracy, which can have serious repercussions, while optimizing their energy efficiency?

The smart city brings together a wide range of skills: IT, network engineering, electronics, cybersecurity, human and social sciences... These are just some of the fields in which the expertise of researchers at Carnot Télécom et Société numérique is recognized. Thanks to the complementary nature of their research work, they are in a position to provide global and concrete solutions to the issues raised by the smart city.