LKY CIC Brown Bag Lunchtime Talk: Ocean and Human Health: Balancing the Risks and Benefits and Implications for South East Asia

In this talk, the findings and insights from two EU Horizon2020 projects - BlueHealth and SOPHIE (Seas Oceans & Public Health In Europe - and a UK Research and Innovation funded Grand Challenges Research Fund project - Blue Communities in South East Asia will be presented. The marine environment provides many opportunities to enrich human welfare, from fishing and aggregates, to transportation and recreation. However it also possess many health and wellbeing risks, many of which are the product of anthropogenic behaviours, such as chemical and microbial pollution and sea-level rise and increased storm events resulting from climate change. The populations of island and coastal cities and states such as Singapore are particularly sensitive to both benefits and risks. This talk will provide an overview of the field and provide detailed evidence of how, if managed correctly, the marine environment can be used to better promote health and wellbeing among coastal populations. Although much of the evidence at the moment comes from Europe the talk will introduce new research currently underway in South East Asia exploring these issues. [...]

LKY CIC Brown Bag Lunchtime Talk: Merging Science and Design: Fashionable Nanotechnology

At scales below 100 nm, manufacturing techniques require of a precise molecular control and the use of very homogenous raw materials, which unfortunately is not the case for natural fibers. In this talk we will discuss some of the chemical and physical strategies developed in our laboratory to overcome these heterogeneity issues and we will explore how our work, at the frontiers of fiber science, intersects with the work of fashion designers. We will use several examples addressing textiles materials for fashion, sports and military applications and we will demonstrate how “old and traditional” natural fibers can be transformed into revolutionary engineering materials with unique functionalities. [...]

LKY CIC Brown Bag Lunchtime Talk: From Asia to Latin America Building Democratic and Inclusive Marketplaces of Smart Cities Innovations

Ride-hailing platforms have caused disruption to the traditional taxi industry and workforce in many cities worldwide. How can we adopt smart cities innovations that are less disruptive, and that can even create a better societal outcome for consumers, workers, companies, and regulators? In this talk, Andy will present case studies based on his startup’s PAIR smart taxi open data platform in China’s megacities Chengdu and Shenzhen. The PAIR platform includes: 1) Smart Hub – offers travellers standardized and efficient taxi service at airports worldwide; 2) Smart Dropoff Code – elevates driver productivity by overcoming language barriers; 3) Smart Route – helps transport regulators fight congestion by replacing car travel with economically sustainable bus routes. Andy will also share insights from his involvement in the taxi modernization project of Argentina’s capital, Buenos Aires. These experiences that span China and Argentina suggest that a global network of open data marketplaces can help smart cities innovations compete fairly and scale rapidly across a global common market, and help build an inclusive society for and led by citizens. [...]

LKY CIC Brown Bag Lunchtime Talk: Smart Urbanism in Asia

Smart urbanism is a popular urban policy approach of the cities of the world. It offers seductive visions of a better future for all driven by adoption of digital technologies. Research on opportunities and challenges of smart urbanism in different urban contexts in the Global South is emerging but fragmented. This talk will give an overview of the key trends shaping smart city developments in Asia using Bangalore and Singapore as cases of comparison. Reflecting on the Singapore case, I will also discuss how normativity is entrenched in such imaginaries of urban futures and offer insights on emerging digital inequalities. [...]

Book launch of ‘The Data Economy’ and ‘The Future of the Economy’

LKY CIC Brown Bag Lunchtime Talk: The use of place-based knowledge from people in participatory urban planning

While participatory urban planning has become a widely accepted approach to enhance the democratic aims of community and urban development, challenges still remain. Participation can be a small-group elitist activity; there are not effective enough practices for participatory planning and the quality and utilization of the produced knowledge is problematic. In this presentation, I will ask whether digitally supported PPGIS (public participation Geographical Information Systems) tools can help address these challenges. I will reflect critically the quality of user knowledge in typical public participation process, the new possibilities PPGIS tools and datasets provide as well as the new public participation practices that digital tools embrace. Through a critical analysis of over 200 real life planning cases using PPGIS methodology, the ability of PPGIS tools to address the current challenges will be reflected. [...]