What comes to mind when you think of a city of the future? A city where autonomous buses run and drone taxis fly. Or a city without traffic congestion where artificial intelligence predicts and responds to natural disasters, and underground tunnels are responsible for logistics. Some may envision a city that entrusts hard work to robots and enjoys a leisurely life, and furthermore, a city built on the seabed or in space. In this way, the future of the city will contain the wishes of each citizen. The more diverse the shape of the future imagined by citizens, the wider the range of cities that can be created. It has been four years since the POSTECH Future City Research Center, which leads the future city research in Pohang, started operating in earnest. How close has Pohang got to the future city? We met with Kwak Ji-young, deputy director of the Future City Research Center, who conducts research to apply new technologies to cities to change the lives of citizens comfortably and efficiently.
'Smart City', a form of the 4th industrial revolution characterized by connectivity and intelligence... Leverage a variety of cutting-edge IT technologies
Selected as the best local government for 'Smart City Challenge Project'... Securing 100 billion won in government funds, starting this year’s main business
Formation of a user verification team that participates in universities, citizens, and companies… Verification of the practical effect of the service living lab method
“I hope that Pohang citizens who embrace the highest level of science and technology POSTECH can enjoy science and technology in their daily life.”
-At one time, U-Cities were popular, and these days, smart cities seem to be commonly used. What kind of city will the city of the future be?
△ Future city refers to a city that is more evolved than the present. Both U-Cities and Smart Cities are examples of future cities. 'U-City (ubiquitous city)' is a field that has been researched for more than 30 to 40 years. It boils down to an attempt to automate the city using IT technology. A 'smart city' is a form of the 4th industrial revolution characterized by connectivity and intelligence. If the 3rd Industrial Revolution focused on automation like the U-City, the 4th Industrial Revolution will understand the city's situation based on a vast amount of data collected through sensors connected like a neural network and execute necessary actions at the right time. . To this end, various cutting-edge IT technologies such as the Internet of Things (IoT), next-generation communication including 5G, and artificial intelligence technology are used convergence.
-Then, is the future city of the Future City Research Center a smart city?
△ The city of the future can take various forms. For example, it could be a sustainable city that uses 100% renewable energy and produces no waste, or a city that dramatically improves transport and logistics. There may even be proposals to build such a city on the ocean floor or on Mars. Anything that aims to solve the problems of the present city is the domain of the future city. However, as of now, the smart city is a more evolved form, and the concept and direction of the smart city are still evolving, so it is regarded as one of the most influential future cities. The name of the Future City Open Innovation Center (FOIC) comes from the suggestion of former POSTECH President Do-yeon Kim, who emphasized the role of the College of Engineering in researching future urban technologies at the time of its establishment.
-The future refers to all unpredictable times that have not yet come. How far is the future that the Future City Research Center studies?
I think tomorrow can be the future. Future technology is the realization of things that are clearly needed but do not exist today. In that sense, the future city can be seen as a world in which something we desperately desire now comes true. The main research purpose of the Future City Research Center is to find and solve problems that citizens face. The city of the future is for the present as well as for the next generation.
-Cities are very complex spaces. What are the priorities for creating a city of the future?
△In 2019, while establishing a smart city strategy with Pohang City, a survey was conducted on the core values that Pohang should pursue in the future. Perhaps because it was a period of great economic impact after the earthquake, the first place was 'Economy', followed by 'Safety' and 'Quality of Life'. In the process of preparing the basic plan and roadmap for Pohang City based on the survey, those three have become our priorities as a future city.
-What are the major achievements of smart city-related projects so far?
△ The 'Smart City Challenge Project' hosted by MOLIT, which is being carried out with Pohang City, POSCO, and venture companies, is the biggest achievement. Pohang's Smart City Challenge is largely aimed at solving urban problems in terms of safety and quality of life, and for the purpose of discovering future economic engines to overcome concerns about local extinction, there are four solutions (road surface detection, shoulder/sidewalk risk factor detection, demand Responsive transportation service, CCTV video search system) was mainly conducted. As a result of the evaluation, it was selected as the best local government and has secured 100 billion won in the national budget, and the main project is being carried out from this year.
- I know that the safety accident prediction system and citizen-feeling type transportation received good evaluations. What technology is it specifically?
△'Road surface detection system' and 'Shoulder/Pedestrian risk factor detection system' are technologies that identify risk factors on roads in advance with artificial intelligence. Pohang has many roads with severe cracks due to frequent passage of large trucks. In addition, illegal parking or piling up on narrow sections of roads in the old city may threaten the safety of pedestrians. It is a service that collects road surface and roadside data in real time by installing various sensing devices based on vision or Internet of Things (IoT) in public vehicles or taxis, and notifies the administrative department of roads requiring maintenance to prevent safety accidents in advance. The 'CCTV video search system' supports to quickly and accurately find the desired video through artificial intelligence when it is necessary to use the CCTV stored video for reasons such as crime, illegal activity, or disappearance. Furthermore, it automatically detects signs of crime or illegality and enables rapid response. 'Demand Responsive Transport (DRT)' is a new concept of public transportation that flexibly operates the operating section, operating interval, and frequency in response to the request of passengers.
- What is the difference between the main project starting this year and the preliminary project?
△ The scope will be expanded to digital twins and wide-area data hubs, which carry out projects for overall safety of citizens, including transportation, and transfer reality to virtual reality. As this is the main project, citizen participation is important. We plan to form a user verification team in which universities, citizens, and companies participate to verify the actual effect of the service through the Living Lab method.
Kwak Ji-young, deputy head of the center, emphasized the role of the Living Lab among citizens' participation in the process of creating a smart city. Living Lab means that where we live is a laboratory. It does not end with introducing a new technology, but it is a way for citizens to try it out and change it if it doesn't suit them. This living lab is in line with the direction the future city should take. Because prioritizing the needs of citizens is not only a way to build a city more equitably, but it is also a way to make technology fast, sophisticated and, above all, valuable.
-Why is citizen participation important in creating the city of the future?
△ To overcome the trial and error of the past supplier-led city model. Globally, citizen-participatory approaches such as the Living Lab are being introduced. It is a method in which citizens become a part of the initial development process and operate it by themselves, correcting and completing parts that do not fit well. For this, communication between developers and users is important, and the Future City Research Center plays an intermediate role. Last year, as it was a preliminary project, a small citizen participation group was formed, but the main project requires more citizen and student participation.
- How do you participate?
△ Recruitment notices will be released through various channels soon. If you would like to participate, please contact the Future City Research Center at any time. He continues to think about various ways to motivate, including extrinsic and intrinsic rewards to create an atmosphere of active participation.
-If there is another concern in the process of creating a future city.
△ As they say 'money', they think about how to secure capital, and how to get the maximum utility compared to the investment rather than the poison. Realistically, the best you can do is invest in growing your business. If the local funds for smart cities are used as an investment concept for venture companies and a company succeeds in demonstrating and commercializing it using it as a stepping stone and advances to overseas markets, the local area can have a return structure that can recover the initial investment.
- You came to university after working for a large company. Isn't there a big difference in the nature of the job?
△Worked at Samsung Electronics for 13 years before coming to POSTECH. In his research lab, he sought to provide a new user experience (UX, User Experience) through connectivity between products. Since he was in a similar field at Samsung, the nature of his work never changed. If a company has sought connectivity and intelligence between its products, it is only that the area has expanded to a city with a public interest after coming to university. The basic process is the same, to the extent that the problem to be solved is different. I am also in charge of building a smart campus for POSTECH, and it is very interesting in that it can be applied to cities if the problem is solved on the campus.
- We are looking forward to the changes in our city that will take place in the future. What is the most Pohang-like future city you envision?
△Smart City is a technology that is designed to be convenient, safe, and good for people, so it should come close to citizens and permeate into their lives. I hope that the citizens of Pohang, who embrace POSTECH, a top-notch science and technology university, can also enjoy science and technology in a friendly way in their daily lives, and I hope that the projects of the Future City Research Center will become an opportunity. Smart city is not something well-established, but it is implemented in the neighborhood where I live, and when people from other parts of the country come and admire it, it would be good to become a city where the elderly in the neighborhood explain the principle of making a fuss with something easy. It is my dream as an urban engineer to hear that Pohang is a 'smart city created with our own hands' in the future.