Unicamp is getting closer to having a “smart campus”. Solutions for the Internet of Things (IoT), developed by the project SmartCampus, are being coupled to a platform that will concentrate data from different areas of activity, establishing connections and facilitating the work of the entire team. The platform Konker takes the name of the company that signed the partnership with Unicamp and which, in turn, is made up of students and former students of the University.
“The platform is an accelerator that allows you to build solutions in a shorter time by crossing elements that would be segregated”, explained the company's CEO, Alexandre Junqueira. Initially, the platform will only be used by those involved in the projects of the Smart Campus program, developed by the Campus City Hall. The idea is to make the technology available beyond the university as soon as the projects are improved.
Two examples of pilot projects that are being developed are the intelligent collection of batteries and “smart parking”, which will be the intelligent parking on the Barão Geraldo campus. In the case of parking, cameras will indicate where there are available spaces. The system is operating on an experimental basis in the parking lot of the Computing Institute (IC). The data may be made available on websites and applications. "An important observation is that the images taken do not travel through the network, for privacy reasons, being processed on the device itself using a deep neural network. The device sends through the platform only which vacancies are available and which are not, avoiding any privacy issues ", highlighted the company's data scientist and doctoral student at Unicamp, Luis Gomez.
In smart collection, sensors were placed in battery collection boxes to indicate when it will be necessary to collect batteries and in which locations. The platform will also help you choose the best route to take when the boxes need to be emptied.
According to Professor Juliana Freitag Borin, executor of the agreement, all solutions involve data collected from various sensors. “If we concentrate the data, we can cross-reference them and derive knowledge that we never imagined discovering,” she highlighted. Transport data can be crossed with weather information to determine the relationship with passenger flow and delays, for example.
“We already have our projects within Smart Campus as you can see on the Smart Campus page or in the application Unicamp Services. Now let’s start cross-checking information”, stated the leader of Smart Campus, Rafael Pereira de Sousa. The analyzes will help improve Unicamp's management and save public resources.
The program's partnership with the company Konker also involves the Innovation Agency – Inova Unicamp. The business model needed to be extensively studied because it involves the transfer of knowledge to third parties, as explained by Inova's director of partnerships, Iara Ferreira. “This is a partnership in which the results will be used right here at Unicamp. The business model must provide that the results can also be absorbed by third parties or by startups or by the company itself”. The Konker company, in addition to providing the platform, offers investment in research by providing two scientific initiation scholarships and a master's scholarship for students involved in the project.
Unicamp's general coordinator, Teresa Atvars, recalled that the University is adopting new IT (Information Technology) governance and highlighted the importance of partnership with students and alumni. “The companies that emerged from people at Unicamp continue to help the University. It’s a virtuous cycle of cooperation creating innovation within the campus,” she said. Atvars highlighted that Unicamp is open to innovation that improves the campus, but also generates products that can be absorbed by society, “qualifying our students in the best possible way and opening opportunities for everyone”.
Read more about the Smart Campus program:
Unicamp City Hall uses smart device technology to improve management
