SMARTCITY+ Festival: Looking back on Sequence of Smart City Construction Activities in One Year

SMARTCITY+ is a sequence of activities initiated by University of Economics Ho Chi Minh City (UEH) in 2021 with the participation of more than thirty national and international cooperators as universities, corporations, management organizations, non-governmental organizations (NGO) with the aim of constructing a smart city brand on cultural and technological values and effectively solving urban issues by available resources towards sustainable development. Looking back on this year achievements, orienting future development steps, UEH officially held SMARTCITY+ Festival Program on December 17^th, 2021 with remarkable activities.

In terms of UEH, this program recognized the participation of Prof. Su Dinh Thanh - President; Assoc. Prof. Phan Thi Bich Nguyet - Chairwoman of Strategy and Policy Advisory Board; Assoc. Prof. Nguyen Khac Quoc Bao - Deputy Head of UEH College of Technology and Design; Dr. Trinh Tu Anh - Director of Institute of Smart City and Management (ISCM) as well as lecturers, national and international students watching via online modality.

Prof. Su Dinh Thanh - President of UEH remarked: “We are living in an age that creativity and knowledge are greatly crucial in solving globally urgent issues; when technologies are hoped to bring miracle possibilities and positively impactful modifications; when globalization shapes strongly our lives and work; when traditional fields are shifting - converging, and so on. This is also a desirable moment, the demand of the community towards a significantly multi-disciplinary and multi-field converged higher education. To solve these requirements and challenges, UEH is, once again, a pioneer in building a more greatly overviewed education system, contributing to a better living quality, affiliating with the community and the society with restructuring strategies towards Internationally-recognized Multidisciplinary and Sustainable UEH University in 2021-2030 period. With that orientation, the sequence of Smartcity+ 2021 events are initiated by UEH with the co-organization of more than 40 national and international individuals, units, and organizations, targeting a desire of developing the Ho Chi Minh City brand to a worth-living city, solving urban issues by blended resources as well as initializing creativity and inspiring the young generation.”

Prof. Su Dinh Thanh - President of UEH remarking regarding the conclusion of the Smartcity+ event sequence

SMARTCITY+ event sequence includes diverse activities, listing as: teaching, workshops, research, projects, exhibitions, studios, and 2^ndinternational designing competition and so on. This event sequence aims to build a smart city brand on cultural and technological values and effectively solve urban issues by available resources towards sustainable development.

This is carried out through constructing a blended foundation where universities/institutions, governmental/state organizations, corporates/communities nationally and internationally join hands to accomplish. A target objective of this SMARTCITY+ 2021 event sequence is Gen Z generation (from 15 - 30 years old), this is an objective accounting mostly for the population structure of Vietnam - the future of the country.

In 2021, despite the impacts of Covid-19 pandemic, with the efforts of UEH and co-organizers, lots of activities in this event sequence are being maintained and held, attracting the youth’, specialists’ and communicators’ concerns. Remarkable activities are listed as follows: launching Arttech Fusion (the combination of art and technology) in January 2021; online-offline combining webinars with a wide range of topics regarding the future; city, technology, or digital economy with the participation of national and international leading experts, professors in educational, state, and private fields organized monthly; 2^ndinternational designing competition with more than 60 qualified submissions from many countries around the world; international studios online and offline held in UEH Campuses; international studios with the attendance of students from Korea, Myanmar, Thailand, Belgium, and Vietnam together working, discussing solution recommendations for local problems; artistic and scientific research projects and so on.

Looking back on this year achievemnts, orienting future development steps, on December 17^th, 2021, UEH organized SMARTCITY+ Festival Program with diverse tempting activities:

Smartcity+ exhibition: TOP 10 submissions of international designing competition; iconic projects of international studios; R2S Project; and partners’ projects and so on

Smartcity Exhibition

Webinar: Session 1 with the “City for all” topic and Session 2 with the “City Branding and Sustainability” topic. The webinar received the participation and sharing of leading professionals and professors from Handong Global University (Korea), Polytechnic University of Milan (Italy), Hasselt University (Belgium), University of Auckland (New Zealand), and representatives of the World Smart City Forum.

Webinar

Creation+ Workshop: Experiencing and exploring personal artistic potentials thanks to a drawing workshop; learning the life cycle of rubbish or self-making useful manual stuff from rubbish. The program recognized the participation of Tipsy Art, Recycle One, and Fablab Organizations in the framework of the “Zero Waste Campus” Project of UEH.

Creation+ Workshop

Education+ Talkshow: Opening studying and working opportunities in international institutions as UEH partners upon exchange, dual degree, undergraduate, and postgraduate programs. Especially, University of Auckland - New Zealand and UEH-ISCM introduced for the first time a 2+2 dual degree program between the 2 universities with Architecture and Smart City Design (UEH-ISCM) and Architecture (University of Auckland) majors.

Education+ Talkshow

Music show and other artistic activities: The program comprised piano, violin recitals, acoustics, and flashmobs of UEH Gen Z and other universities in Ho Chi Minh City.

Music show and artistic activities

More importantly, The conclusion of the SMARTCITY+ event sequence was to look back on one year of operation and 2^ndInternational Designing Competition Award launched from April 2021 to August 2021, with the concerns and participation of students from international universities, and 60 submissions nationally. Judges of the competition were professors and specialists from 13 universities and 14 corporates inside and outside of the countries. Passing 3 rounds, the competition found out future city initiatives through the youth’ distinctive perspectives and feelings in the world.

“Most favorite submission” Prize was awarded to SCPC0051 Team from Vietnam comprising Dao Nguyen Phong, Viet Vinh Dat, Nguyen Ha Minh Tri

“Submission voted by sponsors” Prize was awarded to the team with identification number SCPC47 from China

Third Prize was awarded to Handong Global University, Korea comprising Jeong Jae Hong, Cho Seo Yeon, Park Ga Young

Second Prize was awarded to SCPC0057 team from Vietnam with Nguyen Ngoc Xuan Quynh as group author

First Prize was awarded to submission with SCPC0029 from University of Moratuwa (Sri Lanka), authored by Logapawan .J

Dr. Trinh Tu Anh - Director of UEH Institute of Smart City and Management (ISCM) shared: “SMARTCITY+ Festival event in the SMARTCITY+ 2021 event sequence initiated by UEH, organized by UEH-ISCM and more than 30 national and international collaborators at the end of the year is to together look back on teaching, research activities and social projects of this year. However, this does not mean the SMARTCITY+ journey comes to an end. It will continue until the smart city is built successfully, the living quality of urban citizens is advanced due to the sustainable future. 2021 is a special imprint since UEH restructures towards a Multidisciplinary and Sustainable University. Similarly to global challenges, we believe this is a chance for us to jointly solve urban issues in the current context and future unstable elements most cleverly and effectively as well.”

Moving to a new developing journey, UEH expects to continue receiving the companion, cooperation, support, and consultancy of international and national close-knit units to carry on meaningful series of events in the future so as to create a useful and interesting playground, connecting, studying, and researching opportunities for UEH students in particular and Gen Z generation in general towards educating global citizens who are active and creative in learning and future development orientation.

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