Research questions
We encourage paper contributions that address the following research questions. Applications however are explicitly not limited to these questions.
Political sciences / environmental sciences / geography
- What are the risks and opportunities for sustainable development from the use of artificial intelligence/ big data in the smart city?
- Which modes of securing are most promising for the smart city – protection, back-up, insurance, liability or resilience?
- How can public space and privacy be defended against privatization and private profit interests?
- How can cities influence technological development to ensure that it serves the goals of the local government? Is there a need for remunicipalisation?
- Which standards of data security, privacy and liability should be imposed by law/politics?
- When decision-making is transferred to artificial intelligence – which checks are needed, where and how should humans be able to intervene?
Law
- Who owns the data (and related profiles) generated by customers – the user, the service provider, the intermediary?
- Who is liable for a product/service in case of damage (who is the 'producer' of a co-produced service/product, what about intermediary platforms)?
- How can smart contracts be used to ensure consumer protection?
- When does antitrust law/ cartel law need to step in to limit market power of single corporations?
Computer sciences / modelling
- How can the artificial intelligence system self-organize to be resilient against abnormalities?
- How can we ensure that the system optimizes its behaviour to ensure the wellbeing of the citizens?
- Which simulation models are useful for autonomous driving and smart grids in the smart city?
- How can synergies between renewable energies, the smart grid and autonomous driving be realized in the smart city (for example, by storing excess energy in car batteries)?
- Which settings could enable privacy by design?
- Can smart contracts based on the blockchain ensure a secure usage of constantly optimizing services?
- What are secure software architectures to deal with the streaming of the high volume of data coming from the smart city?