#OSC become a tool for UN smart cities
- This is very big, admits Joel Mills, general manager of the Offshore Simulator Center (OSC). The UN has chosen the simulator center in Ålesund as its global tool for developing smart cities.
![Smart city Ålesund: - Not only does Ålesund become the first prototype of the UN’s smart city. We are chosen by the UN as a global tool for making cities smart and sustainable, ”says Joel Mills, general manager of Offshore Simulator Center. (Photo: Staale Wattø)]
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PUBLISHED:APRIL 24, 2019 19:38LAST UPDATED:APRIL 24, 2019 22:35
- It can be gigantic. How big this is is difficult to say, everything has happened so fast, says Mills to Sunnmørsposten. Today he presents the deal at The North West, which sets its mark on the city for three days.
UN program for smart cities
The fact is that the Offshore Simulator Center - which is located at the Norwegian Maritime Competence Center in Ålesund - will be the digital tool for the UN’s United 4 Smart Sustainable Cities program.
- The basis for the UN program for smart cities is 16 UN organizations and close cooperation with private business and cities around the world. The potential is therefore unique, Mills points out.
Ålesund becomes the first prototype of such a smart city.
UN:Joel Mills along with Kari Aina Eik, Secretary General of the Sustainable Smart City Programs. PHOTO: OFFSHORE SIMULATOR CENTER
Presented to the UN two weeks ago
It began with the Secretary-General of the Smart City Programs, Kari Aina Eik, visiting OSC in September last year. Since then, blows have taken place.
According to Mills, Eik believes that the technology OSC has developed can become a “game changer” in the work of understanding key indicators that the UN uses to measure cities.
Two weeks ago, Joel Mills had a presentation for the UN in Geneva. A few days later, he was on the same theme in German and Austrian TV in Vienna.
- Usually I speak for an audience of 200, here were 6,000 in the audience and millions of viewers. It was a little different, says Mills to Sunnmørsposten.
May 13, he flies to Geneva for a new presentation for a large group of experts within the UN system.
Vienna:Fourteen days ago, General Officer of the Offshore Simulator Center, Joel Mills, had a presentation for the United Nations in Vienna. PHOTO: OFFSHORE SIMULATOR CENTER
Creates a digital twin of the city
Mills says Ålesund is just right big and fit to make it useful as a prototype for a smart city.
This means that the simulator center creates a digital twin - a three-dimensional digital copy of reality - based on lots of different data about the city. It can be anything from population, different infrastructure to response time for emergency response.
Teams of information are fed into the digital version of Ålesund, which is retrieved through a three-dimensional simulation or graphics.
- Digitizing large amounts of data and visualizing them through three-dimensional simulation means that people in seconds understand the connections and can find smart and sustainable solutions, Mills explains.
The alternative is a laborious road through facts where it is difficult to get an overview.
Response Time:During rush hour, response time in parts of the city has increased to over 30 minutes for emergency response vessels. If your house burns at Hessa, it is probably burned down before the fire truck arrives. PHOTO: ILLUSTRATION: OFFSHORE SIMULATOR CENTER
Discovered that the tourists went wrong
For example, Mills has made a simulation of the population in Ålesund at a given time while there were three cruise boats docked.
Using the sim cards on the mobile phones he could identify the nationality of people. He discovered that many of the tourists from the cruise ships go wrong when they land. They went towards Skarbøvika instead of towards the center. This will make smart Ålesund do something about.
Mills assures that everything happens within the applicable privacy rules. No person is identified, just the nationality of a certain number of people.
He also made a simulation over the response time the fire department uses to move out to Hessa via today’s road network.
It showed that during rush hour it takes 30 minutes to arrive, normally 10 minutes. Then there is a great chance that the house is burned down before the fire truck is in place.
Tourist Stream:If one combines data from sim cards into mobiles with the digital twins, one can analyze the flow of people through the city. Here is the tourist flow from three cruise boats. The colors indicate nationality. PHOTO: ILLUSTRATION: OFFSHORE SIMULATOR CENTER
Created a new company
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This is the first step, says Mills.
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I will continue to spend a lot of time and focus as the head of the Offshore Simulator Center, which goes very well and where we recently entered into two large contracts for simulation in the offshore and wind industry. The collaboration with the UN has led to the launching of the offshore simulator center. The subsidiary Augment City AS will work with the new Ålesund municipality to show the technology with Ålesund as the first prototype for the UN.
Augment City will use technology that the Offshore Simulator Center has built up over 15 years. First on the construction industry, later on the maritime industry.
The technology is to be used in both companies.
Hub for simulation
Mills hopes that the testing of the technology can happen here in Ålesund with cables straight into the UN. There is also a great opportunity for Ålesund to become a hub for developing simulated solutions for cities around the world.
- When the UN programs now choose us as their tool for digitization, this means that we can become a direct partner to cities such as Mexico City, Zagreb or London or some of the hundreds of other cities around the world that have signed an agreement with the United Nations to Be smart and sustainable, he says.
- UN the best partner
Mills is pleased with the cooperation with the UN.
- We could not get a better partner or client. The UN is close to sustainability targets and is also neutral.
Oil money has been invested in the development of the Offshore Simulator Center. Through the agreement with the UN, in this way we can also give back to older people and improve their quality of life, Mills points out.