Self-driving buses, active speed bumps, vehicles with environmental sensors, projects for smarter waste management, drone safety… In Kista, people not only talk about new solutions for the cities of the future, they test them too..
Urban ICT Arena in Kista is an open testbed and collaboration platform for exploring new solutions. Solutions that involve possibilities we may not even be able to imagine today.
ICT – Kista’s specialty
ICT, or Information and Communications Technology, is the technology we use almost all the time – when we work, communicate and get information. ICT is a large part of our everyday lives and in Kista in particular there are many companies in the business of innovative ICT, because the district is one of the world's leading ICT clusters.
What is a testbed?
A testbed is a test and demonstration environment. It provides the opportunity to try out and develop solutions to various challenges in society, safely and effectively. It’s just as easy to test and simulate new technologies as it is to test new processes or try different working methods. The test environments, which can be physical or virtual, aim to help improve innovation.
Today, there are test beds for many different fields, from bioeconomy and agriculture to composite manufacturing and cyber security.
What sets Urban ICT Arena apart from other testbeds?
Urban ICT Arena in Kista is the world's first testbed facility that is fully based on collaboration and is open to everyone. Among other things, new solutions are being tested for the public transport of the future and how we can best benefit from our increasingly connected environment. Some of the innovations that have been tested on site in Kista are self-driving buses and bins that notify garbage trucks when they need to be emptied.
Here at The Kloud editorial office, we are impressed by Urban ICT Arena and the fact you can create, test and demonstrate new smart technologies in a real urban environment. It is a platform that gives people and businesses the opportunity to collaborate and develop solutions for the sustainable and smart cities of the future. And that's great!
You can learn more at Urban ICT Arena and check out the film when the self-driving vehicles take on the streets: https://youtu.be/SBxF6TFBd7A.
Urban ICT Arena is part of Kista Science City and started as a collaboration between Ericsson, IBM, ABB, the Royal Institute of Technology, Stockholm University, RISE, the City of Stockholm and the Stockholm Region.
