Currently underway the Huawei Connect 2018, Huawei held a Smart City Summit with the theme “Activate Intelligence to Build Better Smart Cities”.
This year’s Huawei Connect conference is designed to help all businesses and organisations step over the threshold and stake their claim in the intelligent world.
Huawei discussed with industry experts and Smart City practitioners about how to build new Smart Cities using artificial intelligence (AI).
The summit showcased Huawei’s innovative practices in “AI + Smart City”: Huawei helped the Tianjin Binhai New Area build “Happy TEDA” based on an Intelligent Operation Center (IOC) and four AI platforms; supported Qingdao’s rice innovation through land digitalization; and made Duisburg smarter and more attractive by leveraging cloud computing and Internet of Things (IoT) technologies.
AI, the Engine Powering Development of Smart Cities
Oleg Logvinov, Chair of IEEE P2413, said: “Science and technology progress drives city development. AI is becoming the next engine that drives the rapid development of Smart Cities as it has been widely used in urban planning, public safety, transportation, and energy fields. AI helps city managers with informed decision-making and even generates new economic models.”
Dr. Zheng Zhibin, President of the Global Smart City Business Dept, Huawei Enterprise BG, commented: “Huawei is committed to becoming a Smart City enabler and promoter by providing a city ‘nervous system’. Currently, Huawei is developing a ‘+AI Smart City Digital Platform’ which is built upon the strategy of ‘Platform + Ecosystem’.
Based on its ICT infrastructure, Huawei integrates the IoT, big data + AI, video cloud, Geographic Information System (GIS), and converged communications resources through the Industry Enablement Platform. Moreover, Huawei teams up with partners to build an ecosystem. A digital platform which features resource coordination is vital to the sustainable evolution of a Smart City. Additionally, a powerful AI engine will help strengthen the city ‘nervous system’, and enhance self-learning and self-evolution capabilities of cities.”
Huawei Helped Tianjin Binhai New Area Build a Model for “AI + Smart City”
Huawei helped Tianjin Economic-Technological Development Area (TEDA) design a “1 + 4 + N” solution based on AI, that is, one IOC, four AI platforms, and multiple innovative applications. The IOC developed by Huawei functions like a ‘city brain’.
It integrates and processes data about the government, enterprises, residents, Internet, and the IoT, and then performs in-depth analysis through AI applications. The IOC works closely with four AI platforms to support innovative services such as “Resident Voices”, “Sensing the City”, “Resident Care”, and “Enterprise Services”. In addition, TEDA has also deployed multiple innovative applications to complement the one center and four platforms, and even developed a happiness index system (safe, beautiful, convenient, harmonious, civilized, and vital), making people’s lives better.
Land Digitalization Enables Smart Agriculture and Supports the Development of “Seawater-Tolerant Rice” in Qingdao
Led by Academician Yuan Longping, Qingdao Saline-Alkali Tolerant Rice Research and Development Center developed saline-alkali tolerant rice, also known as seawater-tolerant rice.
This rice variety has been tested in China, with the highest output of 9.3 tons per hectare. It has also been piloted in the desert of Dubai, yielding 7.5 tons per hectare.
In addition to the cultivation of new rice varieties, soil digitalization based on Huawei’s IoT system plays an important role in this miracle of saline-alkali tolerant rice. Sensors on or under the ground collect information such as illumination, temperature, and salinity, and send it to Huawei’s cloud big data center through an eLTE network. Then, the AI system combined with expert diagnosis provides suggestions on recommended pesticides, directional fertilization, and pest and disease control, helping to improve the saline-alkali land through rice planting and increase yields. If 6.6 million hectares of saline-alkali land are treated, then 30 billion tons of rice can be produced, to feed an additional 80 million people, which is of great importance to everyone.
Cloud Computing and the IoT Make Duisburg Smarter and More Attractive
Duisburg aims to benefit from the opportunities provided by digitalization, using new ICT technologies to improve urban life experiences, promote economic growth, and attract more residents, enterprises, and investors.
The city chose to cooperate with Huawei due to Huawei’s technical innovation capabilities in cloud computing, big data, the IoT, and AI as well as Huawei’s experience and strength in helping cities determine future development directions. At the cloud computing infrastructure layer, the Rhine Cloud supported by Huawei’s technologies provides a basic platform for Duisburg’s cloud strategy. It also promotes the technical innovation and implementation of e-Government, transportation, IoT, and unified communications, and completes the construction of Smart Duisburg 1.0 based on a smart foundation.
At the IoT layer, Duisburg will use Huawei’s 5G, Wi-Fi, and WLAN technologies and IoT platforms to achieve real-time sensing of city components. A smart city ‘nervous system’ network will be built to advance transportation, logistics, and industrial manufacturing, enabling smart living, autonomous driving and smart city operations. This will help realize the Smart Duisburg 2.0 vision based on smart experiences.
Huawei aims to serve as a Smart City practitioner and lead new Smart City construction using AI. Thus far Huawei’s Smart City Solutions have been used in the government, education, transportation, healthcare, and energy industries.
In 2017, Huawei participated in 48 of China’s Smart City projects, covering Beijing, Shenzhen, Tianjin Binhai New Area, Lanzhou New Area, Dunhuang, Guilin, Sanya, Weifang, Yiyang, Gaoqing, and other areas.
Edited by Neo Sesinye
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