City Cloud

City Cloud
Tom Verhoeff, Johan Laanstra and Jos Kraaijeveld - EWI

This team was part of a larger team that participated in the Imagine Cup in New York in 2011. They addressed the question of the integration of the large and growing number of available data sources, against the background of the European policy regarding Open Data.

Since it is undeniable that steadily more data sources are becoming available in our society, it stands to reason that more applications should become available. Think of coming to the aid of people on the street - if someone has a heart attack on the sidewalk, bystanders need access to the relevant information as quickly as possible: “Where is the nearest automated external defibrillator (AED), where is the nearest hospital and what steps should I run through?” These days we take it for granted that an application for mobile phones or tablets can be written to address these situations. However, this is only one of the many kinds of applications that face one specific problem: the necessary information (data) is scattered all around – in different locations and in different formats.

The students set to work on accessible (non-private) data and provided a seamless translation of the various formats of the different databases. A large number of data sources were linked and used during the bachelor project, for example the locations of AEDs, traffic information from the Rotterdam municipality, messages on Twitter, information about known crimes in the area and so on.

The judges are ecstatic about this research, and deem it to be of enormous social value in “the City”. Moreover, it is contemporary and its possible applications make it very significant in terms of communication.