dReDBox

In today’s cloud data centres, the physical system is composed of individual server units contributing processing, memory, accelerators and storage resources. However, this arrangement incurs a significant waste of these resources as well as low power utilisation, due to the inherent inability to closely match user IT requirements to the resources available within a single server or sets of servers. The challenge in this arrangement is to be more efficient, flexible and agile with these resources.

dReDBox aspires to remedy this by moving from today’s server-as-the-unit model to a pooled-computing model, enabling an arbitrary sizing of disaggregated IT resources, deploying them where and when required, to perfectly match cloud user requirements. By doing so, dReDBox aims to transition cloud to unprecedented efficiency levels while reducing electric power consumption by up to 20%.

The consortium plans to deliver a full-fledged, vertically integrated data centre-in-a-box prototype to showcase the superiority of disaggregation in terms of scalability, efficiency, reliability, performance and energy reduction. The prototype will be used as vehicle to demonstrate the value of dReDBox in three pilot use-cases stemming from three market segments: Security, Network Analytics and Telecom.

Project's website: http://www.dredbox.eu/

ISS-EWATUS

The general approach used by ISS-EWATUS is to recognise and then exploit the untapped water-saving potential in the EU. Therefore, in this section, after emphasizing the importance of the water conservation problem, a general overview of existing water-saving potential is given. Being aware of all water stakeholders and problems at all levels, ISS-EWATUS is intended to focus on household and urban water-saving potentials respectively. Afterwards, several tools exploiting those potentials that are proposed by ISS-EWATUS are briefly FP-ICT-2013-11 ISS-EWATUS Collaborative Project described.

The proposed project is an interdisciplinary effort of specialists from water management and ICT research respectively to develop an intelligent Integrated Support System for Efficient WATer USage and resources management (ISS-EWATUS). The project will develop several innovative ICT methods aiming to exploit the untapped water-saving potential in EU. The overall goal will be achieved by developing an innovative, multi-factor system capable to optimise water management and reduce water usage.

At household level: a) an information system for gathering data about water usage is planned to increase the awareness of water consumption; the data will be interpreted and presented to household consumers in an understandable way using mobile devices (smartphones, tablets), b) a household Decision Support System (DSS) will be developed for mobile devices to reduce water consumption. Recommendations regarding water-saving devices and behaviour will be produced, c) a social-media platform will be developed to reinforce water-saving behaviour of consumers via the social interactions among users (and between consumers and experts of water-saving techniques).

At urban level: a) an innovative decision support system for reducing leaks in the water delivery system will be built based on the dynamic modifications of pumping schedules to reduce leakages at municipal level, b) an adaptive pricing policy will be developed as the economic instrument to induce water-saving behaviour and reduce peaks in water and energy distribution loads.

Being validated at two differently characterised locations, the ISS-EWATUS will be sufficiently flexible to be exploited in any EU location. Appropriate training, manuals and dissemination will give people across EU an efficient tool for water conservation. The solutions of ISS-EWATUS for households will be available on the mobile applications portals. The rest of solutions will be offered to water management companies in EU.

Project's website: http://issewatus.eu/

MAZI

Do-It-Yourself networking refers to a conceptual approach to the use of low-cost hardware and wireless technology in deploying local communication networks that can operate independently from the Internet, owned and controlled by local actors. MAZI invests in this paradigm of technology-supported networking, as a means to bring closer together those living in physical proximity. Through an experienced interdisciplinary consortium, MAZI delivers a DIY networking toolkit that offers tools and guidelines for the easy deployment and customization of local networks and services.

Overview

Project's lifetime: 01/2016 to 12/2018

Project's website: http://mazizone.eu/

The centrality of this concrete DIY networking toolkit in the lifetime of MAZI will facilitate the interdisciplinary interactions between researchers from the fields of urban studies, sociology, interaction design, design research, computer science and engineering. MAZI scientific partners will work together with artists, activists, and local communities, in a transdisciplinary way, to co-design and experiment with MAZI toolkit for short or long durations in different urban settings like (semi-)public spaces, and urban cooperative projects, toward enabling novel forms of hybrid communication between citizens, which will:

• Protect privacy and freedom of expression
• Affirm differences without exclusion
• Facilitate contact, public discourse and conviviality
• Enable the appropriation of hybrid urban space toward alternative, more sustainable, lifestyles.

Through the participatory design of MAZI toolkit and its different instantiations, MAZI’s consortium seeks to develop novel ways for encouraging the exchange of information between strangers that live in physical proximity without sacrificing their needs for privacy and independence; allowing citizens to express themselves freely and inform each other about issues of common interest; facilitating public discourses within the city, which are inclusive and playful as well; and ultimately appropriating their hybrid space according to their own values and objectives.

However, there are also various social, legal, and political challenges related to the existence of an infrastructure that can be literally owned by citizens and which will enable privacy preserving interactions in physical proximity. To address these challenges, MAZI project invites to the ongoing discussion and also works in close collaboration with different relevant communities in which partners of MAZI are already active members such as:

• Community Wireless Networks community of hackers and technology enthusiasts (SPC, OU, NetHood),
• Offline networks community (NetHood, UdK, SPC),
• Networking research community (UTH, NetHood),
• CAPS community (UTH, NetHood, UdK, UM),
• Communities of activists involved in urban struggles and the right to the city movements (INURA),
• Wider community of hackers and artists being part in festivals like Transmediale, Ouishare, CommonsFest, and the like (SPC, UM, NetHood, UdK),
• Local communities interested in social cohesion (UdK, CommonGrounds),
• Urban interaction design network, UrbanIxD (NU, UdK),
• Cooperative housing and sustainable living movement in Switzerland, Neustart Schweiz (INURA, NetHood).

MAZI’s objective is to act as catalyst that will manage to bring these communities together around the design of the MAZI toolkit and a set of concrete interesting pilot studies. That enables fruitful knowledge exchange and complementary contributions around the common goal of empowering citizens to shape their hybrid urban space.