Urban platforms for smart cities

Dr. Koppenhagen started by explaining that innovation was a key part of SAP's work. The company successfully uses the "Design Thinking" method: employees with different perspectives brainstorm together and provide immediate feedback. This allows the rapid implementation of innovative new ideas as prototypes that are then fine-tuned in further iterations. Dr. Koppenhagen explored three main areas in his lecture: (1) the smart city phenomenon, (2) Urban Platform powered by SAP HANA, and (3) current projects and activities. For example, he explained how developing the mobile city apps business model required data for inhabitants to be linked to data from city officials (for example town halls) and data from the city companies (for example pension schemes and local transport companies) to allow optimisation for a range of processes (for example traffic planning and healthcare provision). SAP HANA provides the technological platform for implementing such complex smart city projects. Dr. Koppenhagen finished by using real-time data from Nanchang to give a clear and simple illustration of how flows of traffic can be analysed to improve traffic jams and speeds.