Co-creation, Technology and Citizenship: FUTUREGION SUMMERCAMP by Ubiwhere, a Summer School for the Future of Cities

For five days, the University of Aveiro hosted a diverse and interdisciplinary community that came together to share knowledge, explore technological solutions and debate innovative practices with direct application in the public and business sectors. As a co-creation and experience-sharing event, FUTUREGION SUMMERCAMP brought together more than sixty participants over the week and welcomed representatives from various municipal teams from the north and south of the country, including Fafe, Leiria, Guimarães, CIM Algarve, Matosinhos, Ourém, Maia and Gouveia. Undergraduate and PhD students from areas such as Engineering, Smart and Sustainable Cities and Biology also signed up and took part in this summer school, reinforcing the multidisciplinary and collaborative nature of the event.

The event’s programme has been specially designed to provide participants with a practical experience, with emphasis on intensive practical sessions focused on exploring and using the Urban Management Platform; technical masterclasses led by experts in the areas of territorial innovation and digital transformation; sharing of experiences and networking between professionals from the public, academic and business sectors and discussion of real use cases with direct application in municipal contexts. FUTUREGION SUMMERCAMP kicked off with a welcome session by the Vice-Rector of the University of Aveiro, João Veloso, and the co-CEO of Ubiwhere, Nuno Ribeiro. The main theme of the first day’s programme was ‘Sustainable and Intelligent Planning’. It featured sessions full of innovation and the presence of nationally renowned experts: Miguel Castro Neto (NOVA-IMS) with the Masterclass ‘Smart and Sustainable Cities’, Paula Teles (MPT) with the Masterclass ‘Intelligence at the Service of Humanity’, Anabela Ribeiro (University of Coimbra) with the Masterclass ‘Active Mobility in the Future of Cities’ and the Session ‘Intermunicipal Intelligence and Sustainability’ with Nuno Cunha (Associação Pentágono).

On the second day, the theme was ‘Urbanism and Interoperability’, with the participation of national and international technology experts and municipal and territorial management professionals, where we were able to learn about real cases of digital innovation in Portuguese cities: Mário Coelho (CCG/ZGDV) with the Masterclass ‘BIM in smart city management’; Marco Lima Carvalho and Carla Pires (GAIURB) in the Session ‘BIM - The practical case of Vila Nova de Gaia’ and Lydia Montadon (FIWARE) with a session presenting FIWARE’s technological contribution to smart city projects.

The third day of FUTUREGION SUMMERCAMP was centred on the theme of ‘Data and Civic Protection’ with inspiring and dynamic sessions where all the participants explored ways of making territories more resilient, digital and citizen-centred. The programme included sessions such as ‘Smart Data Models’ with André Duarte, Head of Tech at Ubiwhere, ‘Cybersecurity and data protection’ with António Rio Costa (National Cybersecurity Centre) and ‘Reinventing democracy in cities’ with José Carlos Mota (University of Aveiro) with a group work dynamic where all participants contributed strategies for reinventing democracy from cities, neighbourhoods and public space.

‘Data-Based Management’ was the theme of the fourth day of FUTUREGION SUMMERCAMP, a day in which digital solutions were presented, such as Ubiwhere’s Urban Management Platform and sessions such as the ‘Connectivity and Data’ Masterclass with Isabel Borges and Luís Miguel Silva (CONNECT5 - Associação TICE. PT), ‘Analytics Platform’ with Ricardo Machado from Ubiwhere where he presented the functionalities of an urban management platform; ‘Municipal Strategies for Data Management’ with Ricardo Machado and Pedro Teixeira (Guimarães Municipality) and Luís Lopes (Leiria Municipality) and the co-creation session centred on Digital Twins and led by Ana Pereira, Head of R&I at Ubiwhere.

The final day focused on the theme of ‘Unified Digital Experience’ with sessions on innovation and the dissemination of digital solutions for smart territories and their verticals. This morning’s programme included the Masterclass ‘Mastering IoT Orchestration with Cloud-Native Technologies’ with Filipe Sousa and José Costa (Fraunhofer Portugal AICOS) and the session ‘Verticals for Smart Territories’ with Mário Almeida (Wavecom) and Telmo Fernandes (Digiwest). In the afternoon, all the participants went to Ubiwhere for a ‘Playground Tour’ where they learnt about solutions from various Ubiwhere partners and products such as the Digital Nervous System Testbed and the Urban Management Platform. The day ended with the presentation of participation certificates.

This initiative, successfully promoted by Ubiwhere, provided an immersive, practice-oriented experience, combining technological innovation with the development of skills with real-world application. For a week, participants had direct contact with digital tools that support decision-making in strategic areas such as mobility, the environment, urban planning and the management of public services, helping to accelerate digital transformation in the public and business sectors.