Category: Makassar

Professor Wangda Zuo Presents at the Symposium on Accelerating Science, Technology, and Circular Innovation in Southeast Asia

Nathan Kurtz on

Lab Professor Wangda Zuo participated in a joint session at the “Symposium on Accelerating Science, Technology and Circular Innovation in Southeast Asia: Smart Cities Innovation, Biotechnology, and Circularity” in Vientiane, Laos. He held this session with our Indonesian collaborators Rachmawan Budiarto from Universitas Gadjah Mada (UGM) and Donny Koerniawan from Institut Teknologi Bandung (ITB) about our Smart Garden Alley and Net Zero Carbon Community (NZCC) projects in Makassar, Indonesia. They presented on July 19, 2024. This symposium was a great opportunity to share ideas with our colleagues in the ASEAN region. It is great progress in renewable energy, waste management, sustainable agriculture, and smart transportation being made by researchers and entrepreneurs.

Prof. Wangda Zuo Speaks at Makassar Low-Carbon City Meeting with Metaverse

Nathan Kurtz on

Prof. Wangda Zuo presented at the Makassar Low-Carbon City with Metaverse. This event was opened by Mayor Mohammad Ramdhan Pomanto and Helen Santiago Fink from US-ASEAN Smart Cities Partnership. Five international experts shared their experiences in achieving low-carbon cities by working on waste, energy, and water systems. The passion for a low-carbon city was evident as more than 1000 participants attended this event in person and online.

We are thankful for the support of the National Science Foundation (NSF) towards our joint US-Indonesian team as we work with the City of Makassar on smart garden alleys over the past three years. We look forward to extending this collaboration to look into net zero carbon cities for Makassar.

SBS Lab Members Visit Makassar, Indonesia

Julia Ho on

This December, Professor Wangda Zuo and undergraduate researcher Nathan Kurtz visited Makassar, Indonesia as part of their collaboration with the city in the NSF-funded Smart Garden Alley Project. During their visit, they met with many project collaborators and community organizers to learn more about Makassar’s ambitious plan to create circular economies – which have the potential to generate less material waste and pollution, increase sustainability, and decrease burdens on marginalized communities – in city alleys. With the help of the city, Makassar residents have improved drainage, created community and hydroponic gardens, and have started fish farms in alleys. Residents have shared the produce, fish, and lobster harvested from these alleys within the neighborhood and have also sold them to cover garden maintenance costs. The SBS Lab is analyzing sensor data with AI to help residents ensure optimal garden conditions.

During their visit, Professor Zuo also talked with researchers from the Institut Teknologi Bandung and the Indonesia University of Education to learn about localized sustainable improvements for Indonesians, including low cost cool roof technologies. We thank everyone involved with the visit for their hospitality, especially Mayor Moh. Romdhan Pomanto, Donny Koerniawan, and Beta Paramita. We look forward to more productive collaboration!

We also thank the National Science Foundation and the US Department of State’s US-ASEAN Smart Cities Partnership for their generous funding.

Picture: visiting Institut Teknologi Bandung and the Indonesia University of Education.

 

Dr. Wangda Zuo a Panelist in NSF’s 2022 Smart and Connected Communities PI Meeting

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Professor Wangda Zuo presented the SBS Lab’s Smart Garden Alley Project, also contributed to by Yizhi Yang, Yingli Lou, and Kathryn Hinkelman, at the National Science Foundation (NSF) 2022 Smart and Connected Communities Principal Investigator (PI) Meeting in Arlington, VA on Oct 11-12. He also served as a panelist in the “International Collaborations in S&CC” conference session.

The associated abstract for the Smart Garden Alley project can be found here.

Mayor of Makassar Interviewed about Smart Garden Alley Project

Julia Ho on

During his visit to Washington DC this summer as part of the US-ASEAN Smart Cities Partnership, Makassar City Mayor Mohammad Ramdhan Pomanto gave an interview about the Smart Garden Alley project, a collaboration between the city and SBS Lab researchers Katy Hinkelman, Yingli Lou, and Yizhi Yang. Mayor Pomanto explained the motives behind the smart garden alley project, its goals to promote sustainability and urban farming, and the benefits it has had on local residents. The SBS Lab is working with Mayor Pomanto and the city to make these garden alleys “smart” through collecting data from sensor networks to inform urban farming practices and increase comfort in garden alleys. To watch the interview, click here.

Related: Penn State’s article about the mayor’s visit.

 

Lab PI, Dr. Wangda Zuo was invited by NCAR to give a presentation titled “Modeling Sustainable and Resilient Citied: Opportunities for Climate Prediction”

Yizhi Yang on

On July 13, 2022, Lab PI, Dr. Wangda Zuo was invited by National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) to give a presentation titled “Modeling Sustainable and Resilient Citied: Opportunities for Climate Prediction”.

This presentation discussed the needs of both short-term local weather and long-term climate prediction for the modeling of sustainable and resilient cities from an energy infrastructure system modeler’s point of view. Dr. Zuo introduced some ongoing DOE and NSF projects in developing open-source models for sustainable and resilient cities which can be applied in various real-world applications, such as reducing energy consumption via net zero energy communities, minimizing building carbon emissions via emission-conscious operation, retrofitting existing buildings for long-term energy and emission reduction, improving outdoor environmental quality via urban farming in Indonesia, and increasing the resilience of our energy systems for an island community in Florida after Hurricane. During the discussion, the importance and the opportunities of having good short-term weather prediction and long-term climate prediction were revealed in the energy infrastructure models in those applications. More information about our research can be found here.

The Smart Garden Alley project received additional financial support from Bank of Indonesia

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Bank of Indonesia has recently provided additional financial support to our Smart Garden Alley project. The new funding will be used for purchasing new equipment and conducting technical trainings. Special thanks goes to Bank of Indonesia for their generous contribution.

Led by Dr. Zuo, our project Modernizing Cities via Smart Garden Alleys with Application in Makassar City is funded by the National Science Foundation and is in collaboration with the US Department of State. This project is to integrate innovations in smart and connected communities to improve garden alleys within the City of Makassar, Indonesia via a synergistic collaboration between US and Indonesian teams and has received many local and international attention since its start.

Photos showing the technical trainings for smart urban farming in garden alley.

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sbs lab

The Smart Garden Alley project’s face-to-face surveys are progressing as planned

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Face-to-face surveys with residents and management team of Garden Alley are progressing as planned. This is an effort of our NSF project Modernizing Cities via Smart Garden Alleys with Application in Makassar City. The local surveys are crucial to our project since they can bring insights directly from local citizens and assist the project team to identify new approaches in improving the current performance of Garden Alley.

Special thanks to our local collaborators, Universitas Gadjah Mada, Institut Teknologi Bandung, Universitas Hasanuddin, and Makassar Government for their vigorous efforts in conducting this phase of the project during these unprecedented times due to Covid-19.

 

 

SBS Lab met with the Mayor of Makassar City, Indonesia, to discuss the recent updates in Smart Garden Alleys project

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On September 28th, Dr. Zuo and Ph.D. student Yizhi attended a web-meeting with Mr. Mohammad Ramdhan Pomanto, Mayor of Makassar City, Indonesia, to discuss the latest updates of our Smart Garden Alleys project. Dr. Zuo introduced the major technologies, such as Internet of Things (IoT) and artificial intelligence (AI), which helps the Garden Alley to become a smart, sustainable, and resilient city. Mr. Pomanto, discussed strategies of Makassar City government to create a World-Class City and to promote Garden Tourism. Other team members from Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, Universitas Gadjah Mada and Institut Teknologi Bandung also reported their progress.

Led by Dr. Zuo, our project Modernizing Cities via Smart Garden Alleys with Application in Makassar City is funded by the National Science Foundation and in collaboration with the US Department of State. The Bank Indonesian also provides some funds for our project. This project is to integrate innovations in smart and connected communities to improve garden alleys within the City of Makassar, Indonesia via a synergistic collaboration between US and Indonesian teams and a close partnership with Makassar City. For more insight about this project and the interested parties, please visit this page.

 

Modernizing Cities via Smart Garden Alleys with Application in Makassar City