The UA Smart University project that manages resources using AI, awarded the Socinfo Award

   ALICANTE, 31 Oct. (EUROPA PRESS) -

The University of Alicante (UA) has received the Socinfo Digital Award in the Efficient Interoperability category for the Smart University project, which aims to efficiently manage campus resources, infrastructure and services through the use of Artificial Intelligence ( AI).

The award was given by the Digital Information Society Magazine to a project led by professors from the Department of Information Technology and Computing of the UA Francisco Maciá and José Vicente Berná, as reported by the academic institution this Tuesday in a statement.

Smart University Universidad de Alicante - SmartUA was born in 2014 with the aim of efficiently managing the resources, infrastructure and services of the institution. With the "intensive and sustainable" application of Information Technologies, a system capable of integrating and processing information from any data source has been generated.

In fact, the initiative has evolved into a collaborative project involving nine Spanish universities, within the framework of the UniDigital project.

Currently, the Smart University project proposes the creation of a system that integrates and centralizes all the information from the different types of sensorization devices and data generation systems that a university may have.

This information can be visualized, analyzed and processed using AI techniques, with the aim of facilitating decision-making and being able to make "more efficient" management of its resources, infrastructure and services.

The new platform will be based entirely on Open Source technology, supported by robust developer communities, such as the Apache Foundation, and whose application is supported by its use in the largest companies in the world, such as Linkedin, Netflix or Spotify. The final objective is to have a platform that will be available to all Spanish universities, according to Francisco Maciá.

Developed together with the Vice-Rector for Digital Transformation of the University of Alicante, SmartUA has a platform integrated into the virtual campus, through which it offers analytics and data transformation services to help in decision-making and effective management. The tool is available to the entire university community: governing bodies, PDI, PAS and students for free and open access.

"Through the platform, the university is able to collect data from different sources of information such as data on the real-time use of network infrastructures, electrical consumption, information on the use or consumption of vehicle charging stations. electric or plug-in hybrids," explained the UA professor.

In addition, it includes the agenda of events, courses and official events, reports on incidents on campus, information on the rooms and places where UA staff or students have visited, as well as sensorized data capable of obtaining climatic variables or measurements. on air quality or gases, among others, he added.

The project also has several scholarships to involve master's students who "can add value" in the analysis and exploitation of data such as the Master in Data Science or the Master in Cybersecurity. "This also offers a valuable learning opportunity to students on campus," Maciá highlighted.

"The democratization of information undoubtedly helps the population to understand the decision-making of the governing bodies and verify through their own means the correct evolution and effects of said decisions, which improves the governance of the institution, its credibility and the makes it more participatory," he stressed.