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Multimodal Extreme Scale Data Analytics for
Smart Cities Environments

Let's make cities and the citizens' lives better!

Welcome to the second MARVEL Newsletter, the H2020 EU-funded project planning to put Extreme Scale audio and visual data at the service of smart cities, to improve the well being and safety of citizens. The end of this quarter was crucial for our project since our first Work Package was completed, signaling the beginning of the change MARVEL aims to bring in the field of smart cities. WP1 could be described as a strategic review of our objectives and approach and was intended to refine everything we planned a few months ago, to ensure that our solution is still relevant and in line with recent technological and social evolution. Few outcomes that will be released in the upcoming days include the MARVEL Edge-to-Fog-to-Cloud architecture and the experimental protocol, that presents the real-life societal trial cases in the smart cities of Malta, Trento, and Novi Sad.

Our consortium, consisting of 17 Partners, worked hard to have everything in place and defined for the research to start and for the experiments to be ready to be performed. In the meantime, we have already started spreading awareness regarding our project and our objectives, collecting feedback and ideas from the market and the experts in the field but also from the citizens themselves using our social media platforms. Take a look on a few of the highlights of these last 4 months and make sure follow us online if you are not already, for more immediate updates!

A Reminder of MARVEL objectives here

Highlights of last 4 months

Our second scientific publication!

The paper “Improving the Accuracy of Early Exits in Multi-Exit Architectures via Curriculum Learning” was presented at the IJCNN 2021 by the Aarhus University team.

Read more here >>

Collection & Analysis of Experimental Data!

MARVEL’s second public deliverable documents the process to be followed during the project for the collection and analysis of the experimental data. It is available at Zenodo.

Read more here >>

MARVEL at the "Smart Region" event of Veneto!

The Smart Region initiative aims to stimulate discussion between the Public Authorities and the market on the subject of data management for the governance of local communities. MARVEL was showcased by the "Smart City" office of the Municipality of Trento.

Read more here >>

MARVEL at Data Week 2021!

MARVEL participated in two of the workshops of the Data Week 2021, the spring gathering of the European Big Data Value and Industrial AI research and innovation community. The material we share in one of the workshops is available in Zenodo.

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MARVEL at WoWMoM!

The 22nd IEEE International Symposium on a World of Wireless, Mobile and Multimedia Networks (WoWMoM) targets researchers and practitioners interested in all aspects of wireless, mobile, and multimedia pervasive communications. A panel discussion focused on Edge computing was moderated by the MARVEL Project Coordinator and revealed a lot of interesting insights.

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MARVEL at Forum PA!

Forum PA is the most important national event in Italy, dedicated to the theme of Public Authorities modernization, innovation, digital transformation, green transition and social inclusion. MARVEL was showcased by the Municipality of Trento.

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MARVEL at AI nell sicurezza urbana!

The AI nella sicurezza urbana a Trento event was organized by the Google Developers Group in Trento. The event was focused on urban security and a targeted audience with some AI affinity. MARVEL was presented by the Municipality of Trento.

Read more here >>

MARVEL upcoming deliverables!

By the end of this month, 3 more deliverables will be submitted to the European Commission for review, two of which will be available to the public. Take a look at our list of deliverables list to see what's coming up and follow our community at Zenodo for getting early access to them!

Read more here >>

Check MARVEL's latest news here

MARVEL Blog!

We have been blogging since the beginning of our project and so far it has led to very interesting discussions! We are happy to have an open dialogue with everyone interested in and/or influenced by MARVEL and consider the thoughts you share. We are looking forward to hearing more often from you not only about the topics we touch, but also about anything around the objectives of MARVEL. See our latest blogs below:

Artificial Intelligence and Ethics in EU-funded projects!

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is the aim or the enabler in many ongoing EU-funded projects and upcoming Calls for proposals. What are the human and ethical implications of AI and its impact on various research areas? This issue is addressed on different levels within the EU – from policy, over legal and regulatory to research and development.

Read more here >>

Smart Region: The city of Trento!

With its 120,000 inhabitants, Trento is the third-largest city located in the heart of the Alps and the capital of the Province of Trento. It is also one of the IEEE Smart Cities of the world. With more than 600 video cameras and other sensors used for the city and its departments’ surveillance, Trento is the best place for testing the MARVEL framework.

Read more here >>

Smart Events: Crowd behavior monitoring in the city of Novi Sad!

Novi Sad is the 2nd largest city in Serbia and the capital city of Vojvodina province. The experiment in the city will be performed by UNS experiment and will support the other two pilots (Malta and Trento) by providing a specific small scale use-case and data for further processing. The crowd classification will be performed based on drone and ground recordings.

Read more here >>

Automated social distance estimation in smart cities!

Current technologies can greatly aid the process of monitoring and ensuring the health and safety of citizens, especially when seamlessly integrated within the context of smart cities. Considering a 3^rd or 4^th (in some countries) wave of COVID-19 cases is anticipated in different places, do you believe that such technologies could be useful and/or well received by citizens?

Read more here >>

Greenroads Malta and MARVEL!

How does a startup get involved in a EU funded project focusing on Multimodal Extreme Scale Data Analytics for Smart Cities Environments? The Greenroads Malta team shares their experience of being part of the MARVEL Project!

Read more here >>

Ethics Advisory Board in Horizon Europe: Functions & Role!

There are various approaches to ethical issues. While some of these issues invite simple solutions, other demand complex, multilayered solutions. Regardless of the favored approach, the actions of the Ethics Advisory Board (EAB) and its Ethics Advisors (EA) must be carried out with the best interests of the general public and civil society in perspective.

Read more here >>

Check all MARVEL's blogs here

Upcoming Events

August 30-September 3, 2021

MARVEL @ INTERSPEECH 2021 - MARVEL will be represented by at least one partner at the international conference in Brno, Czech Republic. Tampere University will present the scientific paper: "Automatic Analysis of the Emotional Content of Speech in Daylong Child-Centered Recordings from a Neonatal Intensive Care Unit".

September 20-22, 2021

MARVEL @ BalcanCom2021 - MARVEL will participate in the Fourth International Balkan Conference on Communications and Networking, taking place in Novi Sad, Serbia. We will be presenting the project's paper: "MARVEL: Multimodal Extreme Scale Data Analytics for Smart Cities Environments".

This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation program under grant agreement No 957337.