In the second episode of the 5GMETA Partner Interviews, we have an in-depth talk with consortium members UNIMORE and  ICOOR, who as well as being ERTICO Partner, is one of the most active members of the project consortium.

ICOOR (Interuniversity Consortium for Optimization and Operations Research) is an Inter-University Consortium interested in fostering research with the aim to apply well-known Optimization & Operations Research approaches and techniques to resolve concrete problems encountered on a daily basis, such as traffic management issues and logistic optimisation. ICOOR also partners ERTICO in projects such as 5G-LOGINNOV, FENIX, eCharge4Drivers, and takes part in other EU projects such as MobiDataLab and OLGA.

The HiPeRT Lab (High-Performance Real-Time Laboratory) from UNIMORE (University of Modena & Reggio-Emilia, which is also part of the ICOOR Consortium) brings on board more than 40 researchers developing algorithmic and software solutions through the whole technological stack, from low-level hardware profiling to real-time operating systems & hypervisors, parallel programming models and Artificial Intelligence/Machine Learning algorithms. During the past years, the Lab has acquired a strong expertise in this field by applying its knowledge to various embedded systems and use cases within the context of industrial and European research projects such as Hercules, Prystine, Class, and SECREDAS, and by focusing more specifically on Automotive & ADAS Systems that are a concrete example of High-Performance Real-Time system.

The 5GMETA Open Platform, whose first release will be available later this year, aims to leverage car-captured data to stimulate and facilitate innovative products and services while feeding them the data in a configurable manner. As a result, 5GMETA will empower the automotive ecosystem from industry players to new entrants, granting access to interoperable car-captured data. With a consortium of 12 partners, 5GMETA is continuing the work to develop the best methods to make use of a very valuable set of car-captured data exploiting the features provided by 5G networks. During the first year of the project, ICOOR & UNIMORE have been actively involved in the project from a technical and non-technical point of view, through participation in all facets, excluding the project management. Moreover, they are leading the Road Safety and Awareness use-case as well and have taken on the responsibility to evaluate and validate the 5GMETA Platform along with its use-cases that will demonstrate its potential.

What prompted ICOOR & UNIMORE to join the 5GMETA consortium?

ICOOR has been involved in various research projects connected to 5GMETA, such as 5G-LOGINNOV, which is from the same call, as well as MobiDataLab. 5GMETA is a project that really falls within the scope of interest of ICOOR: Optimization and Operations Research applied to Road Traffic Management & Smart Mobility & Data Sharing.

As for UNIMORE, the HiPeRT Lab has acquired solid experience related to automotive & ADAS systems through the recent years. Moreover, the current convergence between automated & connected vehicles under the umbrella of CCAM means a growing interest for connected vehicles and for the exploitation of automotive data, which will facilitate the development of autonomous vehicles.

Latest updates from ICOOR & UNIMORE

In this period, the focus of ICOOR & UNIMORE has been and will be mainly on the implementation aspects related to both the Use Case 3 and the 5GMETA Platform. In the meantime, the review meeting preparations have started and we are trying to identify what will be demonstrated for the first release of the 5GMETA Platform & use cases at project pilot sites that are located in Spain, France and Italy. ICOOR & UNIMORE are also leading the development of the project exploitation and commercialisation plan.

Next steps in the project

ICOOR & UNIMORE are currently focusing on the incoming project milestones related to the release of the Platform as well as the initial project demonstrations along with the mid-project report which are very important milestones that require due diligence from all partners.

Looking ahead beyond the project

Based on the field of interest of both ICOOR & UNIMORE, it is only natural that the project’s results will be used in different but still complementary ways. For ICOOR, it means increasing its knowledge and experience in the field of Traffic Management & Smart Mobility, whereas for UNIMORE, it will help with the transitioning from ADAS & autonomous vehicle to the field of CCAM where automotive data should be formatted accordingly and exchanged based on current standards like ETSI C-ITS.  They also wish to exploit the “network effect” generated by the project, willing to improve collaboration with old and new partners.

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Do you wish to read the full interview? You can do so by clicking here.

5GMETA project is co-funded by the EU’s H2020 Research and Innovation Programme under Grant Agreement No 957360.