Dr Stephane Dreher, Senior Manager CCAM and Blockchain, delivered a lecture at the University of Mons on Wednesday 16 March on Connected, Cooperative & Automated Mobility (CCAM) in Europe and related ERTICO activities. The lecture was part of the Sustainable Mobility in Cities course, which is organised in the frame of the international SMACCS Master’s programme.
Dr Stephane Dreher introduced key notions and concepts of CCAM illustrated by practical examples from ERTICO initiatives in the field. He followed this up with a deep dive into some of the main challenges for R&I and deployment of CCAM in Europe, including infrastructure support, regulation, European coordination and harmonisation, human factors and societal aspects. The interactive lecture triggered interesting exchanges with the students, in particular on safety and societal impacts of automated mobility.
Disseminating the knowledge and experience that the ERTICO partnership has acquired throughout its work on projects and innovation platforms falls under the scope of the ERTICO Academy initiative. The Academy provides training to both ERTICO and non-ERTICO partners on a number of topics (also tailor-made) and aspires to bring a clear understanding and awareness of the benefits of ITS for all the mobility stakeholders. Predominately focussed on public authorities (cities and Ministries in Europe), the ERTICO Academy has given training in a number of cities in Turkey. “Partnering with MSc programmes is also creating the bridge between the operational and strategic level of ITS and academia, providing the opportunity for ERTICO to share practical experience and exchange with the next generation of experts on expectations and needs for the future mobility,” said Dr. Dreher.
ERTICO, since June 2020, is an Associate partner of the SMACCs MSc in Smart Cities and Communities which is an Erasmus Mundus Joint Master Degree (EMJMD) programme supported by the European Union and designed to educate the next generation of engineers and researchers in Smart Cities and Communities by learning best practice from Europe’s most prestigious universities and by fostering collaboration with industry through research.
The ERTICO Innovation and Deployment Department have already hosted a SMACCs MSc candidate, Orestis Trasanidis, who was seconded by the City of Thessaloniki to ERTICO during the period January 2021- June 2021. He worked on building the tool for the City Moonshot survey results (Phase I) as part of his MSc Thesis under the co-supervision between the Hellenic International University of Greece (HIC) and Dr. Johanna Tzanidaki, Director Innovation and Deployment at ERTICO. ‘The link between the academic community and innovation in the field of ITS is very important to the ERTICO Partnership and we provide the opportunity for secondment of colleagues to all our ERTICO partners as a win-win: our partners have a colleague working with the ERTICO team and acquiring knowledge and skills at a European organisation while we have the opportunity to better understand our members,’ said Dr. Tzanidaki.
For more information on the ERTICO Academy and the ERTICO Secondment scheme, please contact Cassandre de Froidmont: c.defroidmont@mail.ertico.com
