Urban infrastructures have traditionally been mono-functional: water, sewage, and electricity are notable examples. Embedded with digital technologies, urban infrastructures have the potential to communicate with one another and become multi-functional platforms that integrate data gathering and actuation cycles. In this paper, we focus on public lighting infrastructures. Despite the technological development of lights, including LED technology, streetlights have been primarily treated as a mono-functional infrastructure. Based on case studies, we discuss the potential of reimagining streetlight infrastructure, and advance some initial proposals that focus on sensing and actuation cycles, which could transform this pervasive infrastructure into a digital urban platform.

 

Re-Imagining Streetlight Infrastructure as a Digital Urban Platform
Ricardo Álvarez, Fábio Duarte, Alaa AlRadwan, Michelle Sit & Carlo Ratti
Journal of Urban Technology
Volume 24, 2017 – Issue 2

Pages 51-64 | Published online: 10 Apr 2017
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/10630732.2017.1285084

 

Source: www.tandfonline.com

Historically, health has played an important role in network research, and vice versa (Valente, 2010). This intersection has contributed to how we understand human health as well as the development of network concepts, theory, and methods. Throughout, dynamics have featured prominently. Even when limited to static methods, the emphasis in each of these fields on providing causal explanations has led researchers to draw upon theories that are dynamic, often explicitly. Here, we elaborate a variety of ways to conceptualize the relationship between health and network dynamics, show how these possibilities are reflected in the existing literature, highlight how the articles within this special issue expand that understanding, and finally, identify paths for future research to push this intersection forward.

 

The coevolution of networks and health

DAVID R. SCHAEFER, JIMI ADAMS
Network Science, Volume 5 / Issue 3, August 2017, pp 249 – 256
doi: 10.1017/nws.2017.24

Source: www.cambridge.org

Two generalizations of the traveling salesman problem in which sites change their position in time are presented. The way the rank of different trajectory lengths changes in time is studied using the rank diversity. We analyze the statistical properties of rank distributions and rank dynamics and give evidence that the shortest and longest trajectories are more predictable and robust to change, that is, more stable.

 

Trajectory stability in the traveling salesman problem
Sergio Sánchez, Germinal Cocho, Jorge Flores, Carlos Gershenson, Gerardo Iñiguez, Carlos Pineda

Source: arxiv.org

In a world, where Artificial Intelligence systems will decide about increasingly many issues, including life and death, how should autonomous systems faced with ethical dilemmas decide, and what is required from humans?

 

An Extension of Asimov’s Robotics Laws

Jan Nagler, Jeroen van den hoven, Dirk Helbing

Source: www.researchgate.net

In the current hyperconnected era, modern Information and Communication Technology (ICT) systems form sophisticated networks where not only do people interact with other people, but also machines take an increasingly visible and participatory role. Such Human-Machine Networks (HMNs) are embedded in the daily lives of people, both for personal and professional use. They can have a significant impact by producing synergy and innovations. The challenge in designing successful HMNs is that they cannot be developed and implemented in the same manner as networks of machines nodes alone, or following a wholly human-centric view of the network. The problem requires an interdisciplinary approach. Here, we review current research of relevance to HMNs across many disciplines. Extending the previous theoretical concepts of socio-technical systems, actor-network theory, cyber-physical-social systems, and social machines, we concentrate on the interactions among humans and between humans and machines. We identify eight types of HMNs: public-resource computing, crowdsourcing, web search engines, crowdsensing, online markets, social media, multiplayer online games and virtual worlds, and mass collaboration. We systematically select literature on each of these types and review it with a focus on implications for designing HMNs. Moreover, we discuss risks associated with HMNs and identify emerging design and development trends.

 

Understanding Human-Machine Networks: A Cross-Disciplinary Survey

Milena Tsvetkova et al.

ACM Computing Surveys
Volume 50 Issue 1, April 2017
Article No. 12

Source: dl.acm.org