Australian Smart City Initiatives Continue to Shine in IDC Asia Pacific Awards

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IDC Asia/Pacific has announced the winners for the IDC Smart City Asia Pacific Awards (SCAPA) 2017. Out of 14 categories, Australian initiatives have won awards in two categories: Education and Land use & Environmental management (Farming). Previously, in 2016, NSW eHealth and AgTech start up The Yield had grabbed the awards in the healthcare and agriculture categories respectively as outstanding smart city initiatives.

Senior Industry Analyst Jaideep Thyagarajan said: "Australian Smart City initiatives have a similar set of objectives like sustainable growth, improved experience, operational efficiency and better use of data. In the grand scheme of things, a smart city initiative is never just about the technology. It is about excellence in vision and execution. And most importantly, the impact the initiative has had. Our congratulations to the winners from Australia. This award is an eloquent testimony to their exceptional problem-solving abilities. It is a recognition of their efforts to achieve sustainable economic and environmental development."

In summary, the Australian winners and categories are as follows:

• UTS Data Arena in the Education category: By leveraging some of its IT capabilities, UTS built a 3D, 360-degree data visualization room called the Data Arena, which is housed in the revamped Faculty of Engineering and IT, with six projectors placed around curved walls that form a round drum shape. The facility is intended to help researchers and data scientists intuitively explore complex data sets meticulously.
• Sundrop Farms in the category of Land Use and Environmental Management: By positioning itself as a formidable player in driving supply of water-smart food, Sundrop Farms is the first to develop a full-fledged commercial-scale operation using hydroponic technology in Australia. Hydroponic farming requires neither soil nor sunlight. On the contrary, crops are grown in trays containing nutrient-rich water and photosynthesized by low energy LEDs.

Thyagarajan continued to say, "It's an extraordinary achievement and we look forward to nominating more cutting-edge smart city innovation projects next year."

Now in its third year, SCAPA recognises the most outstanding smart city projects in Asia/Pacific excluding Japan (APeJ) across a total of 14 functional smart city award categories. This year 18 projects were named as the best in Asia/Pacific excluding Japan (APeJ) chosen from a total of 46 finalists across APeJ.

IDC Government Insights' team went through a rigorous six-phased benchmarking exercise to determine the Top Smart City projects for 2016-17. These included identifying and cataloging the key Smart City projects in Asia/Pacific by IDC Analysts across APeJ (25%), online voting to determine public opinion (50%), and assessment by an International Advisory Council (25%).

About IDC

International Data Corporation (IDC) is the premier global provider of market intelligence, advisory services, and events for the information technology, telecommunications, and consumer technology markets. With more than 1,100 analysts worldwide, IDC offers global, regional, and local expertise on technology and industry opportunities and trends in over 110 countries. IDC's analysis and insight helps IT professionals, business executives, and the investment community to make fact-based technology decisions and to achieve their key business objectives. Founded in 1964, IDC is a wholly-owned subsidiary of International Data Group (IDG), the world's leading media, data and marketing services company.