11月27日下午，在2021亚洲青年领袖论坛“科技创新与智慧城市”主题论坛中，北京理工大学副教授、电气电子工程师学会高级成员及副主编卡希夫·谢里夫（Kashif Sharif）发表了题为《超级智慧城市中智能技术的核心构成》的主旨演讲。

原文如下：

女士们、先生们、

各位政要、嘉宾以及青年领袖们：

下午好！

我演讲的主题是《超级智慧城市中智能技术的核心构成》。

三天前我坐下来为这次演讲准备幻灯片。我的妻子问我：“你要做什么？你要去哪里？”我说：“我要去参加青年领袖论坛。”然后她说：“你是去给他们上课，还是去和他们聊天？”因为作为一名教授，我的工作就是教学。那真是一个非常好的问题，为此，我更改了所有的演讲内容。

那么，第一个问题是：如何定义智慧城市？是什么让城市变得智慧？它是许多技术的集合吗？技术是否就足以使城市变得智能？当说到智能技术时，智能的真正定义是什么？只是盲目地使用任何使其变得智慧的新技术吗？还是选择一项能够真正为人们提供智慧化服务的技术？它可以让城市变得更高效吗？或者它只是一系列技术中的另一项技术创新？

我们可以让一切变得智慧。从智能设施到智能建筑，我们还可以拥有智能治理。把“智慧”两个字加在事物的前面，就可以让它们变得智慧吗？或者我们应该问的问题是什么让事物变得智慧？这些问题可以一直讨论下去，没有一个确切的答案能回答是什么让事物变得智慧。但真正的问题是实现智慧化的是城市本身还是城市的组成部分？让不同行业变得智能，就能让城市变得智慧吗？又或者，到底是什么才能真正使居住在城市中的人们觉得城市变得智能了？

在我的理解中，智慧城市是一个融合一切的城市，融合了不同行业所拥有的所有技术。技术不仅适用于汽车、航空或医学。实际上，它已融入到我们生活的方方面面，从家门口的智能锁到下电梯的方式，再到我们搭乘交通工具、到达目的地的方式。无论我们在做什么，智慧城市使我们能高效完成。

这就引出了一个问题：我们要整合不同的技术，如何整合？从技术角度来说，我想的是，这项技术要与那项技术进行对话。但如何实现呢？为什么要这么做？一项技术可以独自发展吗？一个行业可以孤立发展吗？不可以。智慧城市中的任何智能元素都应该能够与任何其他元素进行智能对话。新冠疫情防控就是一个很好的例子。我们在很大程度上拥有智能交通系统，并且我们可以让它们更智慧。它们能帮助我们抗击疫情吗？它们能否帮助追踪人们的出行方式以及病毒的传播路径？这就是医疗应用与交通应用的一种融合。除非这两种技术进行对话，互通信息，否则其中单一一项技术不能成为智慧城市的一部分。

那么，智慧城市的挑战或者我说的目标，包括我们需要问的这些问题，或者将来的青年领袖会问到的问题：使用技术就足够了吗？会有多种技术吗？技术在不断变革，每隔几个月就会有一些新的技术名词，最开始是物联网，然后是传感器，再然后是人工智能、机器学习、机器人技术。五个月后，又会有新的东西出现。那么，我们是否应该继续采用这些技术，盲目地使用它们？或者我们应该选择哪种能够真正为人们提供服务的技术？如果要整合，整合到什么程度？我们可以将所有技术整合在一起吗？不能。技术行业的人员都知道，如果制作大型集中式系统，随着时间的推移，它们必然会出现故障，它们经不起时间的考验。解体系统或分布式系统是未来发展的方向。但是对于分布式系统，我们仍然希望它们可以进行协作，互相分享信息。那么，我们可以整合到什么程度呢？

然后是最大的问题——利益相关者的问题。每个行业都是利益相关者，城市居民是利益相关者，政府是利益相关者。有这么多利益相关者，整合就会成为一大挑战。每个人都想利用或优化它们的性能。因此，如何达成共识是一个很大的挑战，这也应该是我们的目标。它们之间的协调，从运输到疫情防控到如何分配食物等，这之间的协调从宏观到微观，然后是隐私和安全这些基本的问题。因此，安全必须成为智慧城市整体解决方案的一部分。

还有时间的考验。系统能够进化吗？现在投入一项技术，五年后过时了，需要更换它吗？能够更换它吗？能完全取代它吗？还是要从头再做？因此，拥有可以持续发展的足够灵活以进行更改的系统，是我们将如何在智慧城市中实现这一目标的重点问题。

鼓励人们使用它也非常关键。例如，我妈妈拥有植物学硕士学位，但她不会使用智能手机，她也不喜欢使用智能手机。因此，当发展成为智慧城市或超级智慧城市时，鼓励人们采用智能技术并使用它是另一个巨大的挑战。

从技术角度来说，从我作为技术研究人员的角度来看，我希望所有技术都具有互操作性，它们彼此无缝对接，它们应该是统一的。从一个点，我们可以控制智慧城市的方方面面。各个独立的系统之间应该有足够的接口，使它们能够相互交换数据，相互协作。城市各个组成部分的各项技术、各个目标和服务，或者说城市内的各个智能系统应该统一起来，共同协作，真正打造一个智慧城市。

下一个问题是：当使用所有智能技术构建智慧城市时，必须集成的或者必须协作化的基本要素是什么？有两个要素：一个是沟通，另一个是数据。不管是什么行业，都需要沟通，需要时时刻刻都在沟通。在现代世界，如果没有沟通，一个孤立的个体无法生存。在我们交流的时候，我们其实在共享数据，我们不是将一架飞机与一列火车进行交联，而是交换数据。因此，必须非常有效地进行数据交换。当我制作这张幻灯片时，我想展现能够实现5G的技术、数据交换的技术。后来我发现有很多技术可以做到这一点。如果要尝试列出所有的技术，这个列表可能无穷无尽。这些是最新的技术，并且还有很多没有列举出来的，其中许多都涉及机器人技术、物联网技术、材料科学技术。这些技术现在都存在，人们会禁不住想使用所有的技术，但这是不可能的。对于通信和数据交换，我们必须首先了解基础设施本身，而不是某项技术。

从智慧城市的角度，从人民或社区的领导者的角度来看，我们需要了解基础设施本身将会变得智能。现在有个概念叫基础设施科技，意思是基础设施不仅是一座桥梁、一列火车或一辆汽车，它本质上是一个数据生成系统，是一个信息系统。因此，在将无生命的物体视为实时动态信息系统的时候，我们就会意识到，它将生成在这些实体之间进行交换的数据。举个最经典的例子，如果要在一条河的两岸之间建一座桥梁，实际上不仅仅是在搭建一个桥梁建筑，也是在为人们过河提供完整的服务。这包括工具的动态传递、自动车道变换，还包括通信能力，即无线网络或无线通信服务、传感器和物联网设备，以实现桥梁的维护，部分维护可能是通过无人机检查进行。因此，基本上是在构建一个完整的解决方案，包含所有这些技术和基础设施实体。这不止于基础设施，还有很多例子。我们可以用所有这些服务为我们提供不同的解决方案，但不应该孤立提供。不应该只使用一种技术，不应该只使用机器人技术、人工智能、机器学习或任何其他技术，技术的发展是非常迅速的。

作为总结，建设智慧城市的三个主要因素包括：首先，必须非常关注目标而不是技术。其次，政府主导非常重要，先是结果导向型的谋划，然后是目标以及这些目标背后的设想。最后，我们才需要考虑技术的问题，哪些技术将用于通信，哪些技术用于数据处理。我研究的领域是区块链分散式账本通信，这项技术本身也存在很多挑战，我就不在此赘述区块链或其他技术。区块链的优势是整合数据，一旦我们理解了这一点，我们就知道区块链可以如何帮助我们实现联合国的可持续发展目标，还有很多其它内容也可以被纳入其中。

同时，人们需要明白，一种技术并不能解决所有问题，在我去年的一篇研究文章中谈到过这个问题。技术从来都不是万金油，今天的人工智能可能与明天的人工智能不同。我们必须明白，只使用一种技术作为智慧城市的一部分，可能不是一个好主意。最终，我们要关注的是智慧城市的利益相关者，这才是真正的挑战所在。区块链系统的标准化，这是领导者应该关心的问题。还有许多技术也值得我们关注，如非IP系统、以软件定义的内容为中心的系统。

总而言之，这是一个很好的平台，帮助青年领袖在为智慧城市选择技术时学会如何提出合适的问题。其实，不仅是一座城市需要智能化，是一群城市需要相互协作，使自身变得超级智能化。

我的演讲到此为止，谢谢大家！


On 27 November, Kashif Sharif, Associate Professor for Research at School of Computer Science & Technology of Beijing Institute of Technology and Senior Member and Associate Editor of Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, delivered a keynote speech at the Technology Innovation and Smart City Forum of the Asia Youth Leaders Forum 2021.

The full speech is as below.

Ladies and gentlemen,

Dignitaries,

Guests,

Young leaders,

Good afternoon. The topic of my talk is technologies needed for super smart cities.

I sat down three days ago to make slides for this talk, and my wife asked me, “What are you going to do? Where are you going?” I said, “It’s a young leaders forum.” She said, “Are you going to teach them or talk to them?” Because, as a professor, I am always teaching. That’s a really good question, which made me change all of my presentation. 

The first question is: How do you define a smart city? What makes it smart? Can you describe it? Is it a collection of many technologies? Are technologies enough or sufficient to make it smart? And then, when you say smart technology, what really is the definition of smart? Just using blindly any new technology or jargon? Or really, you have to pick and choose that this technology is really providing you a service that is going to be smart for the people? Or is it just going to be just another innovation in the long line of technologies? 

You can make everything smart. You can have smart governance to smart amenities to smart buildings. Putting just “smart” with everything really makes it smart? Or, do you have to really ask the real question of what is making it smart? This list can go on and on, and there is no limit to it, what you can make smart. But the real question is this bottom one: is the city smart or its components smart? Does making different industries smart really lead to a smart city? Or do you have to ask some other question that is going to really make a city smart for the people that live in the city. 

In my understanding, a smart city is a city that integrates everything and integrates all those technologies that we have for different industries. Technology is not just there for automotives, aviation, or medicine. Actually, it is integrated into every aspect of your life, starting from your smart lock at the door to the way you get down through the elevator, to the way you get into your vehicle and reach your destination. It doesn't matter what you're doing, it has to be done in an efficient way.

That leads to a question. If you're going to integrate different technologies, how?

From a technical perspective, I start to think this technology is going to talk to that technology. But the fundamental question is how or why. Can technologies just evolve in isolation? Or can industries evolve in isolation? Not really. Any smart element in a smart city should be able to smartly talk to any other element. The biggest example of that, we have seen in COVID-19. We have smart transportation systems to a great extent. We can make them smarter. But can they help fight the pandemic? Can they help track how people travel and how the virus travels with them? That is an integration of medical application with a transportation application. Unless these two technologies talk to each other and interface with each other. In isolation, these technologies cannot become part of a smart city.

Challenges of a smart city, I refer to them as objectives. These are some of the questions that we need to ask or the young leaders in the future would also need to ask. Use of technology, is it the only thing? Will there be more than one technology? Technologies keep on changing. Every few months, we have a new jargon that we started using. Previously, it was IoT. Then we had sensors. Then we have AI, machine learning, and robotics. Five months from now, there will be something new. So, should we just keep on adopting these technologies, using them blindly? Or should we be able to pick which technology will really provide the service to the people? Integration, to what extent? Can we integrate everything with everything else? Not really. Making large centralized system, people in IT know that they are bound to collapse or fail over time. They do not stand the test of time. Disintegrated systems or distributed systems would be the way to go, but with distributed systems, you still want to have collaboration, talking to each other. So, to what extent can we integrate?

And then, the biggest question of the stakeholders. Every industry is a stakeholder. People of the city are stakeholders. The government is a stakeholder. With so many stakeholders, integration becomes a big challenge. Everybody wants to capitalize or optimize their performance. Hence, coming to a common ground becomes a big challenge, and that should be the objective.

Coordination among them, macro to micro level coordination among the transportation to the pandemic control to how we distribute food, etc. And then, privacy and security, fundamental question. Hence, it has to be a part of the overall solution in a smart city.

And the test of time. Will it be evolvable or not? You put in a technology now, five years from now it's obsolete. Will you replace it? Will you be able to replace it? Can you replace it at all? Or are you going to start from scratch again? So having systems that evolve over time and are flexible enough to change is the big question of how will we achieve that in a smart city. 

And then, educating people to actually use it becomes very crucial. For example, my mother holds a master's in botany, but she will never use a smartphone. She does not like to use a smartphone. So, educating people to adopt the technology and then use it becomes another challenge when you get to smart cities or super smart cities.

From a technical perspective, from my perspective as a researcher in technology, what I want is all the technologies to be inter-operable. They talk to each other seamlessly. They should be unified. From one point, I can control any aspect of the smart city. Independent and isolated systems should have enough interfacing among them that they are able to exchange data with each other and cooperate among themselves. And the diversity of technologies and the distinct objectives and services of all of these individual components, or all of these smart systems within the city, should be unified to collaborate to really make a smart city.

Now, the next question that we have is what is the fundamental thing that you have to integrate or mix together or make collaborative when you are building a smart city with all these smart technologies? Two things: one is the communication; the other is the data itself. No matter what the industry is, it has to communicate. It has to communicate all the time. In modern world, if you are not connected, if you are isolated, it won't work. The other thing is when you're communicating, you're communicating data. You're not really communicating one airplane to a train; you are exchanging data. That data exchange has to be done very effectively. When I was making this particular slide, my intention was to put in the actual technology, the technology for 5G, the technology to exchange data. But then I started talking there are so many technologies to do that. If you try to make a list of all the technologies, you can just keep on making this list that is there. These are recent technologies and there can be many, many, many more. Many of them deal with robotics; many of them deal with IoT; many of them deal with material sciences. They're all there, and you can be tempted to use all of them at once. But you cannot. For the communication and data exchange, you really have to first understand the infrastructure itself, not individual technologies.

From a smart city's perspective and from people's or community leaders’, you need to understand the infrastructure is going to be smart itself. There is this concept of Infratech, that the infrastructure is not just a bridge or a train or a car, it's basically a data generation system. It's an information system in itself. When treating that physically inanimate object as live dynamic information system, you can really appreciate that it is going to generate data that is going to be exchanged among those entities. The biggest example could be that if you want to make a bridge between two banks of a river, you're not actually just putting a physical bridge, you are providing a complete service to the people to cross the river. That includes the dynamic passing of the tool to automatic lane shifting to the ability to communicate, or the Wi-Fi or wireless communication services on it to the sensors and IoT devices on the bridge for its maintenance. Part of it could be drone inspection. So, you are basically building a complete solution that will have all those technologies plus the physical infrastructure. It's not just the infrastructure, and the example list can keep on going on. You can have all of these services that provide you with different solutions, but not in isolation. It's not just one technology: it's not just robotics, or AI, or machine learning, or a single element. It is always going to be very quick.

Quickly going over, some of the three major factors in building smart cities would be that there has to be a lot of focus on the goals rather than on the technologies. And then, government initiative becomes very important, starting from the outcome to planning to goals and the thought behind those goals. And then, you can start talking about technologies, that this technology is going to be fit for communication and this for the data processing. My field is blockchain and distributed ledger communication, and there is a lot of challenges within itself. I'm not going to go into too much detail about blockchain or anything. The benefits of blockchain are to integrate the data. Once we start to understand at that level, we can start to understand how blockchain can help us in the development goals of UN. There are many others that can be can be fit into that.

At the same time, one needs to understand that one technology is not a solution to all. This actually is from one of my research articles last year. The key thing is that technology is never a silver bullet. AI today may not be the same AI as tomorrow. So, we have to understand that using just one technology right now as part of the smart city may not be the best idea. The final thought on this is the stakeholders in a smart city. That is where the actual challenge is. Standardization of blockchain systems, that is where the leaders should be concerned about. Finally, there are many other technologies that we should be looking at, e.g., non-IP systems and software defined content centric systems.

I'm just going to summarize that this is a great platform for training the young minds on how to ask the real questions when it comes to picking technologies for the smart city. It is not just a city that has to be smart. It is a group of cities that collaborate with each other to make them super smart. I'll stop over here. Thank you.