Students have developed innovative urban mobility solutions in Šibenik and Liepāja

The school brought together students from various fields, including civil engineering, architecture, geography, spatial planning, transportation, sociology, landscape architecture, business tourism, social and cultural anthropology, economics, robotics, and electrical engineering. The interdisciplinarity of the teams, combined with the international component, resulted in highly interactive, creative days and innovative solutions to the 5 challenges that were predefined with the help of the Cities Šibenik and Liepāja. The students’ hard work during the school was guided and mentored by a total of 15 lecturers and mentors.

On the first day of the school, participants jointly mapped out the challenges and common characteristics of coastal cities. The mentors then gave brief thematic presentations and introduced the urban challenges. The purpose of the presentations was to familiarize students with the concepts of energy, green and digital transitions, climate neutrality, and the social challenges of coastal cities. There was also an overview of the concept of mobility as a service. At the end of the day, each team created a work plan that they applied for the rest of the school.

The second day of the summer school began with a workshop on innovative approaches to mobility, featuring examples that were created, tested, and implemented in European cities. The focus was on accessibility, electrification, route optimization, public transportation use, and collaboration with citizens. Using Slovenia as a case study, students learned how to achieve behavioral change in mobility and how to apply this approach to coastal cities. Afterward, the students dove into group work, collecting new and shaping their original ideas, and began developing their solutions. This was followed by a workshop where participants shaped their innovative ideas using the SCAMPER method. They learned how to improve existing products and services while aligning them with the needs of end users. The afternoon discussion took place in a different setting – on Zlarin Island, with a visit to the Croatian Coral Centre.

The third day was entirely dedicated to group work with the help of mentors, while the fourth day began with presentations on the smart marina and the Bikademy app. The rest of the day was spent perfecting the teams’ solutions and presentations, which were showcased on the final day of the school at a roundtable titled “Green Transition of Coastal Cities.”

Here is an overview of the final student solutions:

• SEBENICO – multimodal mobility for tourists and residents
• Enhancing climate resilience through urban climate shelters
•  Urban Navigator – multimodal mobility for tourists and residents
• Climate-resilient Šibenik – mitigating the effects of climate change in coastal cities
• Enhancing Tourist Mobility and Accessibility in Liepāja Seaside Park
• Inclusive Šibenik: EasyPath Navigator
• ŠiBay: Celan Waves – Green Coastal Mobility

Through the joint contributions of all team members, these innovative, applicable, and detailed solutions were created. In the end, the students were satisfied with the experience of working in a new interdisciplinary environment, where they successfully applied the knowledge gained at their faculties and enriched it with insights from other disciplines. They learned a lot about transportation, planning, and the green transition in coastal cities, as well as teamwork.

View the photo gallery HERE.

More about the “Green Transition of Coastal Cities” conference can be found HERE.

Learn more about the REAL RIS project HERE.

The summer school is part of the activities of the RESPONSIBLE EDUCATED AGILE LEADING RIS project, funded by the EIT Urban Mobility initiative of the European Institute of Innovation and Technology (EIT), a body of the European Union.