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Luís Seca, Pedro Almeida and Germano Veiga

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"We are now living exponential times. This statement is widely known in the context of globalisation based on Information and Communication Technologies, but it is also applied in scientific research.", Luís Pessoa

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"All I can say is that a mathematician who ventures in engineering combines the best of both worlds!", Ana Filipa Sequeira

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INESC TEC creates an app that promotes intelligent refuse collection

INESC TEC creates an app that promotes intelligent refuse collection

How is it possible to make refuse collection more efficient and economical? Three researchers from INESC TEC’s Information and Computer Graphics Systems Unit (USIG) are trying to provide an answer to that question with the CleanMyCity. This is an app to manage refuse collection, developed as part of APSAT, a European project that wants to demonstrate the efficiency of innovative satellite services, allowing communities to promote develop sustainably.

The app is almost concluded and has already been presented at several events. More recently, the app was presented in Madrid as part of the workshop “Promoting tourism through satellite Technologies applications” at FITUR, the International Tourism Trade Fair in Spain.

The CleanMyCity, which can be used in urban centres or rural areas, allows citizens to report (in real or deferred time) the condition of collective waste containers and or if they are full. With the app, citizens can also notify authorities on abandoned objects. The objective is to make bodies responsible for refuse collection aware of real situations so that they can collect waste more effectively, reduce costs, and ultimately provide a better service.

The app has three components: a mobile and a web application and a back office. The first two have already been concluded. “We are now working on the back office and the apps are being tested with a restricted number of users, but the next step is to conduct real field tests”, Lino Oliveira reveals. The researcher has been working on this project together with Rui Barros and Jorge Daniel Santos (both from USIG), and Domingos Silva, from the CIM do Ave - Comunidade Intermunicipal do Ave (Intermunicipal Community of the Ave Region).

Other than the CleanMyCity, project APSAT also encompasses other projects that focus, for instance, on reducing greenhouse gas emissions, on collecting information to protect the environment or on creating new services. The aim is to demonstrate the usefulness of satellite services and how citizens can benefit directly and indirectly from these new technologies that will improve their quality of life and the environment.