The Vision of Taichung as a Smart City Starts with Cross-Boundary Governance under Joint Efforts from Public and Private Sectors in Data Analytics

To integrate private resources and technologies and to assist city planning with digitalization, the Taichung City Government, ASUS Cloud, and the National Center for High-Performance Computing (NCHC) are joining forces in the Big Data analytics and validation of the correlation between factors in relation to air quality and vehicle flows at major interactions of Taichung City. The signing ceremony for the MoU (Memorandum of Understanding) was held on September 28, 2020 by Mayor Lu Shiow-yen, ASUS COO Hsieh Ming-chieh, and NCHC Senior Research Fellow Lin Fang-pang. This initiative demonstrates the spirit of co-creation between government agencies and private companies.

(left) ASUS COO Hsieh Ming-chieh, (middle) Taichung Mayor Lu Shiow-yen, and (right) Senior Research Fellow Lin Fang-pang of NCHC signed the MoU

Mayor Lu Shiow-yen indicated that digitalization and data analytics have become an integral part in the information and Internet era. Government agencies should understand how to design policies addressing the public’s needs and enhancing service quality. Take the recent Shopping Festival for example, both registered amounts and app downloads hit high numbers this year. The Taichung City Government also learned from experience and expanded its data analytics in areas such as spending hot zones, popular shops, and favorites among petty bourgeoisie. It is hoped that the findings can serve as a reference to improve the events planning in 2021. Mayor Lu Shiow-yen commented that the use of Big Data by city governments was mostly domain-specific. This validation project broke the mold. The Research Development and Evaluation Commission, Department of Transportation and Department of Environmental Protection started this cross-function and multi-disciplinary by inviting the NCHC and ASUS Cloud to work together. The purpose is to leverage their extensive experience and technology in order to integrate Big Data and artificial intelligence to resolve day-to-day problems for the public.

Director Wu Huang-sheng of the Research, Developments and Evaluation Commission (of Taichung City Government) provided further explanation about the project. The Taichung City Government has deployed many sensors for air quality and vehicle flow speeds. Many studies have been conducted on the environment and traffic planning. However, the mix-and-match of data from different functions for analytics has not been attempted much. The Department of Transportation and Department of Environmental Protection put together a joint taskforce by pulling Taiwan Computing Cloud (TWCC) and Data Analysis Service (DAS) resources from the NCHC and Smart City Cloud Platform (SCCP) developed by ASUS Cloud and NCHC. With the SCCP serving as the technical framework for data integration and analysis of POC(Proof of Concept), the analytical findings will provide a reference for government in the design and adjustment of relevant measures. It is also hoped that this project spearheads the establishment of cross-departmental mechanism for data analytics and application, so that policy planning is comprehensive, relevant and down-to-earth. 

Finally, Mayor Lu Shiow-yen thanked and acknowledged both parties for the initiative as the MoU signing not only validated the technical feasibility but also showcased the team spirit based on mutual trust and benefits between the public and the private sectors. A special thanks was for the dedication and assistance from NCHC and ASUS Cloud, so that city government services may align better with the trends and expectations from the digital generation.

Participants in the signing ceremony