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M-Sec partners in Fujisawa: a look into project progress, Mount Fuji, and 2020 Olympics!

M-Sec partners in Fujisawa: a look into project progress, Mount Fuji, and 2020 Olympics!

On 9-11 April 2019, the universities, research centres and tech companies working together on the M-Sec project met in Fujisawa, Japan.

This was the first time that the European partners had travelled to Japan for the project, closing the circle of the partners visiting each other’s corners of the world. You can read about when the Japanese partners visited Europe in our previous news article.

At this 3-day face-to-face meeting, the partners gathered in Fujisawa City Hall to discuss the progress so far for the M-Sec project and what the next steps will be (complete with a beautiful view!).

View from the Fuijsawa City Hall: spot Mount Fuji!

Day One saw a run-down of the uses cases (pilot tests) which will take place in Fujisawa, Japan, and Santander, Spain. An interesting discussion was held on how the cross-border (both Santander and Fujisawa) uses cases will be managed, given that these two are the most complex to develop. Firstly, creating a marketplace of IoT devices is one of the long-term goals of M-Sec project. It aims to be an open market of applications, data and services that will facilitate the exchange of value and information between IoT devices and people through virtual currencies. The second use case, using citizens as sensors, will allow citizens across both locations to give real-time feedback to authorities on their surroundings, such as the cleanliness of streets.

Next up, the communications of the project were discussed – you can find the posters, postcard and presentation in the M-Sec media kitThe consortium also looked into how M-Sec will build a sustainable community of different types of stakeholders. Partners brainstormed on the needs of each audiences and the solutions which the project can offer.

Partners behind M-Sec start brainstorming about building the M-Sec community

Day two saw a discussion about the M-Sec Architecture, i.e. the technical environment wherein the new project technology will be developed. In addition, an initial run-down was given on the security (application level security, overall end-to-end security) of the technologies to be employed (Cloud, IoT, blockchain etc.), including a demo of each asset.

Finally, the European and Japanese partners re-joined in the evening for some traditional Japanese food, and to continue brainstorming about ways to work on the project in a more creative setting.

Day three gave the opportunity for the partners to discuss the ethics of the project and its data, including enforced GDPR regulations, consent and data transfer for the cross-border pilots. The Project Ethics Committee was also discussed as a way to monitor this aspect of the project in the most transparent way possible. Finally, the next steps for M-Sec were discussed in terms of management and next meetings, to be held in Tokyo (October 2019) and Santander (November 2019).

Good to know: Fujisawa is a city located in the south part of the Kanagawa area, and has many interesting smart city initiatives, such as the Fujisawa Sustainable Smart Town, a famous new-build ‘smart’ town of 1,000 houses. Nearby you will also find Enoshima island, which partners had the chance to visit after the meeting.

 

Fun fact: Enoshima has been chosen as the venue for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics sailing competition!

Sailing in Enoshima – take a look at this boat which you can fit inside your car! You will see this boat in the Olympics.

 

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M-Sec is a EU-Japan collaboration which stands for “Multi-layered Security technologies to ensure hyperconnected smart cities with Blockchain, Big Data, Cloud and IoT”.

The main goal of M-Sec project is to research, develop, deploy and demonstrate multi-layered Security technologies to ensure hyper connected smart cities and empower IoT stakeholders with an innovative platform which leverages blockchain, BigData, Cloud and IoT security, upon which they can build innovative smart city applications.

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