Members of the MIT City Science team visited Gipuzkoa, Spain in December 2023 for an event, workshop, and meetings with stakeholders. The teams aimed to share recent work and research in the mobility space as well as to learn from local stakeholders about the current mobility ecosystem of the region. The event was organized by the City Science Lab @ Gipuzkoa, with portions also organized by MUBIL, a mobility hub and foundation, and Tecnun, an engineering school in San Sebastian. In addition to mobility, the teams considered other unique characteristics of the local culture, including gastronomic culture, which could lead to other collaborations in the coming years.

ReImagining Mobility: Unlocking Open Data in Gipuzkoa

The trip began with a two-part event and workshop titled: ReImagining Mobility: Unlocking Open Data in Gipuzkoa. Stakeholders met at the Arima Conference Center in San Sebastian for a morning of talks and afternoon workshop. The aim of the congress was to join forces to tackle the common objectives of mobility and impacted sectors including retail, food, the elderly and more. Teams also presented the new City Science Lab @ Gipuzkoa and discussed ways to optimize the use of data to improve the inter- and intra-urban mobility of the territory.

Presentations were as follows:

• Institutional Opening | Ane Insausti and Igor Villarreal
• The City Science Lab @ Gipuzkoa | Zuriñe Varela
• Towards a New Model for Urban Communities | Kent Larson
• Mobility Mode Choice: New Tools for Policy Makers |  Iñigo Azcárate
• Gipuzkoa Sustainable Mobility | Eluska Renedo
• Community Sensing for Mobility | Andrés Rico
• Multifunctional Lightweight Autonomous Vehicles | Naroa Coretti Sanchez
• Public Transport Modeling and Decision Support for ATTG | Isidro Arrieta
• The 15 minute city: Beasain Use Case | Adur Letamendia
• Collective Imagination for Human-Centric Environments | Leticia Izquierdo
• New Mobility Mission - An Innovative, Systematic Approach towards a Smart and Sustainable Mobility Model in Gipuzkoa | Iñaki Erkizia
• Andorra Living Lab: Fostering Eco-Friendly Tourism through Data-Driven Insights | Luis Alonso
  
  Maitane Iruretagoyena, Giuseppe Foti Della Foresta, Amaia Azpiazu Anduaga, Jonny Cohen and Maggie Church also played critical roles in the event organization and production, working closely with the teams on workshop themes and logistics, event orchestration and stakeholder alignment. 
  
  Following the morning talks, the teams met with industry leaders, local government officers, and local academics for a workshop. The workshop goal was to better understand the mobility data ecosystem in the region including questions such as: What datasets are available? What data is missing? What is the potential behind this data? and How can we collaborate? To address these questions, facilitators led groups in a process to create brainstorm maps to visualize available, potential and missing datasets, to understand the potential of this data, and to outline potential projects and collaborations. Teams then ideated potential projects related to routing apps that incentivize the use of sustainable, active and inclusive mobility, regional-level mode choice modeling which can inform future service and infrastructure development, and  mobility-related open-data platforms that could catalyze research and innovation in the field. Teams remarked that the event further emphasized the importance of focusing on new mobility solutions to tackle local sustainability and accessibility challenges. The City Science Lab Gipuzkoa and MIT Teams will continue modeling and researching these options in the years to come. To learn more about the current project, visit the City Science Lab Gipuzkoa page and stay tuned as projects are published and posted. 

Tecnun Event and Collaboration 

Later in the week the MIT team visited Tecnun University of Navarra, an engineering school in San Sebastian. The City Science group has been collaborating with Tecnun for years via a visiting student exchange and Tecnun was a key collaborator in establishing the current City Science Lab and cooperation. The first stop on the visit was to a new space on campus which will house the prototypes and offices for the City Science Lab. After meetings and brief talks with professors from Tecnun, teams moved to the main campus lecture hall for an event announcing the collaboration to the broader Tecnun community. 

Raúl Antón, the Dean of the University, started the event with an opening address. He then introduced Kent Larson, who gave a keynote talk overviewing current research outlining the City Science Climate model. Zurine Varela, the Technical Director of the City Science Lab Gipuzkoa, then facilitated a panel discussion with MIT researchers Naroa Coretti Sanchez and Iñigo Azcarate. Zurine and Naroa are both Tecnun alums and Inigo is currently a visiting student at MIT while finishing his Master’s degree at Tecnun. The panelists discussed their work and research, their paths from Tecnun to MIT, and their advice on how to approach research and problem-solving for impact. 

Gastronomy Research and Culture 

In addition, the team used the trip to Gipuzkoa to further explore the gastronomic culture of the region with a day of activities coordinated by Adela Balderas, a collaborator for the Gastronomy and Beyond lecture series. Teams began with a visit to the Basque Culinary Center where they met with researchers to discuss recent projects which focused on the themes of food education for children, new sustainable foods, and the intersection of art and food as a way to explore cultural norms and expectations. After a tour of their facilities, teams then traveled to Bilbao for a meeting with chef Eneko Atxa. Eneko first met the teams in an auxiliary building on the Azurmendi campus where he outlined his passion for food and food systems, discussing what was involved in creating one of the most sustainable restaurants in the world. Furthermore, he emphasized the research that they are currently doing to link food to social impact including developing new healthy meals for hospitals, and working in food education to give youth a better idea of what is involved in a healthy and sustainable diet that minimizes food waste. 

The team then went to Azurmendi for a meal which offered a time for the team to connect and laugh after a busy and productive week. Furthermore, the meal acted as a reminder of the power of food in our lives and culture. The day concluded with a renewed interest in understanding food and food systems in how they impact and operate in a community. Incorporating food research could revive old city science research lines and also address current research where food systems are being considered. Teams will continue to explore new research opportunities in future contexts.

Stakeholder Meetings and Field Trips

Furthermore, the teams met with various stakeholders from the Gipuzkoa mobility community. These activities included meetings with the Diputación, the Road Department, Vicomtech, BasqueCCAM and Tecnalia. In each meeting teams were able to learn more about the current state of technology and development in the region. 

Next steps for the City Science Lab

Teams in Gipuzkoa and at MIT will continue to meet and explore their current models and new lines of research. Congratulations to the teams and stakeholders on a successful and productive event and visit! Research models will be published on the City Science Lab Gipuzkoa site in alignment with their production and publication.