«Frontiers Champions»

Project title

KNOWLEDGE EXCHANGE TOWARDS SUSTAINABLE SMART CITIES: ENERGY EFFICIENCY AND AIR QUALITY OF ASTANA (PRIOR NUR-SULTAN) CITY

on the framework of the Frontiers Champions programme by the Royal Academy of Engineering (UK) in collaboration with the University of Edinburgh, UK.

Realization period

January 2022 – March 2023

Grant

GBP 10 000 ≈ KZT 6 000 000

Project goal

The main goal of the project is to create conditions for the exchange of best practices between scholars, industry leaders, business community, policy makers of making a smart and sustainable city in terms of clean energy transition and air quality management. As well, the project seeks to facilitate the development of solutions to improve current energy system and air quality in cities like Astana (prior Nur-Sultan) that are highly reliant on coal.

Objective I

Identification of technological solutions for the problem with IT specialists/researchers and Energy modelers

Objective II

Building a regional and cross-border network for sustainability and impact

Objective III

Forming a collaboration roadmap between the University of Edinburgh and Astana IT University

Project team

Project Lead

Nurkhat Zhakiyev, PhD, Director of the Department of Science and Innovations, Astana IT University

Mentor

Daniel Friedrich, PhD, Professor of the School of Engineering, University of Edinburgh, UK

Project Responsible executive

Didar Yedilkhan, PhD, Head of the research innovation center “Smart City”, Astana IT University

Project Responsible executive

Zhansaya Makhambetova, MSc, Manager of the Department of Science and Innovations, Astana IT University

Project Responsible executive

Ruslan Omirgaliyev, MSc, Senior Lecturer at the Department of Computer Engineering, Astana IT University

Outputs

Activity	Answer	Notes
Events held
Number of events held	8
Number of people attended events	378
Number of workshops held	7	5 workshops (seminars) and 2 guest lectures
Number of workshop attendees	176
Number of competitions held	1
Number of students engaged in events	over 200
Networks
Number of people in network	86
Number of websites created	1
Newsletters / Reports
Number of newsletters created	4
Number of newsletter subscribers	over 500
Number of reports produced	2
OTHER: Number of other quantifiable outputs generated (please give details and add more lines if needed):
Joint papers published	3
Scholarships with tuition fee waiver for students	8
Number of other joint projects involved	4

Outputs

The following outputs were generated, and further outputs will be included in the year on follow up report:

Increased awareness and knowledge about Sustainable Smart Cities: The project facilitated a heightened level of cognizance and understanding regarding Sustainable Smart Cities through a series of organized events. These events, comprising of workshops, guest lectures, a competition, and a visit, allowed for nearly 400 participants to exchange knowledge and perspectives on energy efficiency and air quality in Astana. The events played a crucial role in generating consciousness on the significance of sustainable smart cities and provided attendees with innovative concepts, insights, and optimal methods pertaining to this domain.
Enhanced collaboration between stakeholders: The project brought together a diverse group of participants representing the science community, entrepreneurs, government, energy modellers, faculty members, and students. The events provided a platform for these stakeholders to network, share ideas, and collaborate on sustainable smart city initiatives.
Increased engagement of teachers and students: The project’s events included teachers and students, providing them with an opportunity to learn about sustainable smart cities and participate in a competition. This engagement is expected to lead to increased awareness among young people about the importance of sustainable smart cities and to encourage them to become more involved in initiatives to improve energy efficiency and air quality in Astana city.
Development of a knowledge exchange platform: The project’s events and activities created a wealth of knowledge and insights about sustainable smart cities, energy efficiency, and air quality in Astana city. To ensure that this knowledge is accessible and shared widely, the project could develop a knowledge exchange platform, such as a website or online forum, where stakeholders can access information, resources, and tools related to sustainable smart cities.

Additionally, the results of joint research and collaboration were published on the following papers, in which RAENG and the Frontiers Champions Programme were acknowledged:

Amanbek Y, Kalakova A, Zhakiyeva S, Kayisli Korhan, Zhakiyev N, Friedrich D. Distribution Locational Marginal Price Based Transactive Energy Management in Distribution Systems with Smart Prosumers—A Multi-Agent Approach. Energies. 2022; 15(7):2404. https://doi.org/10.3390/en15072404. Impact factor -3.0, Scopus percentile ~80. https://astanait.edu.kz/en/2022/06/09/hybrid-simulation-of-a-smart-grid/
Zhanbolatov, S. Zhakiyeva, N. Zhakiyev, K. Kayisli (2022) “Blockchain-Based Decentralized Peer-to-Peer Negawatt Trading in Demand-Side Flexibility Driven Transactive Energy System” International Journal of Renewable Energy Research (IJRER), 12(3), 1475-1483. doi:10.20508/ijrer.v12i3.13195.g8530 (Cite score-3.7, Scopus)
Zhakiyev, N., Sotsial, Z., Salkenov, A., & Omirgaliyev, R. (2022). Set of the data for modelling large-scale coal-fired combined heat and power plant in Kazakhstan. Data in Brief, 44, 108547.

Joint research project received grant funding “the Electricity Market model of Kazakhstan for high share of Renewables” for the period of 2023-2025 (74 171 865,50 tenge (~GBP 129 812), funded by Ministry of Higher Education and Science of the Republic of Kazakhstan)

The information about events and their results, research findings have been disseminated through newsletters, direct mailing, infographics, and through publications of papers at high-rated scientific journals.

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