Smart city approach to educational campuses: case study at University of Limerick, Ireland

Cities are in continuous competition for resources, investment and people, creating a need for constant improvement and development. The smart city concept is an approach to making urban environments better through the usage of technology. The aim is to investigate the application of the smart city concept in a university campus in Ireland. There is a plethora of research on the smart city approach, but not in the context of applying the concept to educationally themed environments. This research defines a framework for doing so and applies this to the University of Limerick campus, located in the west of Ireland. The study identifies existing and planned smart initiatives on campus and analyses the synergy among them. It investigates the inception of such initiatives and the problems and benefits associated with them. The research concludes that a goal-oriented programme helps achieve cohesiveness of efforts and improved results. Such programmes require an initiation from an authority, various groups to manage its aspects, a committee to coordinate the groups and a high degree of commitment from various stakeholders. The results of the research present a more diverse usage of the smart city approach while also showcasing new opportunities for educational institutions.