The Rodes Urban Technology Park hosted this Thursday the Smart Cities and Big Data Conference, focused on artificial intelligence (AI) for businesses. The objective was to bring the possibilities of this technology closer to the business community and foster innovation and technological talent. The event registered 155 registered participants for the morning sessions, including 70 students from the IES Cotes Baixes, while 33 people signed up for the afternoon practical workshop. In parallel, 60 participants, organized into 20 teams, are taking part in a robotics hackathon with Arduino.
The mayor of Alcoy, Toni Francés, and the Deputy Director of Research at the Alcoy Higher Polytechnic School (UPV), Javier Silvestre, officially opened the event. They highlighted the importance of transferring AI's possibilities to the productive sector, especially SMEs, and underscored the collaboration between the City Council and the Alcoy Campus of the UPV to promote projects connecting research and society.
“"Artificial intelligence is the great disruptive technology of our time, transforming our society and which we already use daily."
Javier Silvestre emphasized the Alcoy Campus's philosophy of connecting university, businesses, institutions, and students around innovation, highlighting the value of the hackathon as an opportunity for students to learn by doing and face real problems.
The first talk, by Jordi Bataller, director of Invat·tur, addressed the role of data management and analysis in the tourism sector, advocating for the need to turn information into useful knowledge for better decision-making. He explained how data analysis can improve visitor flow management during high-attendance events and warned that AI tools must serve people.
The morning program included talks on specific AI applications in digital marketing, branding, business process automation, AI-assisted software development, intelligent agents, and conversational systems. Specialists from companies such as Acceseo, La Taula, Appyweb, SumamoOs, Vivara.io, and Navi participated, along with an intervention from Arduino.
In the afternoon, a workshop on optimizing packaging design for food products using neuromarketing and AI was held, led by specialists from the Universitat Politècnica de València, with 33 participants.
The Arduino robotics hackathon, with 60 participants in 20 teams, was a major highlight. Following a preparatory training session, participants tackled a practical challenge involving programming robots based on Arduino UNO Q, incorporating robotics and computer vision tools, culminating in a final competition and awards ceremony.
Through this event, Alcoy consolidates the Rodes Urban Technology Park as a meeting point for knowledge, research, and business activity, reinforcing the municipal commitment to digital transformation and knowledge transfer.
