Speaker

Laure De Cock

Innovation Specialist - imec

Biography

Laure De Cock - Innovation Specialist, imec

Laure is a geographer with a rich background in smart technology, holding a PhD in indoor navigation from Ghent University and a postdoc in smart crowd management. Currently at imec, she leverages her expertise in the mobility domain, focusing on innovation projects that bridge the gap between cutting-edge technologies and their practical implementation in society. Laure's work is instrumental in enhancing innovations such as data spaces and AI modelling, ensuring they are not only technologically advanced but also accessible and beneficial to users. Her dedication to translating theoretical research into tangible societal benefits marks her as a key player in several mobility projects, such as deployEMDS and Citcom.ai.

Laure De Cock - NextGen speaker

Imec NexGen speakers are young, visionary speakers sharing their insights and ideas in 5-minute talks. They illustrate how imec technology can make the world a better place. Through their passion and expertise, imec NexGen speakers inspire the audience to imagine a brighter future, where technology is used to solve some of the world's most pressing challenges.

Talk(s)

4:00 PM

The European Mobility Data Space: pushing the boundaries of mobility data exchange

Today, all countries are islands. Millions of people cross international borders every day, but when it comes to data, all countries are islands. In the mobility domain, the reality of this digital isolation becomes painfully clear, as people can travel thousands of kilometres and cross multiple borders, while their data remains confined within national silos. This is because mobility data cannot be efficiently exchanged across borders today, caused by a lack of trust, a lack of data interoperability, and a lack of transparency. Data spaces can solve these issues, by introducing a paradigm shift, from centralized to decentralized infrastructure, from data vulnerability to data sovereignty, and from isolation to interoperability. Imec is one of the frontrunners in data space technology today, and one of our largest data space projects is deployEMDS, where we work together with 40 partners across 9 regions to build the European Mobility Data Space (EMDS). The EMDS will unite a diverse consortium of stakeholders including public transport operators, city and regional administrations, National Access Points, shared mobility services, the sensor industry, Mobility as a Service (MaaS) providers, IT firms, and more. Flanders is one of the regions participating, so will finally be able to answer pressing questions such as the origins of Antwerp's truck traffic, the comparability of our bicycle highways to those in the Netherlands, and the reliability of our train services. EMDS will build bridges between regions, and push the boundaries of mobility data exchange, because our societies are not islands but interconnected communities in a shared digital ecosystem.