Published on: 2026-10-09
Source: Peter the Great St. Petersburg Polytechnic University –
An important disclaimer is at the bottom of this article.
In Moscow, the results of the III International Competition of Projects by Students and Young Scientists “SMART CITY 2030: Management of Sustainable Development of BRICS Countries’ Cities” were summed up. The final and award ceremony took place at the TechnoScientific Educational Forum. Teams from Peter the Great St. Petersburg Polytechnic University received two Grand Prix awards, and another team of SPbPU students took first place in the international nomination.
SMART CITY 2030 was initiated by Polytech and is today being implemented as an international project involving leading universities from the BRICS countries. The co-organizers of the competition are SPbPU, Lovely Professional University (India), Tsinghua University (China), and the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (Brazil). The Higher School of Production Management at SPbPU is the responsible executor for organizing and conducting the competition. The competition unites students, graduate students, and young researchers to develop applied solutions in the field of sustainable urban development. In 2026, projects from 391 teams from 9 countries were submitted to the competition, and for the first time, the SMART CITY GLOBAL — International Open Track nomination was opened for teams from countries outside BRICS+.
The projects were evaluated by the International Expert Council, which included representatives from universities, scientific, business, and public organizations from Russia, China, India, Brazil, South Africa, and Iran. The evaluation took into account the innovativeness and feasibility of the solutions, their impact on city development, the use of artificial intelligence and digital technologies, the potential for scaling in BRICS+ countries, and the quality of the presentation.
The Polytechnic team received their first Grand Prix in the category “Smart City Technologies and Services” for the project Urban Water Economics 2030: Water and Energy in St. Petersburg and the Leningrad Region through 2030. They proposed to consider the water supply and energy sectors of St. Petersburg and the Leningrad Region as a unified economic system. This approach allows linking water and energy consumption and using the data for infrastructure planning and resource management.
The second Grand Prix was won by the Russian-Chinese team Think Pink! — representatives of Tongji University and SPbPU — in the category “Intellectual and Creative Development of the City.” The Living Windows 2030 project proposes a model for temporary use of vacant spaces in Shanghai for educational, public, and creative initiatives.
Another success for Polytech is the first place in the SMART CITY GLOBAL — International Open Track category. It was won by the international team Bringinn, which included students from SPbPU and a participant from Nigeria. Their project is an augmented reality game that engages residents in solving urban problems and can be adapted for different cities in the BRICS+ countries.
For Lovely Professional University, it is a great honor to be a partner of the SMART CITY 2030 competition. In 2025, we hosted the competition final at our venue as part of the Annual International Conference and Global Summit (AICGS-2025). At that time, we saw how young researchers from different countries proposed real solutions for their cities. This year, we are glad to see Indian students among the Grand Prix winners and first place holders. The cities of the future are being built today, and we are grateful to the partners for bringing together the talents of the BRICS+ countries for a common goal,” commented the competition results vice president of Lovely Professional University, Aman Mittal.
In addition to the competition defenses, the BRICS+ Foresight Arena “AI and the Labor Market of the Future” took place as part of the forum. Participants, together with expert mentors, prepared the “BRICS+ Labor Market Passports 2030,” identifying professions and roles that will change under the influence of artificial intelligence, necessary competencies, and possible joint solutions for BRICS+ countries.
said Ekaterina Belyaevskaya, Head of the Department of International Inter-university Cooperation at SPbPU.
SMART CITY 2030 continues to develop as an international educational and innovation platform, bringing together students and young researchers around applied challenges of sustainable urban development. An important feature of the competition remains the work of mixed teams, in which participants from different countries jointly develop solutions for the cities of the future.
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