On 22-25 June 2026, AntifragiCity partners participated in the International Conference on Engineering, Technology, and Innovation (ICE) in Porto, Portugal, contributing to discussions on the future of urban mobility, citizen participation, and urban intelligence.
This marks the second consecutive year that we have participated in ICE. At ICE 2025, our coordinator, Yacine Rezgui, presented our first scientific publication, “AntifragiCity: Advancing Urban Mobility Through Antifragile”, introducing the project’s theoretical framework for antifragile urban mobility systems. One year later, we returned to ICE to present new research results spanning citizen participation, urban intelligence, and adaptive mobility systems.
AntifragiCity at ICE 2026
AntifragiCity partners contributed to the 2026 conference through six scientific papers, two workshops, and one panel discussion. These contributions reflected our project’s multidisciplinary approach, covering topics ranging from urban mobility resilience and governance to citizen participation, urban intelligence, and adaptive decision-making.
Among the highlights, our colleague Afrouz Ghaemi (Cardiff University) presented the paper “Cross-System Interdependencies and Governance Capacity in Urban Mobility Infrastructure Resilience” (publication details and DOI pending). The research examines how urban mobility resilience is shaped not only by transport infrastructure itself, but also by dependencies involving energy, ICT, social systems, finance, and governance. It identifies three recurring interdependency nexuses and considers how engineering, adaptive, and transformative responses can support mobility preservation and longer-term resilience.
Yacine Rezgui (Cardiff University) presented the paper “From Resilience Monitoring to Antifragility: A Multi-Source Urban Event Mapping Framework with Pan-European Pilot Baselines” (publication details and DOI pending). The paper proposes a common framework for integrating survey, literature, disaster-database, satellite, and social-media evidence to monitor urban mobility disruptions. The pan-European pilot establishes baseline patterns and monitoring parameters intended to support future longitudinal assessment of urban mobility antifragility.
Lisa Verhasselt (LISER) delivered an interactive presentation based on her paper “Deliberating Antifragile Urban Mobility: Lessons from the AntifragiCity Citizens’ Forums”. Drawing on citizens’ forums in Bratislava, Larissa, and Thessaloniki, the session explored how deliberation can reveal the conditions under which urban mobility measures become socially acceptable and legitimate, while also introducing what deliberation entails and how it can be integrated into participatory processes.
The conference also provided an opportunity to discuss the importance of citizen participation in shaping cities. During the panel discussion “Smart Cities, Living Labs, Urban Intelligence & Citizen Assemblies,” Cristina De Nardi (Cardiff University) and Lisa Verhasselt (LISER) joined other experts to discuss how citizens can play a key role in designing urban innovation and mobility solutions.
Key takeaways
Afrouz Ghaemi, Cardiff University:
“ICE 2026 reinforced the importance of looking at urban mobility resilience across systems rather than treating transport in isolation. A key takeaway for me was that technical responses alone are not sufficient; coordination, governance capacity, and attention to equity are also needed if temporary responses are to support more durable change. This perspective is closely connected to the questions we are examining in AntifragiCity.”
Lisa Verhasselt, LISER:
“Participating in ICE 2026 gave me the opportunity to bring insights from deliberative democracy into conversation with people working beyond the field. Discussing what deliberation can contribute, as well as its limitations and risks, helped me reflect on how these ideas can be translated responsibly into different areas of research and practice.”
ICE 2026 provided an excellent opportunity to showcase our latest research, exchange knowledge with the international research community, and strengthen collaboration.
We would like to thank all our partners who contributed to our participation in Porto, both those who attended the conference and those whose work made these contributions possible.
About ICE
The International Conference on Engineering, Technology, and Innovation (ICE) is the flagship conference of the IEEE Technology and Engineering Management Society (TEMS). It brings together researchers, industry professionals, innovators, and policymakers to discuss how engineering, technology, and innovation can address some of society’s most pressing challenges.
With a strong focus on digital transformation, sustainability, and urban development, ICE provides an ideal platform for discussing the future of urban mobility, making it a natural setting for us to share our work at AntifragiCity.