*4.1. Stakeholder's Perspective*

A city's Pain Points, defined from the citizens' point of view, lead to new ideas for solutions. The goal of Campus City is to activate the Smart City ecosystem, where the private sector, the governmen<sup>t</sup> and academia interact to solve contemporary needs. The Challenge Living Lab enables the students to better comprehend and participate in this interaction by playing an active role in developing innovative solutions to those Pain Points. In the Smart Mobility Challenge, the stakeholder shared a first approximation of energy requirement computation as well as a driving cycle from a local urban zone. The main contributions of the industrial stakeholder were: (a) their experience and coaching on vehicle dynamics, (b) their approach to projects in an industrial context, where the focus is on economically sustainable results, and (c) their openness to create new trusted relationships with our university based on these challenges, and to explore new projects based on these results.

In each challenge, the participation of an external mentor (their point of view, experience, and innovation focus), the students (their need to learn how to apply theoretical knowledge to solve real-life challenges) and the professor (their guidance, tutoring and accompaniment) creates an ecosystem of interaction, leadership, application of knowledge and follow up.

The different stakeholders had three main roles during the challenges presented: (1) to provide problems and aid in the selection process; (2) to co-design the challenge; (3) to mentor the students while providing information/data/experience to enrich the students´ learning experience. The stakeholder plays an important educational role, acting as a link between the students' theoretical and academic environment and the arena of practical and real-world experience. Thus, the stakeholder acts as both mentor and client.

For instance, the maintenance/physical plant department, specifically the HVAC team, was the main stakeholder and co-designer in the Smart Energy Challenge. Initially, the challenge was developed by the academic advisor (professor) and then presented to the HVAC team for their inputs and suggestions. This was a crucial step since the HVAC team provided the students with critical information on the current ventilation and air conditioning system. The students constantly reported their advances to their academic mentor and to the HVAC team to receive feedback, adjusting their calculations and models to meet necessary international regulations and standards (ASHRAE 62 and 62.1, ASTM D6245-12). The results obtained, reinforced by the students-stakeholder interaction, led to the conclusion that the currently operation HVAC system does not meet the values required by the international standards. Consequently, the maintenance/physical plant department designed a strategy that avoids internal air circulation in the classroom while installing specialized air filters in the HVAC system.

For the Smart Water Challenge, an international academic stakeholder contributed to the co-design of the challenge. Their main contribution during the screening of the Pain Points and challenge design was to focus the study on emerging water pollutants, such as the per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS). Moreover, the following challenge objectives were developed between the academic advisor and stakeholder:


Similar to the Smart Energy Challenge, the Smart Water Challenge stakeholder was actively involved with the students, providing guidance and mentorship throughout the challenge; this included an introductory lecture on the history of civil and environmental engineering. The Smart Mobility Challenge stakeholder's contribution to the academic environment was the context of actual practice in automotive engineering and the executive focus on generating technically sound solutions in record time.

The Challenge Living Lab framework contributed to building trust between stakeholders, the creation of academia-industry relationship, and the exploration of future projects (sponsored research). After the end of the course, the external partners (government, private sector and/or citizens) mentioned new ideas for future challenges in the next academic periods, thus beginning the virtuous-loop of the Challenge Living Lab and opening the possibility for further applied research projects.
