CRESCENDO

About CRESCENDO

Τhe project focused on applications and services that lie in the broader area of sharing economy. The future of sharing economy and its ultimate role in the world economic activities will depend on many factors, including the legal and regulation policies applied to them. In any case, however, the related service platforms need to cope with fundamental issues regarding the allocation and sharing of common resources, the provision of incentives, and their business models. CRESCENDO responded to this need by drawing analysis tools from the areas of network economics, queuing theory and (stochastic) optimization, but also from machine learning and numerical analysis. It is structured along three discrete thematic areas: shared network connectivity, participatory sensing, and crowdsourced transport. Common to all three thematic areas is the dimension of crowdsourcing and resource sharing, as well as the sustainability challenges that relate to them.

From a scientific point of view, the project contributions were in the areas of optimization (formulation of novel optimization problems under radically different assumptions about the decision-making process of human users), algorithms (design/analysis of algorithms for original theoretic problem instances), network economics and game theory. At socioeconomic level, the project research aimed at better understanding, supporting, and enhancing activities that (a) have generated reasonable expectations for economic development and new jobs; and (b) are approached as the means towards higher market pluralism (market democratization), offering alternative solutions in otherwise mono/oligopolistic markets and reducing transaction costs that inflate, often disproportionately, the overall cost of producing and distributing goods.

The project involved synergies with research groups in the University of Venice, University of Florence, and the University of Bournemouth and engaged one postdoctoral researcher and one PhD candidate in its activities. Its duration was 42 months.

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