The Capital Area Advanced Research and Education Network (CAAREN) joins the Global City Teams Challenge (GCTC) in Austin, TX this week to discuss opportunities for community engaged innovation through collaboration with technology leaders, universities and city governments.
Sponsored by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and US Ignite, the GCTC Expo allows attendees to experience first-hand the future of Smart Cities and Internet of Things applications. Smart Cities use technology to improve performance in key sectors, such as transport, energy and health care. The Internet of Things helps smart cities reduce costs and engage more effectively with its citizens. This year, GCTC welcomes support from the newly created MetroLab Network, which brings together city-university partnerships to help develop smart cities. The Network focuses on pairing university researchers with city policymakers to undertake research, development and deployment projects that will improve infrastructure, public services and create environmental sustainability.
The George Washington University, Georgetown University and Howard University have joined the MetroLab Network to work in partnership with the District of Columbia on a number of smart city projects. Specifically, GW and CAAREN are working on developing Urban Living Labs, which will create a network of sensor hubs to collect environmental data on air quality and other ambient information. The initiative will also create an open science platform for sensor hubs and collection points, data repositories and access to high-performance connectivity for data collection and analytics through CAAREN.
To learn more about Washington D.C.’s involvement in the MetroLab Network, smart cities and developing city-university partnerships, listen to Making our Region’s Cities “Smart”, a recent broadcast of the Kojo Nnamdi show from American University Radio, WAMU 88.5.