A new smart city initiative was announced today by 22 Capital Partners, a venture builder and private equity company. Along with the Center for Innovative Technology (CIT) and the George Washington University (GW), the partnership will lead the development of an ecosystem to create smart city technology, education and innovation in the Gramercy District in Virginia.
As the first smart city in the region, and one of the first in the country, the Gramercy District will create an environment that continuously adapts to meet the needs of business partners and guests who are working, living, shopping and playing in the smart city. The partnership between GW, 22 Capital Partners and the Center for Innovative Technology will help to facilitate access to and use of a working smart city development, connecting areas along the Washington, D.C. and Washington Dulles International Airport corridor.
GW's Virginia Science & Technology Campus located in Ashburn, Va., brings professional educational innovations in areas such as cyber security and data analytics along with entrepreneurial development and technology transfer education through the NSF funded iCorps program. GW is working with the D.C. government's Office of the Chief Technology Officer on the Pennsylvania Avenue 2040 Environmental Sensing Project in Washington, D.C. and is part of the MetroLab Network, a national smart cities initiative for municipalities and research institutions to cooperate on key city-wide issues.
This partnership with GW, the Gramercy District and CIT will support new research opportunities and scale up regional job training activities around Internet of Things (IoT), cybersecurity, city planning and entrepreneurship. The Gramercy District will be the test bed that provides individuals, businesses and researchers with opportunities for hands-on learning in a smart city environment built to foster the use of new IoT technologies and methods, leading to a repeatable process for smart city experimentation and innovation.
Read more in the Washington Business Journal.