The Smart City is the future of urban living all over the world and now that the population graphs show that more humans live in cities than not for the first time in history, it’s time to get serious about deploying the tech.
And the Obama Administration is doing just that, it seems. In an announcement on September 14, the White House Press Secretary revealed that the administration has launched a new “Smart Cities” initiative to help communities solve their challenges and be more efficient with IoT solutions. The announcement was made as part of the White House Smart Cities Forum, held the same day.
“Every community is different, with different needs and different approaches. But communities that are making the most progress on these issues have some things in common,” said President Barack Obama in the release. “They don't look for a single silver bullet; instead they bring together local government and nonprofits and businesses and teachers and parents around a shared goal.”
The initiative will invest over $160 million in federal research and leverage several technology partnerships to help U.S. cities reduce traffic congestion, fight crime, grow economies, address environmental concerns and deliver city services.
There will be more than $35 million in new grants and $10 million in proposed investments so that the National Science Foundation and National Institute of Standards and Technology can build a research infrastructure for Smart Cities. Almost $70 million will be earmarked for new spending and about $45 million will be for proposed investments in new solutions for safety, energy, climate preparedness, transportation and healthcare by the Department of Homeland Security, Department of Transportation, Department of Energy, Department of Commerce, and the Environmental Protection Agency.
More than 20 cities will work together and with major universities to deploy and implement the solutions as they’re developed.
The Administration’s Smart Cities Initiative will begin with a focus on several key strategies. The first will be the creation of a series of IoT test beds for creating applications and developing new multi-sector collaborative models. One goal will be to collaborate with the civic tech movement and build intercity collaborations, while leveraging existing Federal programs for sensor network and cybersecurity research.
Some of the first steps, as outlined, will include working with the National Science Foundation to distribute $35 million in Smart Cities-related grants to researchers working to use the IoT to solve challenges in health and wellness, energy efficiency, building automation, transportation, and public safety. Another $11.5 million will be available to develop and scale next-generation Internet application prototypes at gigabit speeds. These investments include new awards to US Ignite and the Mozilla (News - Alert) Foundation to create “Living Labs,” or communities of practice that facilitate the participation of citizens and community organizations. US Ignite is a public-private collaboration spanning over 40 cities and communities across the Nation. The Mozilla Foundation is a nonprofit dedicated to promoting openness, innovation, and participation on the Internet.
There will be $10 million for new Cyber-Physical Systems Program research awards focused on Smart and Connected Communities, designed to support research in the integration of computing, networking, and physical systems, such as in self-driving cars and smart buildings. One of the first awards is to Kansas State University, where it will fund new research on integrated distributed power sources like rooftop solar panels and storage batteries.
There’s a lot more to all this, so go on over to whitehouse.gov to check it out. It’s a big deal, folks. So get ready.