Smart Cities

The pandemic stretched municipal revenues even further, but tech and financing provider Quantela aims to provide backing for Wi-Fi, LED streetlights and other projects. Now the company has $40 million of fresh capital.

A plan to modernize IT and better enable a work-from-anywhere posture in Santa Monica, Calif., served the city well when the COVID-19 pandemic reshuffled city services and how they are delivered.

The National Science Foundation, US Ignite and other partners announced the launch of a wireless communications testbed in rural central Iowa to explore expanding broadband access to rural America and other innovations.

As the Smart Columbus project closes out its five-year run, the city is preparing for a new smart city future, building on the projects, successes and lessons learned to begin exploring innovations around renewable energy and closing the digital divide.

A partnership among industry, the National Science Foundation and US Ignite has formed the OpenAirX-Labs to grow the development and testing of open source 5G software to increase innovation in wireless technology.

Gov. Steve Sisolak has pulled a controversial proposal that would allow tech companies to form local governments throughout the state. Instead, it will now be carried out as a study.

By combining a city’s digital twin, a model of how it might be affected by factors like climate, with GIS, municipal leaders can make decisions based not only on physical factors, but the way people will be impacted.

Peachtree Corners, Ga., is partnering with Qualcomm Technologies and Jacobs to deploy direct vehicle-to-everything communications in two city vehicles as a development to improve safety and traffic management.

The Virginia Smart Community Testbed in Stafford County will test emerging technologies in real-world settings. The project is a partnership between the county and the Center for Innovative Technology.

The plan is to use smart city infrastructure to offer ubiquitous connectivity — physical and wireless — between homes, businesses, educational institutions, public safety, community services and modern vehicles.

Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport is experimenting with autonomous technology from ThorDrive in its vehicles carrying luggage between the terminal and aircraft.

A new report from Jacobs Urban Tech Hub at Cornell Tech addresses a range of digital city issues like data privacy as a foundation for any city considering the deployment of urban technology to advance community goals.

New Orleans recently collected smart city proposals to achieve broadband equity in the city. However, it’s unclear how the city will ensure data privacy as it unfolds the broad urban tech initiative.

The Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport (CVG) hopes to run more efficiently by gaining insights from Internet of Things (IoT) tech. One expert says success will depend on passenger trust in IoT.

Citizens in El Monte, Calif., will be taking advantage of digital signage that reveals the availability of roughly 400 parking spots in the city. The system also includes an app that can help residents plan their travel.

The Regional Transportation Commission of Southern Nevada is using dashcam footage gathered from ride-hailing drivers to gain added insights into the status of the hundreds of highway work zones in the Las Vegas region.

The Revive! Challenge, organized by the Colorado Smart Cities Alliance, is open to low- or no-cost tech solutions to help communities in a post-COVID world. Submissions are due May 5, and winners will be named in July.

On the second day of the Smart Cities Connect Conference and Expo, private- and public-sector tech officials discussed how the COVID-19 pandemic shifted smart city efforts and initiatives and positioned them for the future.