Smart City Challenges are a Tool to Drive Smart City Innovation

There is a growing trend to utilize big data sets to optimize city infrastructure. One way of doing so is through public-private partnerships (PPPs). A second way of doing so is through data challenges and competitions.

IBM hosts a Smarter Cities Challenge to help cities globally address their most critical challenges. The Smarter Cities Challenge is IBM’s largest philanthropic initiative and has received more than $66 Million in contributions.

The Smarter Cities Challenge enables cities to bridge gaps and enhance interagency collaboration through the use of data analytics tools and constant adaptation and improvement of such tools. Transportation operations are organized and their data is collected.

IBM believes in implementing new programs to increase civic engagement and investment in infrastructure. Civic engagement is viewed as a way to drive results, while infrastructure improvements are viewed as a way to better manage a city’s prospects for growth.

US DOT is an example of a government organization that sets forth a Smart Cities Challenge as a tool for improvement of the use of public data sets. The city governments compete with each other. The US DOT has pledged up to $40 Million to a city to help it define what it means to be a “smart city” and then help it implement and integrate completely innovative technologies such as self-driving cars, connected vehicles, and smart sensors, into the transportation network.

Sources:

U.S DOT Announces Seven Finalist Cities for Smart City Challenge — See more at: https://www.transportation.gov/smartcity#sthash.Jty06ciy.dpuf,

https://www.transportation.gov/smartcity.

Welcome to the Smarter Cities Challenge, available at https://smartercitieschallenge.org/.