Since 2013, undergraduates from colleges across the country come to campus for the 10-week program, where they learn how to use data science to tackle civic problems. This year, CDS paired with Smart Cities’ Smart Communities, an initiative that integrates technology-based research with a community’s goals.
This year’s CDS projects were:
The program’s co-director and SCS Professor Ellen Zegura believes students connected to these projects more because of their real-world application.
“It’s a pleasure to watch the work progress from the early first days to getting to see how much you all have learned and how much you all understand the context of the projects you’re doing,” she said during the finale ceremony held in the Technology Square Research Building.
“It’s not just that you built a database, but here’s what a sensor looks like and here’s how it can go wrong.”
The students agree. Angela Lau, a rising sophomore at Cornell Unviersity, wanted an internship that coud help the community.
“I was really interested in this program because of the local applicability of the projects,” she said. “It surprised me how real it was and how we could help a community over a few weeks.”
Working with real data also presented unique learning experiences that students wouldn’t normally encounter in a classroom setting.
“There were a lot of challenges working with a real data,” said Kutub Gandhi, a rising senior at Rice University. “Our entire project was figuring out what was wrong with the data collected from sea level sensors.”
For many students, this was their first time learning data science skills that they can now use throughout their career.
“I had heard of data visualization but didn’t know much about it,” said David Li, a rising senior at Stony Brook University. “But by the end I realized, ‘Wow I learned this and I never knew I could do this before!’”
]]>The 2019 winning proposals are Columbus Smart Uptown, Macon Smart Neighborhoods, Milton Smarter Safer Routes to School, and Woodstock Smart Master Plan and Corridor Study.
This is the second round of Georgia Smart Communities Challenge, a funding and technical assistance program for local governments in the state of Georgia. Recipients are to develop a pilot project around mobility and equity and smart resilience with assistance from a Georgia Tech researcher. The projects utilize smart technology such as intelligent infrastructures, information, and communication technologies; Internet-of-Things devices; and other computational or digital technologies such as data centers and portals, web and smartphone applications, and automated digital services.
“Georgia Tech is very proud to have played a leadership role in the Georgia Smart program, which we believe will improve the quality of life in the participating communities and also provide models for other communities throughout Georgia to consider as they strive to make life better for their citizens,” said Georgia Tech President G.P. “Bud” Peterson.
Here is the summary of each of the new projects:
· Columbus Smart Uptown, Columbus-Muscogee County. The project seeks to improve safety and security, transportation systems, and connectivity to drive economic growth in the uptown district through the installation of Internet-of-Things devices, providing public wifi, and integrating data into management. Georgia Tech researchers involved include John Taylor of civil engineering and director of the Network Dynamics Lab, Neda Mohammadi of civil engineering, and Russ Clark of the College of Computing. The collaborators include Uptown Columbus and the Muscogee County Schools.
· Macon Smart Neighborhoods, Macon-Bibb County. This project will address underserved areas of the community by installing smart kiosks that will provide internet connectivity and on-demand services. This will promote community empowerment and give an equal voice to all residents. Working with Arthi Rao of the Georgia Tech College of Design and the Center for Quality Growth and Regional Development, the project’s collaborators include the Macon Transit Authority, Macon-Bibb Urban Development Authority, Downtown Business Improvement District, Eisenhower Business Improvement District, Bibb County Schools, Mercer University, Middle Georgia State University, Central Georgia Technical College, and Wesleyan College.
· Milton Smarter Safer Routes to School, City of Milton. To promote walking and biking to school, this project will create a network of programmed devices such as smart phones to connect students and parents and arrange supervised groups, designate safe primary routes, and provide wait times for students wishing to join the walking/biking groups. Kari Watkins and Angshuman Guin of the Georgia Tech School of Civil and Environmental Engineering will provide technical assistance, and the key collaborator is Fulton County Schools.
· Woodstock Smart Master Plan and Corridor Study, City of Woodstock. This project will conduct a smart corridor and infrastructure study to improve mobility and congestion in the city and deal with rapid growth and uneven commuting patterns. Ramachandra Sivakumar of the Georgia Tech College of Design and Center for Spatial Planning Analytics and Visualization will consult. Collaborators include the Woodstock Downtown Development Authority and Black Airplane design and development agency.
“The Smart Communities Challenge, at its core, is about helping communities thrive and grow for the future,” said Pedro Cherry, executive vice president of customer service and operations for Georgia Power. “At Georgia Power, we share in that commitment to building a bright future for our state and we know that technology plays a critical role. Working with a leading research university like Georgia Tech and investing in smart, innovative solutions with local community partners is just one way we are doing our part.”
In addition to naming the new round of recipients, Georgia Smart Communities awardees from 2018 provided updates on their projects:
· Albany Housing Data Initiative. Led by the City of Albany, this automated housing registry system has built a coalition of collaborating departments that meet weekly to integrate the plan into the city’s operations. The data and database have been analyzed with more than 10,000-plus records included.
· Shared Autonomous Vehicle Study. Led by the City of Chamblee, the project has prepared an autonomous vehicle operational document along a proposed one-mile route on Peachtree Road from the Chamblee MARTA station and City Hall. They are evaluating autonomous shuttle vendors and putting forth a phase two plan to extend a route to the Doraville MARTA station. The plan has been approved by the Chamblee City Council.
· Smart Sea Level Tools for Emergency Planning and Response. Led by Chatham County, the Smart Sea Level Sensors project is a collaboration between Chatham Emergency Management officials, City of Savannah officials and Georgia Tech scientists and engineers who are working together to install a dense network of internet-enabled sea level sensors across Chatham County. So far, 30 sensors have been installed, and Jenkins High School students have been involved in assembling the sensors.
· Connected Vehicle Technology Master Plan. Led by Gwinnett County, this project is evaluating traffic management technologies to improve vehicle mobility throughout the region. As the rollout continues, dedicated short-range communication vehicle-to-infrastructure roadside units are being planned for the area west of I-85/I-985, and request for proposals to install the equipment will go out this fall.
Tuesday’s event in Macon also highlighted student involvement in the projects. This summer marked the beginning of the Smart Community Corps. This is the first group of Georgia Tech students competitively selected to be embedded full-time into the project communities, while also receiving mentorship and leadership training.
· Daniel Marchetto, City of Albany. Marchetto is currently pursuing his Ph.D. in Public Policy at Georgia Tech and is expected to finish his degree in 2023. He received his master’s in Public Policy from Arizona State University and his bachelor’s degree in Psychology from Carnegie Mellon University.
· Rey Angeles, City of Chamblee. Angeles is pursuing his master’s degree in Supply Chain Engineering and is expected to finish in December 2019. He is a Fulbright Scholar from the Philippines, where he finished his undergraduate degree, cum laude, in Communications Technology Management.
· Akhil Chavan, Chatham County. Chavan recently graduated from Georgia Tech with a BS/MS in Mechanical Engineering. At Georgia Tech, he also served as the technical director for Engineers Without Borders – Uganda Chapter and interned at Argonne National Laboratory.
· Kate Ferencsik, City of Savannah. Ferencsik is a third year Psychology honors student, Spanish minor, and a Stamps President’s Scholar at Georgia Tech. She is a Savannah native, and her insight about the city and past community outreach volunteering will be a valuable asset to our Chatham partners.
· Zixiu Fu, Gwinnett County. Fu is currently pursuing his master’s degree in Computational Science and Engineering/Civil and Environmental Engineering at Georgia Tech, and is expected to graduate in December. He received his bachelor's degree in Biological and Agriculture Engineering from Texas A&M University, where he was awarded the William H. Aldred Endowed Scholarship
Students are also involved through the Civic Data Science, a group of students competitively selected from across the country to support the 2018-2019 projects by conducting the data science underpinning each project.
Work on the 2018 projects will continue as the grant ends in September 2019, which is the timing of the launch for the 2019 projects.
“We are proud of the work and accomplishments the first class of Georgia Smart has already achieved and know most will continue their research partnership in year 2. We are also looking forward to bringing a new class in and expanding the portfolio of smart applications for community and economic development.,” said Debra Lam, managing director of Smart Cities and Inclusive Innovation at Georgia Tech. “Most importantly, though, we remain committed to all communities in Georgia and will continue to provide programming and opportunities for them as they develop their own smart future.”
In total, the Georgia Smart program has had 18 free events with 1,118 attendees and 110 national and local speakers. Webinars have been viewed more than 900 times, as well as monthly newsletters delivered to over 2,600 subscribers.
Collaborators in the Georgia Smart program include Georgia Tech, the Atlanta Regional Commission, the Georgia Association of Regional Commissions, Association County Commissioners of Georgia, Georgia Chamber of Commerce, Georgia Municipal Association, Georgia Department of Community Affairs, Georgia Department of Economic Development, Georgia Planning Association, Metro Atlanta Chamber of Commerce, Technology Association of Georgia, and Georgia Power.
“Assistance through the Georgia Smart Communities Challenge helps local governments and the whole region address critical issues such as social justice, mobility, economic development, and many other important areas,” said Doug Hooker, ARC executive director. “Community initiatives are always more successful when they employ collaborative, people-focused approaches. Those qualities are what make this program an important effort for the region.”
Learn more about the Georgia Smart Communities Challenge at http://www.smartcities.ipat.gatech.edu/georgia-smart.
]]>When it comes to smart cities, it is one thing to develop the technology. It is quite another to ensure those technologies serve the wants and needs of residents.
That was the premise of the recent Georgia Institute of Technology conference,” Smart Cities Dialogue: Building Inclusive Communities and Partnerships.” The two-day event held May 7-8 focused on inclusiveness and equity in smart city design. Chaouki T. Abdallah, Georgia Tech’s executive vice president for research, offered remarks to open the conference.
“We want to frame the discussion around developing solutions that create smarter communities with social ecosystems as a primary consideration,” said Abdallah. “We are proud to be unique in our approach to embed the best and brightest minds as part of the teams in these communities and create powerful social platforms and a model by which other communities can learn.”
The conference was “standing room only” according to Joe Bankoff, chair of the Sam Nunn School of International Affairs, which helped organize the event.
“This conference makes clear that Georgia Tech has an extraordinary range of things to offer in the smart cities arena,” he said.
In addition to panel discussions, participants also got the opportunity to make site visits to labs and campus locations showcasing Georgia Tech efforts in the smart cities space. These ranged from a community map room created by faculty in the School of Literature, Media, and Communication to examples of resilient spaces, such as the nearly-completed Kendeda Building for Innovative Sustainable Design.
“There are a lot of conferences on smart cities,” said Dennis Lockhart, distinguished professor of the practice in the Sam Nunn School of International Affairs who helped organize the conference as the third in his series of Infrastructure Dialogues. “However, there are very few that actually take the participants into a lab and show them firsthand some of the work that is being done,” he said.
The Nunn School is a unit of the Ivan Allen College of Liberal Arts.
The conference, which brought in smart cities scholars and practitioners with an interest in human factors from around the world, included plenty of discussion about the role of smart cities in promoting inclusiveness and eliminating social inequalities, the role of mobility in creating smart cities, and putting people at the heart of smart-city decision making.
“Do things with folks, not for them, have them in the room, make sure the interface makes sense, make sure it’s culturally appropriate, make sure it’s filling a need that actually exists and not one you assume exists” Deb Socia, executive director of Next Century Cities, told audience members during a panel discussion. Next Century Cities is an organization that works with community leaders to ensure access to high-speed internet.
Debra Lam, managing director for smart Cities and inclusive innovation in Georgia Tech’s Institute for People and Technology, played a leading role in organizing the conference, which was funded by the Nunn School and the Strategic Energy Institute. Georgia Tech Professional Education, the School of Public Policy, and the School of Civil and Environmental Engineering also supported the event.
]]>Georgia Tech leads the pilot Georgia Smart Communities Challenge, which supports one-year projects to develop and implement smart design solutions to some of the biggest challenges facing the state.
The four selected localities were chosen from a pool of applicants statewide.The cities of Albany and Chamblee and the counties of Chatham and Gwinnett are focusing on pilot projects to improve local housing investments, address traffic and transportation challenges, and develop more targeted flooding forecasts of storms and sea level rise along Georgia’s coast.
A local government coordinates each project. But community and neighborhood groups, industry, and others are crucial collaborators. A Georgia Tech researcher conducts studies and provides guidance in pursuit of each project’s goals, supported by graduate and undergraduate students.
Each community has received $50,000 in grants and $25,000 from Georgia Tech in research support. Communities also raised matched funds. Georgia Power is the lead sponsor, with additional financial support from the Atlanta Regional Commission. The work began in September 2018 and will continue through September 2019.
Students are engaged through the research projects but also through two additional summer programs. The Georgia Smart Community Corps is a full-time, paid summer fellowship for Georgia Tech students to become part of the project team. It is a joint collaboration with the Strategic Energy Institute, Center for Serve-Learn-Sustain, Center for Career Discovery and Development, and the Student Government Association.
The Georgia Tech Civic Data Science Program, led by Ellen Zegura and Christopher Le Dantec, competitively recruits students nationally to come to the Atlanta campus for the summer and work in smaller teams with the Georgia Smart community on data analytics.
And the competition will soon begin for the next group of communities, to be announced in June.
“We define ‘smart development’ as the integration and application of technologies to improve the quality of life,” said Debra Lam, managing director of Smart Cities and Inclusive Innovation at Georgia Tech. These advanced tools can be intelligent infrastructures, information, and communication technologies, Internet of Things devices, and other computational or digital systems, such as data centers and portals, web and smartphone applications, and automated digital services.
“There is a misconception that smart community innovations always must start in a major city and trickle down to smaller places,” said Lam. “But innovations can trickle up as well. They can be developed more quickly in smaller communities because you have all stakeholders in the room — the mayor and city manager, public agencies, community and neighborhood groups, industry and business. A next step will be to spread what’s learned from these smart development projects to other Georgia communities and beyond.”
Climate change is driving sea levels higher, increasing flooding events during coastal storms and extreme high tides in Chatham County. But the county has only one official water level gauge, located at Fort Pulaski. The Georgia coast, however, is a complex environment where rising water impacts can vary dramatically from place to place.
“Some neighborhoods are flooding more frequently now, while in other neighborhoods not far away the flooding is more modest or erratic, depending on which way the wind is blowing, how much rain falls, and many other factors,” said Russell Clark, Georgia Tech senior research scientist in the College of Computing.
That’s why residents want more targeted flood warnings and forecasts.
Chatham County is using its Smart Communities support to partner with Georgia Tech researchers to develop a sensor network partnered with data analytics for more accurate, localized flooding forecasts for improved emergency planning and response.
“Coastal communities are desperate for solutions,” said Kim Cobb, the project’s faculty leader, Georgia Power Chair, and professor in the School of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences. “Through many partnerships, Georgia Tech can design strategies to help communities adapt to climate change and sea level rise. We see this pilot as only the first step of a multi-year effort to advance real solutions with different combinations of partners, expertise, and funding.”
Local high school students are helping to build and install a new batch of 30 sensors that will soon augment the 12 units already deployed. The sensor network will transmit data to computer models for analysis and prediction of storm strength and flooding.
The Smart Sea Level Sensor Project is a partnership among Chatham Emergency Management Agency officials, City of Savannah officials, and Georgia Tech scientists and engineers. The pilot project’s data could be used to plan more resilient bridge, road, and water treatment infrastructure. The sensors could be adapted later to collect other environmental monitoring data, including rainfall and water quality parameters.
“Residents are excited to see that localized sensor data will be visible for them,” said Clark. “We hear a lot of ‘thank you for doing this in my neighborhood.’”
Emanuele Di Lorenzo, professor of ocean and climate dynamics, will integrate sensor data into models for predictive flood-risk assessments specifically for the Chatham County coast. David Frost, Elizabeth and Bill Higginbotham Professor of civil engineering, will provide resilience planning tools for community leaders.
Residents can offer their input during a May 16 showcase for the project sponsored by the Georgia Smart Communities Program. On smartphones and iPads, Georgia Tech undergraduates will guide residents through web-based visualizations of flood-risk scenarios for different coastal locations with augmented reality tools.
“We continue to look for community feedback, which is so important,” said Cobb. “There will be many more opportunities for local community members, students, and educators to get involved.”
Why do public investments in housing and infrastructure fail to revitalize some blighted neighborhoods? Albany, a city in the southwest corner of the state, is drawing on Georgia Smart support and guidance to develop and evaluate an automated housing registry that could help answer this question.
“As is the case in many communities, housing has fallen into disrepair in some Albany neighborhoods,” said Omar Isaac Asensio, assistant professor in the Georgia Tech School of Public Policy and principal investigator for the Albany project. “Abandoned or uninhabitable properties have been purchased and cleaned up. But the community says, ‘We're spending a lot of money on revitalization, but because data are siloed in different city departments and are not easily accessible, it’s hard for us to really quantify the benefits of these investments.’ In an effort to promote transparency, the city wants to integrate and analyze Albany’s housing data, which would help the community answer questions about the effectiveness of various policies or programs designed to help neighborhoods.”
For example, the Community Home Investment Program (CHIP) assists low- and moderate- income households with up to $25,000 in home repairs that affect the health or safety of those residing in the home. Eligible repairs include costly items such as roof replacement, heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) systems, and other energy efficiency measures. Today there is no way to link housing investment information with energy performance data in the city. As a result, the data needed to evaluate the effectiveness of housing programs are inaccessible, not just to the public.
Asensio’s team is collaborating with the city to bring together multiple databases to map housing address information as well as 10 years’ worth of utility records held by the city. Additional information from other city departments, including transit, code enforcement data, crime data, and other open data is part of the overall initiative, and will be added later.
“Under the leadership of Steven Carter, Albany’s chief information officer, we’ve already made strides on data collection, aggregation, and curation,” he said. “Now an open-data portal needs to be built, and data from more departments will be integrated into one place.” Using record linkage and statistical algorithms, the Georgia Tech team will create maps to visualize locations of blight and housing investments and tell the hidden stories behind the data, backed by rigorous analysis.
Albany is hosting participatory design workshops for the public and others to develop priorities about the initiatives that can be run through the portal and ArcGIS Hub in collaboration with Georgia Tech’s Christopher Le Dantec and Debra Lam. Project partners include Dougherty County, the city’s Department of Community and Economic Development, and the nonprofit Fight Albany Blight.
“We need input from both the public and private sectors about what’s important to them because ultimately this process is meant to benefit communities,” Asensio said. The open-data portal will evolve with new data that the city adds over time, helping officials to do their jobs, improving fiscal efficiency and enhancing transparency throughout city government.
Urban policy scientists are often stymied by lack of access to data. “The Albany initiative allows researchers access to granular data about public investment and performance needed for rigorous policy and program evaluation,” he said. “This project could provide a blueprint to other cities to open up and visualize city data in collaboration with the academic research community, the public, government, and industry. Albany’s experience will be indispensable for other communities in our state, putting the city on the map for developing the latest analytical tools on open data.”
Suburban Gwinnett County, northeast of Atlanta, has experienced sprawling growth and increasingly heavy traffic in recent decades. County leaders, looking for solutions, took note of Atlanta’s North Avenue Smart Corridor and similar high-tech projects around the country. Smart technologies can improve traffic flow and driver safety when vehicles share real-time locations with each other and with traffic signals. High-tech sensors on vehicles and roadways tell connected vehicles when to maneuver to avoid collisions, reducing crashes and traffic snarls on suburban arteries.
Now Gwinnett County is partnering with Georgia Smart in a project to engage multiple stakeholders across the state to set the standard for application of connected vehicle technology that can improve mobility and traffic safety.
The county aims to develop and implement a master plan for autonomous real-time data sharing among connected vehicle applications, signals, and other roadway sensors. The Peachtree Industrial Boulevard Corridor has been chosen as the pilot smart corridor for technology deployment, which is scheduled to begin later in 2019.
First, though, the county needs accurate baseline data about current traffic patterns.
“We’ve had access to high-fidelity traffic signal data, but data from vehicles on the road are very sparse,” said Angshuman Guin, the project’s faculty leader and senior research engineer in the School of Civil and Environmental Engineering.
“We were only getting a location point for emergency response vehicles every five minutes, but we need GPS points every second to understand the bottlenecks in traffic, as well as where and why the vehicles are losing time on the roadway during an emergency response.” He is collaborating with the county fire chief to outfit 15 fire department vehicles with Georgia Tech-designed sensor packages.
“We are using the fire department data to know exactly where and how long the delays are for emergency response vehicles — and compare those data to signal data. Was a delay associated with the signal being red? Or was it associated with traffic alone? This study is only possible because of our collaboration with the county, the fire department, and the other partners involved. We would not be able to gather the data we need without them.”
Guin will help the county assess the benefits of Connected Vehicle applications such as Emergency Vehicle Preemption, which help responders reach emergency scenes more quickly and safely. He will also simulate traffic operations and apply safety analyses across all systems.
“We are helping the county develop strategies, leveraging connected vehicle technology, for extending the benefits of preemption by implementing anticipatory queue flush operations at intersections to reduce the delays experienced by emergency vehicles, and to also improve safety at intersections,” he said.
Gwinnett County and Georgia Tech are collaborating on the project with the Georgia Department of Transportation and the cities of Berkeley Lake, Duluth, Norcross, and Suwanee.
Most connected-vehicle pilot efforts focus on interstates or high-density business districts. But many commuters and other drivers in the Atlanta metro spend more miles on suburban roadways than in the city.
Suburban arterials are typically more challenging for smart communications technologies. Heavily traveled suburban roads with higher operating speeds and irregularly spaced intersections make driving more complex and dangerous. That’s why the suburban Gwinnett County corridor could form the backbone of the Connected Vehicle Technology Master Plan to improve driving experience with connected vehicle technology across city and county lines throughout the state.
The city of Chamblee is attracting young people and others who seek a walkable, lively urban experience without the steep rents of Atlanta’s popular, higher-density neighborhoods. The Chamblee MARTA rail station in suburban DeKalb County has been a crucial drawing card for commuters relocating to apartments in the city’s redeveloping core.
Chamblee has succeeded in redeveloping properties near MARTA with urban apartments and new restaurants. “Now the city wants to expand local transit opportunities to link the MARTA station to other nearby neighborhoods, some with redevelopment projects already underway,” said Ellen Dunham-Jones, director of the Georgia Tech urban design program.
Chamblee is using Georgia Smart funding to partner with a Georgia Tech team, led by Dunham-Jones, to study how improving urban design and passenger experiences can help build ridership for an experimental mode of transportation — the shared autonomous vehicle.
Chamblee anticipates operating an autonomous shuttle along a mile of Peachtree Road with five stops for 10 hours a day, seven days a week. A second phase could extend the shuttle east to Assembly Yards, a mixed-use development under construction in Doraville. At first, the shuttle would operate semi-autonomously with an onboard attendant in case of emergencies.
The Georgia Tech team is developing a set of recommendations for the city and a best practices manual to improve the user experience of getting to, waiting for, and riding on autonomous shuttle buses. How might they expand walkability throughout Chamblee and build social capital? Can bus stops serve as community infrastructure? The guide could be applied in other communities in Georgia and around the country.
Dunham-Jones and Ph.D. student Zachary Lancaster studied 18 autonomous shuttle projects in pilot stages worldwide, the great majority of which operate on private streets or in office parks. They interviewed industry experts, visited pilot projects, and surveyed potential passengers of Chamblee’s shuttle.
The autonomous shuttle experience must be appealing to compete with other transit options including private cars, electric scooters, and ride-share services.
“Once the shuttle is operating, it’s important to have a data management plan that allows for feedback from users,” she said. “That will help the city improve the shuttle system by learning more about how people respond to it.”
The pilot project will also develop an operations plan for the shuttle and conduct preliminary engineering while engaging the community through public meetings, city strolls, and other events. Other city partners include the City of Doraville, Stantec, MARTA, and the Assembly Community Improvement District.
Introducing small autonomous transit vehicles to city streets could eventually transform how people get around.
“With autonomous shared vehicles, you could replace the typical big bus that comes once an hour with four or five small shuttles along the same route arriving every 10 minutes, and that would be a game changer for encouraging more people to use transit,” she said.
As the inaugural Georgia Smart projects draw to a close in September, the team with support from the Strategic Energy Institute will produce a Georgia Smart Community Playbook. Distilling best practices and findings for all communities, the playbook is being developed by Christopher Le Dantec, associate professor in the Digital Media program in the School of Literature, Media, and Communication.
The playbook will include a data guide.
“The guide prompts communities to answer a number of questions about data they found useful in their projects,” says Le Dantec. “Where did these data come from? What are the data standards? What are the data’s limitations? What might another community do with similar data and where can it go for help?”
Each project concludes in September with a local public event to explain how the community pursued its goals, gained results, and made plans for the future. Each cohort, then, provides a road map for the next one.
But projects supported by Georgia Smart won’t necessarily come to an end after one year. They may evolve with new sources of funding.
“Georgia Tech scientists and engineers have become part of the local team,” said Lam. “Many of the researchers want to continue engaging in this work, expanding the pilot projects with new grants and other opportunities.”
Georgia Smart is supported by the Georgia Power Company and the Atlanta Regional Commission, the lead sponsors, as well as the Association County Commissioners of Georgia, Georgia Chamber, Georgia Department of Community Affairs, Georgia Department of Economic Development, Georgia Municipal Association, Georgia Planning Association, Global City Teams Challenge, Metro Atlanta Chamber, and Technology Association of Georgia.
For more information about Georgia Smart, visit www.smartcities.gatech.edu/georgia-smart.
The links below have additional information (in PDF format) on each project:
Research News
Georgia Institute of Technology
177 North Avenue
Atlanta, Georgia 30332-0181 USA
Media Relations Contact: John Toon (404-894-6986) (jtoon@gatech.edu).
Writer: John Tibbetts
]]>Research News
(404) 894-6986
]]>This new Georgia Tech-led initiative brings together industry and public agencies to help local governments implement smart development. The strategies developed by the selected communities will serve as models that could be implemented elsewhere across Georgia.
The program provides seed funding and access to technical assistance, expert advice and a network of peers. A Georgia Tech researcher will advise and conduct research in support of each group’s goals.
The winning proposals are:
“Georgia Tech is excited at the opportunity to collaborate with four of Georgia’s dynamic communities in this inaugural Georgia Smart Communities Challenge,” President G.P. “Bud” Peterson said. “The enthusiasm for this new program has been gratifying, and we look forward to seeing how Georgia Tech’s research expertise and the communities’ vision of smart development mesh together to improve the lives of their citizens. These groundbreaking projects have the potential to become models for other communities around our state.”
Georgia Smart supports communities of all sizes, including smaller towns, which may not have been as prominent in smart development because of a lack of resources. Seventeen communities applied for the program.
While each selected team is led by a local government, the work will be a collaboration between different government agencies and nonprofits.
The teams will each receive $50,000 in grants and $25,000 from Georgia Tech in researcher support. The selected communities each raised an additional $50,000.
Georgia Power is the lead sponsor of the program, with additional financial support from the Atlanta Regional Commission.
“At Georgia Power, we’re committed to investments in smart technologies and collaborative partnerships that improve service to our customers, as well as the quality of life in local communities,” said Latanza Adjel, vice president for sales at Georgia Power, who leads the company’s efforts in energy efficiency and other areas. “We’re proud to have worked with some of the most innovative public leaders in the state as part of this project, and congratulate the winners of the Smart Communities Challenge for exploring and embracing new technologies that can benefit thousands of our Georgia neighbors.”
Doug Hooker, executive director of the Atlanta Regional Commission, noted the diversity and quality of the applications for the program. The winners emphasized a highly collaborative approach that includes working across multiple jurisdictions and agencies, he said.
Additional partners include: Association County Commissioners of Georgia, Georgia Centers for Innovation, Georgia Chamber of Commerce, Georgia Department of Community Affairs, Georgia Municipal Association, Global City Teams Challenge, Metro Atlanta Chamber and Technology Association of Georgia.
Georgia Tech and some of the Georgia Smart partners will celebrate the winners during a special event in Albany Tuesday morning.
Work on the projects will begin in September and continue through September 2019.
“The four selected communities show cities of all sizes can work on smart development and that these projects are strongest when done through collaboration,” said Debra Lam, managing director of Smart Cities and Inclusive Innovation at Georgia Tech. “Other cities will not be excluded from the broad Georgia Smart community as we remain committed to supporting smart development across the state and beyond.”
]]>]]>
Four communities are the first winners of the Georgia Smart Communities Challenge. Learn more about their plans:
Albany Housing Data Analytics and Visualization Initiative
Lead: Albany
Collaborators: Department of Community and Economic Development; Dougherty County; Albany, Georgia Initiative for Community Housing; and Fight Albany Blight
This initiative seeks to bridge the gap between available data and the need for a comprehensive, flexible and accurate database to effectively manage the Albany housing inventory. The end result will allow a better measurement of public funds allocated for housing and neighborhood structure repairs and enhancements, using an automated data analytics and visualization tool. The initiative also allows the city and its collaborators to engage with residents and become part of the solution to the communities’ housing issues.
Smart Sea Level Tools for Emergency Planning and Response
Lead: Chatham County
Collaborators: Savannah and Creative Coast
This project will develop and test a pilot sensor network for measuring sea level flood risk during natural disasters and storms. Sea level rise presents a risk to coastal communities and those risks become more pronounced during hurricane landfalls when extreme flooding exacts a major toll on public safety and key infrastructure. The proposed sensor network will improve flood warnings, emergency response action plans and predictions for future flood events. This project is considered the first of its kind for the region and the expectation is it will serve as a model for future smart designs along Georgia’s coastline.
Shared Autonomous Vehicle Study
Lead: Chamblee
Collaborators: Doraville, MARTA, Stantec and Assembly Community Improvement District (CID)
This project will study improvements in mobility through the use of shared autonomous vehicles, which travel from MARTA stations into the community. This option will reduce road congestion, increase pedestrian and traveler safety and improve equity in the community. While the project will look at challenges surrounding the “last mile” – getting from a transportation hub to a final destination – there will be additional implications. The research will look at the potential impacts of autonomous vehicle technology on land use, attracting residents and employees, expanding access to MARTA, prioritizing pedestrian and bike mobility; and improving public health.
Connected Vehicle Technology Master Plan
Lead by Gwinnett County
Collaborators: Berkeley Lake, Duluth, Norcross, Suwanee and Georgia Department of Transportation
This project will evaluate traffic management technologies for improved vehicle mobility throughout the region. It will use the latest technological advances in traffic management systems to improve traffic congestion and reduce crashes along the Peachtree Boulevard corridor. In addition to modeling how to set up a connected vehicle system, this project will help agencies charged with new traffic safety and mobility to manage expectations and costs, and fully realize the benefits of these new technologies.
]]>For all other inquiries, email scii@ipat.gatech.edu
]]>Albany is one of four Georgia communities seeking “smart solutions” through the Georgia Tech-led program to implement smart design solutions to some of the city’s challenges. Teams each receive $50,000 in grants and $25,000 from Georgia Tech in research support. Also, the four communities each raised an additional $50,000. Georgia Power is the lead sponsor of the program and Atlanta Regional Commission providees additional financial support.
Omar Isaac Asensio was selected to work on the “Albany Housing Data Analytics and Visualization Initiative for the City of Albany,” one of four projects for the Georgia Smart Communities Challenge. The Albany initiative seeks to bridge the gap between available data and the need for a comprehensive, flexible, and accurate database to effectively manage the Albany housing inventory.
The end result of this initiative will allow a better measurement of public funds allocated for housing and neighborhood structure repairs and enhancements, using an automated data analytics and visualization tool. The initiative also allows the city and its collaborators to engage with residents and become part of the solution to the communities’ housing issues.
Work on this initiative and the other projects is set to continue through September 2019.
Click here to learn more about the Georgia Smart Communities Challenge.
]]>The pilot grants will fund one semester for recipients to further interdisciplinary research within the area of smart and connected communities. IPaT is supporting data-centric projects aiming to create new forms of smart city data, leverage and make available legacy city data, and prototype targeted uses of smart city data.
The grant program will result in new collections of smart city data that can be made available to the Georgia Tech research community and new prototypes for working with that data. Clark will receive $10,000 in funding.
Her research proposal can be found below. Learn more about the other grant recipients here: http://ipat.gatech.edu/2017-ipat-smart-connected-communities-data-pilot-grants
Making Legacy Data Available and Accessible for the Smart City
Jennifer Clark, Center for Urban Innovation
Thomas Lodato, Center for Urban Innovation
As a limited inquiry into these challenges and opportunities for legacy data, we propose exploring the process of digitizing and making accessible the budget and fiscal reporting data currently available from the City of Atlanta. The goals of this research are both practical and exploratory. Through this demonstration case, we will ascertain the cost and timeline for digitizing public data more generally as well as understand the challenges and opportunities incurred by making publicly available data operational for smart city systems through online databases and APIs. In short, the project addresses the problem of developing a process and method for converting data series, making data series available, and elaborating on policy issues related to smart cities data stewardship.
The pilot grants will provide funding for one semester for recipients to further interdisciplinary research within the area of smart and connected communities. IPaT is supporting data-centric projects aiming to create new forms of smart city data, leverage and make available legacy city data, and prototype targeted uses of smart city data.
The grant program will result in new collections of smart city data that can be made available to the Georgia Tech research community and new prototypes for working with that data.
DiSalvo was funded for $10,000 and Le Dantec for $5,000. Their funded research proposals can be found below. Learn more about the other grant recipients here: http://ipat.gatech.edu/2017-ipat-smart-connected-communities-data-pilot-grants
Developing a Robust Archive of Environmental Data to Support Smart Cities Initiatives
Amanda Meng, College of Computing
Ellen Zegura, College of Computing
Carl DiSalvo, Ivan Allen College of Liberal Arts
Smart cities achieve more livable and sustainable outcomes for their residents when physical and social infrastructureS are connected through networked technologies. Citizens aid the city in making better service delivery and policy decisions through open and participatory data collection. Despite the recent launch of Atlanta’s smart city initiative, there is currently a dearth of data. As environmental sensors are a key component of the planned deployment of sensor technologies in Atlanta, we propose a project focused on environmental data. The goal of this project is to construct a robust archive of environmental data, from multiple sources, and make that data readily available for prototyping, and later, service development.
Sensing Traffic Conditions to Model and Predict Rider Stress
Christopher Le Dantec, School of Literature, Media, and Communication
Kari Watkins, School of Civil and Environmental Engineering
Recent work within transportation research has begun to question the accepted models for assessing cycling infrastructure. Metrics like levels of service or compatibility indexes are based on models for vehicular traffic and miss important elements of what goes into choosing one route over another. A more recent and promising model — Level of Traffic Stress — does a better job of accounting for the subjective experience of cycling; however, that model is new and would benefit from a stronger empirical foundation to clarify the transitions between the four levels of stress in the model. We propose to develop a new data set that would provide a more empirical and ground-truth foundation for modeling levels of traffic stress. To do so, we will begin prototyping and deploying purpose-built sensors to an established population of Cycle Atlanta app users in the spring of 2017 to determine which data sources have the highest value for determining the Level of Traffic Stress. To accomplish this, we will build a set of prototype IoT sensors that will complement route data collected by the cyclist tracking application Cycle Atlanta (and its derivatives used in other locations). The sensors we are looking to build will augment data collected by the app and will collect noise, air quality, and road condition data as baseline. More importantly, we will determine which constellation of off-the-shelf sensors is needed to reliably detect object proximity and approach speed. The latter being very important to the experience of stress as near-miss and high-speed encounters with cars and trucks are the primary contributor to rider stress.
]]>The integration of emerging technologies into the construction, Implementation and operation of our transportation and other civil systems is the greatest opportunity in front of us, ” says Dr. Ross.
The group will explore the benefits of smart transportation services for communities, including low income populations in urban, suburban, and rural America. Extending beyond transportation-related operational and safety topics, the event will address issues related to how smart systems are implemented. Potential impacts on mobility, access to work and opportunities, community experiences, public and private costs, and social equity will all be addressed. The Symposium will take place on Thursday, January 12, 2017 at the National Academy of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine in Washington, D.C.
To learn more about Dr. Ross, please click here.
]]>During the event, which was organized by Georgia Tech’s Institute for People and Technology, participants from across campus described multidisciplinary strategies focused on making Atlanta one of the most livable, equitable, sustainable, and innovative cities in the United States.
The Ivan Allen College was represented by several speakers and panelists, including Carl DiSalvo, associate professor in the School of Literature, Media, and Communication; Jennifer Clark, associate professor in the School of Public Policy; Seymour Goodman, professor in the Sam Nunn School of International Affairs; and Christopher Le Dantec, assistant professor in the School of Literature, Media, and Communication. Their panels covered economic, sustainability, and livability concerns pertaining to urban development.
Learn more about the Smart Cities Faculty Summit here: http://ipat.gatech.edu/experts/gt-smart-cities-summit
]]>Two recent examples include the development of an app that aids in the collection of unused medical products, and research that studies cyclists to help determine where bike lanes should go.
MedShare is an Atlanta-based humanitarian aid organization that works with hospitals, distributors, and manufacturers worldwide to collect and redistribute medical products to qualified healthcare facilities in medically underserved communities. As the organization’s director of programs and procurement, Jason Chernock had been looking to develop a technology that would make it easier for hospital employees to communicate with MedShare.
Simultaneously, researchers at Georgia Tech were identifying projects for a Computing for Good course. Through a series of connections — including Professor of the Practice in the College of Computing Richard “Dick” Henneman, College of Computing Professor Jim Foley, and Fleming Chair and Professor in the School of Computer Science Ellen Zegura — they reached out to MedShare CEO and Tech alumnus Charles Redding. Chernock took the lead on the project.
“I was ecstatic to get the email, and I thought ‘this will be perfect. This is the right class to work on this idea,’” said Chernock, who was already familiar with Tech because he earned a master’s in city planning from Tech, and he worked in the Enterprise Innovation Institute for six years in economic development and planning.
“The students were so professional, so committed. They were everything you’d want in a team. They listened to us, and they really worked hand in hand with us to build this."
The goal was to improve a process at MedShare: collecting donated medical supplies from Atlanta hospitals and keeping track of collection barrels tucked away in nursing stations and supply closets.
Normally, when given the opportunity to place a collection barrel in a hospital, MedShare staff meets with the hospital staff and gives a presentation on the do’s and don’ts of collecting medical supplies. They leave a packet of paper with the collection guidelines and MedShare contact information for the staff to refer to later.
But Chernock constantly had his doubts about this process.
“I always imagined that by the end of that day, someone had gently thrown that packet of paper into the recycle bin — never to be thought of again,” Chernock said. “The way that people engage with MedShare is they only think of us when they need us.”
For example, when a patient is discharged and there are excess, unused medical supplies in the room, those items cannot be used by another patient. That’s when the hospital staff thinks of MedShare, but the collection guidelines are lost.
So, the idea was to create a tool — a smartphone application — that would be available to hospital staff specifically when they need it, that has all of the information contained in the packet of guidelines, and makes it easy to contact MedShare.
The app provides answers to critical questions: Can I donate this? Where is the donation barrel? Who do I contact if I have a question? It also makes it easy to locate the barrel, which is usually tucked away in a hospital supply closet.
In fall of 2015, a team of undergraduates worked with MedShare to scope out the possibilities of what could be done with the app.
MedShare worked with two instructors and a team of computer science majors over two semesters to take the project from concept to completion. The app is now available for Apple and Android platforms and includes a feature that allows MedShare to update the app’s content through the app itself.
“I have worked with a number of student groups, and I have been involved with a number of class projects,” Chernock said. “This was far and away the best experience I have ever had. The students were so professional, so committed. They were everything you’d want in a team. They listened to us, and they really worked hand in hand with us to build this. They were just a fantastic group of students.”
Students working on the project were Hank Cohen, Conor Fitzpatrick, Jessica Hoffman, John Hudgins, and Benjamin LaForge. Course instructors were Dan Forsyth, associate director of research and instruction in the College of Computing, and Sarah Lozier, Brittain Fellow in the School of Literature, Media, and Communication.
“The biggest take away from working on this application was understanding the vitality of a good team,” said LaForge, a fifth-year computational media major and the lead front-end developer on the team. “We knew and understood each other’s strong suits and called on each other for help unashamedly when we knew someone else had a better grasp of the situation.”
He said communication within the team and with Chernock was exceptional.
“It was such a pleasure to work on an application that we all knew had such a great purpose,” LaForge said. “We're so excited to see how MedShare uses it and how it impacts their donation process for the better.”
MedShare began slowly rolling the application out to its partners in May.
MedShare engages more than 20,000 volunteers each year who sort the donations and double check for quality.
Since its founding 20 years ago, MedShare has diverted 3.6 million cubic feet of quality and unused medical products from local landfills and equipped healthcare professionals in 100 countries.
“The more we can stop the collection of unusable items at the source, the more efficiently we can move these items into our inventory and to our healthcare partners,” Chernock said.
Meanwhile, this summer, two Tech researchers were trying to “see like a bike.”
Professors and longtime research collaborators Christopher Le Dantec and Kari Watkins have been working since 2012 on a project called Cycle Atlanta. They developed an app that lets cyclists record where they ride, and the data has been used by the City of Atlanta, the Atlanta Regional Commission, and Georgia Tech to provide better cycling infrastructure.
Now, Le Dantec, an associate professor in the School of Literature, Media, and Communication, and Watkins, an associate professor in the School of Civil and Environmental Engineering, have added a new research project that looks at what happens while the cyclist is on the road.
“One of the other pieces that is interesting for transportation planners is not just where do people go, but what their experience is on the road,” Le Dantec said.
Stressful experiences prevent people from riding, so the researchers are looking to collect environmental data to understand in more detail the attributes of those stressful experiences.
The level of traffic stress (LTS) is a network measure, which is critical for cyclists, according to Watkins.
“LTS 4 is the worst level. We call it ‘Strong and Fearless,’” she said. “You may have someone who is quite timid, maybe a new cyclist or someone riding with kids, who would only ride LTS 1 or 2 segments. If one segment of road between a person’s origin and destination is rated as LTS 4, they aren’t going to make the trip by bike. So, we can use LTS to understand where there are gaps in the network that make it so that people will not bike.”
As those gaps are filled and a complete low-stress network is built, the researchers can see the transportation mode share of cycling go up to 5 or even 10 percent, Watkins said.
What the researchers are trying to do, with sensors on bicycles, is to understand what is going on in the city in much more detail.
Starting last spring in Le Dantec’s project studio in the Digital Media program, students built prototypes of three sensor kits for bikes. The work continued through an NSF-funded Research Experience for Undergraduates summer program he co-directs with Fleming Chair and Professor in the School of Computer Science Ellen Zegura, and Bistra Dilkina, assistant professor in Computational Science and Engineering, called Data Science for Social Good/Civic Data Science. On the back of the bike, the sensor kit measures air quality, and it can differentiate what kind of traffic the cyclist is in. It also looks at how close and how fast cars are passing.
On the front of the bike, sensors look at road quality and location.
“Are you swerving around potholes and avoiding obstacles such as debris in the bike lane? Are you having to swerve into traffic?” LeDantec asked.
They are not yet measuring the riders’ stress, but they’re looking at the environment, which is changing in Atlanta.
“The early deployment is for pure data collection,” Le Dantec said. “We want to start to understand the range of conditions that cyclists encounter. Then we will do another deployment where we continually poll the cyclists regarding how stressed they are, and we can start matching their subjective experience of stress with environmental conditions, such as a car passing closely.”
Using this data, the researchers can then determine what changes need to be made in particular areas, such as adding a bike lane or adjusting the speed limit. Ultimately, building a plan to help cyclists get from Point A to Point B is one potential outcome.
For planners working at the Atlanta Regional Commission, the information gathered by this research can help them determine where to put new bike lanes.
Le Dantec and Watkins are seeking to fund the effort from multiple sources, and eventually, they will need volunteers to ride roadways and rate their stress level.
In 1950 about 30 percent of the world’s population lived in cities, a number that shot up to nearly 55 percent by 2016 and is expected to hit 60 percent by 2030, according to United Nations statistics. This dramatic growth brings challenges on a variety of fronts, transforming “smart cities” from a catchy phrase into a critical endeavor.
Georgia Tech has been intensifying its smart cities initiative, including membership in the national MetroLab Network and the launch of a new faculty council with members from more than a dozen university units.
“Smart cities is a highly complex area, encompassing everything from resiliency and environmental sustainability to wellness and quality of life,” said Elizabeth Mynatt, executive director of Georgia Tech’s Institute for People and Technology (IPaT) and distinguished professor in the College of Computing, who is co-chairing the new council. “Although Georgia Tech has been working in this area for some time, we’re organizing research so we can be more holistic and have combined impact.”
“Instead of discrete projects, we’re moving into a programmatic approach,” agreed Jennifer Clark, associate professor of public policy and director of Georgia Tech’s Center for Urban Innovation. “Smart cities research touches on everything from computing and engineering to the social sciences. It’s a different way of thinking about technology — not just in the private sector but also the public sector — so we make cities more efficient and economically competitive places.”
Author of an upcoming book on smart cities, Clark notes that metro areas generated nearly 91 percent of the U.S. gross national product in 2015. “Technology and economic growth are interlinked,” she said. “Just like a world-class airport, you need a world-class IT infrastructure, and it has to be deployed in such a way that people can access it for their own economic activities, whether it’s large or small companies. We need a technological infrastructure that will work for the 21st-century economy and the centuries beyond.”
Complete article in Research Horizons magazine
]]>Research News
(404) 894-6986
]]>