Smart City Technology Improves Quality of Life

Imagine we are sitting at a café in a large, cosmopolitan city, and I ask you to list at least five reasons people like living in cities. You could probably tell me your list in less than a minute. Not surprisingly, it is equally easy to list the many challenges of urban living, and that list includes serious and complex issues. The challenges—and the opportunities for innovation—inspire me and my colleagues at Intel. And that’s why we’re so proud to be participants in the SmartAmerica Challenge, a White House Presidential Innovation Fellow project. The Challenge, which began last December, has launched dozens of research projects and activities aimed at creating tangible and measurable benefits to the U.S. economy and the daily lives of Americans, including the Smart Cities USA project.

Smart Cities USA: Intel and City of San Jose, CA

As part of the SmartAmerica Challenge, Intel and the City of San Jose launched Smart Cities USA, a Smart City project designed to address the multitude of challenges facing American cities, now and in the future. Cities currently consume two-thirds of the world’s energy and the majority of other resources. And in about ten years, 37 cities will have a population greater than 10 million people. In a world of limited resources, we can’t wait until tomorrow to begin addressing our cities’ escalating demands.

Fortunately, the Internet of Things (IoT) can help cities become “smarter” and more flexible in responding to citizens’ needs. Indeed, Intel’s technology for use in smart cities enables the cutting-edge intelligence and flexibility needed to help cities use resources more efficiently, improving everything from air and water quality to transportation, energy, and communications systems.

For the SmartAmerica Challenge, Intel’s public-private collaboration with the City of San Jose implements our technology, a system of intelligent sensors that monitor air and water quality, transportation, energy, and communication systems, allowing City managers to make critical decisions that will improve the lives of their citizens. This is the first Smart City implementation using Intel technology in the United States and offers a cost-effective template to manage infrastructure growth and environmental sustainability, which can help cities throughout the country meet the demands of escalating population rates.

Some Key Goals of Smart City San Jose

• Foster thousands of clean tech jobs
• Develop a better quality of life now and for years to come
• Continue to attract business and remain competitive
• Deliver new services to our citizens by sharing more insightful information
• Provide more flexible and efficient uses of our resources (sustainable environment)
• Establish a cost-effective, easy-to-install solution
• Decrease pollution

We are delighted to work on such a valuable project with such meaningful and positive results, and we’ll continue to share stories with you about Smart Cities USA going forward.

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Original post published on IoT@Intel blog.

Ton Steenman is vice president of the Internet of Things (IoT) Solutions Group and general manager of the Internet of Things Strategy and Technology Office at Intel Corporation. He is responsible for managing the IoT strategy across all of Intel’s assets, including development of strategic business objectives, an end-to-end implementation strategy, driving external industry and partner leadership, and technical alignment to deliver foundational IoT technologies and solutions. IoT is a significant area of growth for Intel, and the company has a wide range of technologies and assets to help customers realize the business transformational opportunity IoT offers.