As part of the White House’s expansion of the Smart Cities Initiative, the National Science Foundation (NSF) has announced a new program solicitation on Smart and Connected Communities. The following Dear Colleague Letter from Jim Kurose, Assistant Director of NSF for Computer and Information Science and Engineering, explains the new opportunities available. Dear Colleagues,   Yesterday, the White House announced that the federal government is committing over $80 million – led by NSF with a $60M commitment over two years – toward the Smart Cities Initiative that was launched just over a year ago.   NSF has long supported the fundamental research, education, and community-building activities that are catalyzing the multidisciplinary and […]

To kick off the start of Smart Cities Week, the White House has announced that it is expanding its Smart Cities initiative, by adding over $80 million dollars in new federal investments and doubling the number of participating communities (to over 70 in total). The Community Community Consortium (CCC) held a Smart Cities panel and discussion at the Computing Research Symposium: Addressing National Priorities and Societal Needs. You can see the full discussion here. Some highlights from the White House Fact Sheet are below: Today, to kick off Smart Cities Week, the Administration is expanding this initiative, with over $80 million in new Federal investments and a doubling of the number of […]

National Science Foundation (NSF) Assistant Director for the Directorate of Computer & Information Science & Engineering (CISE) James Kurose has issued the following letter to the community describing CISE’s role in the White House Smart Cities Initiative.  Dear CISE Colleagues, I’m sending you this note about the new Smart Cities Initiative that was announced last Monday by the White House.  NSF CISE and our CISE community have already been playing a crucially important role in laying the foundation for this initiative, which creates enormous opportunities for unlocking “smart” new solutions to improve the quality of life in cities and communities throughout the Nation. Our community is also well positioned to continue to help […]

The White House has kicked off the first ever Smart Cities Week (September 15-17, 2015) in Washington, DC, announcing new steps in support of a new National Smart Cities Initiative. The National Smart Cities Initiative will invest over $160 million in federal research and leverage more than 25 new technology collaborations to help local communities tackle key challenges such as reducing traffic congestion, fighting crime, fostering economic growth, managing the effects of a changing climate, and improving the delivery of city services. The Administration’s Smart Cities Initiative will begin with a focus on three key strategies creating test beds for “Internet of Things” applications and developing new multi-sector collaborative models, collaborating with the […]

Save the date for the next of round of the Global City Teams Challenge (GCTC) on November 12-13, 2015. Municipal leaders and innovators will gather at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) Campus in Gaithersburg, Maryland for this important event planned by NIST and US Ignite. The Global City Teams Challenge is an initiative designed to advance the deployment of Internet of Things (IoT) technologies within a smart city/smart community environment. More than 40 project teams or “action clusters” are currently participating in the GCTC. To see a list of current Action Clusters, click here. An agenda for the November event and a summary of changes that NIST and […]