ASU Launches Hub for Smart City Innovation

Arizona State University is partnering with Amazon Web Services to create the ASU Smart City Cloud Innovation Center to build smarter communities in the Phoenix area.

  • By Sara Friedman
  • 11/28/18
smart city

A new effort at Arizona State University is designed to help build smart communities in the Phoenix metropolitan area. The ASU Smart City Cloud Innovation Center (CIC) will leverage the power of the Amazon Web Services to solve community and regional challenges through improving digital experiences for smart city designers, expanding technology alternatives to minimize costs, spurring economic and workforce development, and facilitating sharing of public sector solutions within the region.

"The ASU Smart City CIC has the opportunity to bring tremendous value to the local community and its citizens," said John Rome, deputy chief information officer at ASU. "We've been approached by city planners, healthcare administrators and ASU faculty members to work on challenges around autonomous vehicle governance, healthcare management, urban resilience and a host of education-related challenges. The possibilities for the CIC are endless."

The ASU Smart City CIC will serve as a training ground for university students while also providing resources for large-scale ASU initiatives such as TenAcross, which looks to solve societal and environmental issues across the Interstate 10 Corridor. The center will also support visiting scholars, faculty, student researchers, industry experts and community members who are looking to build solutions for smart city challenges. The center is expected to open early in 2019.

AWS has also partnered with the California Polytechnic University and Dongseo University in South Korea to develop AWS CIC programs. More information about the ASU collaboration can be found here.

About the Author

Sara Friedman is a reporter/producer for Campus Technology, THE Journal and STEAM Universe covering education policy and a wide range of other public-sector IT topics.

Friedman is a graduate of Ithaca College, where she studied journalism, politics and international communications.

Friedman can be contacted at [email protected] or follow her on Twitter @SaraEFriedman.

Click here for previous articles by Friedman.


Featured

  • college students in a classroom focus on a silver laptop, with a neural network diagram on the monitor in the background

    Report: 93% of Students Believe Gen AI Training Belongs in Degree Programs

    The vast majority of today's college students — 93% — believe generative AI training should be included in degree programs, according to a recent Coursera report. What's more, 86% of students consider gen AI the most crucial technical skill for career preparation, prioritizing it above in-demand skills such as data strategy and software development.

  • laptop with a neural network image, surrounded by books, notebooks, a magnifying glass, a pencil cup, and a desk lamp

    D2L Lumi AI Updates Add Personalized Study Supports

    Learning platform D2L has announced new artificial intelligence features for D2L Lumi that help provide more personalized study supports for students.

  • three glowing stacks of tech-themed icons

    Research: LLMs Need a Translation Layer to Launch Complex Cyber Attacks

    While large language models have been touted for their potential in cybersecurity, they are still far from executing real-world cyber attacks — unless given help from a new kind of abstraction layer, according to researchers at Carnegie Mellon University and Anthropic.

  • young man in a denim jacket scans his phone at a card reader outside a modern glass building

    Colleges Roll Out Mobile Credential Technology

    Allegion US has announced a partnership with Florida Institute of Technology (FIT) and Denison College, in conjunction with Transact + CBORD, to install mobile credential technologies campuswide. Implementing Mobile Student ID into Apple Wallet and Google Wallet will allow students access to campus facilities, amenities, and residence halls using just their phones.