IEEE, the world’s largest professional organization dedicated to advancing technology for humanity, announced the municipalities of Wuxi, China and Trento, Italy, which have been selected by the IEEE Smart Cities Initiative Steering Committee to join Guadalajara, Mexico, the initial city participant.
Trento and Wuxi were among many candidates that submitted applications to participate in the IEEE Smart Cities Initiative. Wuxi was selected for its focus on Internet of Things applied to Energy, Environment and Intelligent Transportation, Trento for its focus on Quality of Life and leveraging on data to understand and act on the City with the participation of the whole citizenship.
"We had a difficult challenge as so many of the applications we received from municipalities to participate in the IEEE Smart Cities Initiative were incredibly impressive," said Gilles Betis, chair of the IEEE Smart Cities Initiative, and also EIT ICT Labs Action Line Leader for Urban Life and Mobility. "We selected the cities of Trento and Wuxi because they provided compelling evidence that they were particularly well positioned to utilize the resources offered through the IEEE Smart Cities Initiative, and they demonstrated plans to invest their own human and financial capital into the project, indicating their commitment to improving the quality of life for their citizens."
City planners from Wuxi and Trento will collaborate with a team of IEEE experts to explore the issues and address what is needed for their urban populations. Their participation in the IEEE Smart Cities Initiative will comprise an inaugural workshop, whitepapers development, graduate student support (PhD and Masters), development of content for "MOOCs" (Massive Open Online Courses), and organisation of an international conference on smart cities.
"Being selected to participate in the IEEE Smart Cities Initiative is an honor and collaborating with such an impressive community of experts will be of great benefit to Trento, which has always been attentive to its citizens’ needs," said Mrs. Chiara Morandini, general manager, Trento Municipality. "This collaboration will nicely augment our existing political and operational strategy for the ‘quality of life’ concept, intended to stimulate economic growth, improve social welfare, ensure sustainable urban services and provide access to advanced technological innovations to create a pleasant city-lifestyle and well functioning community."
As a selected city, Trento will see a workshop in the Fall of 2014 focussing on the specific interest of the city and initiating the activities of 4 working groups that will benefit from IEEE support. In 2015 the University of Trento will develop 4 MOOCs supported by IEEE on the relevant aspects of Trento Smart City. Every two years Trento, as the other selected cities, will organise a worldwide event to share experience and discuss future steps.
For more information on the IEEE Smart Cities Initiative visit http://smartcities.ieee.org
Laura Meijere Cristanelli - EIT ICT Labs Italy
