Intel and the City of San Jose have announced a partnership to help drive the city’s economic growth, create 25,000 cleantech jobs, improve environmental sustainability and enhance the quality of life for residents.The project, known as Smart Cities USA, will give San Jose residents real-time, local data that can inform their personal decisions. For example, the community will better understand how they can help "Spare the Air" on poor air-quality days. When there is a local air-quality alert, residents can choose to take public transit, bicycle or carpool to get to work or school and thus reduce emissions and improve air quality.
Intel Launches 'Smart City’ Pilot Program in San Jose, CA
Intel and the City of San Jose have announced a partnership to help drive the city’s economic growth, create 25,000 cleantech jobs, improve environmental sustainability and enhance the quality of life for residents.
The project, known as Smart Cities USA, will give San Jose residents real-time, local data that can inform their personal decisions. For example, the community will better understand how they can help "Spare the Air" on poor air-quality days. When there is a local air-quality alert, residents can choose to take public transit, bicycle or carpool to get to work or school and thus reduce emissions and improve air quality.
San Jose is installing a network of sensors to create a "sustainability lens" that uses Intel technology to measure characteristics such as particulates in the air, noise pollution and traffic flow. Such measurement data will produce meaningful insights that will lead to improvements in air quality, noise, transportation efficiency, environmental sustainability, health and energy efficiency.
The joint project was selected to be showcased this week as part of the White House SmartAmerica Challenge. The program is a White House Presidential Innovation Fellow initiative that aims to bring together research in Cyber-Physical Systems and the Internet of Things and combine test beds, projects and activities from different sectors, including smart manufacturing, healthcare, smart energy, intelligent transportation and disaster response. The goal of the SmartAmerica Challenge is to show tangible and measurable benefits to the US economy and the daily lives of American citizens.
Today's cities consume two-thirds of the world's energy, Intel says. To address the escalating demands of existing and future residents, cities are looking for ways to introduce more technology to become "smarter" about the use of limited resources and more flexible in responding to residents' needs.
City governments are projected to collectively invest approximately $41 trillion over the next 20 years to upgrade their infrastructure. With Intel technology and its more than 30 years of experience connecting and securing intelligent devices, cities can cost-effectively manage infrastructure growth and resource sustainability that can help them meet the demands of escalating population rates.
In other smart city news, Cisco is working with officials in both Kansas City and the German city of Hamburg to create pilot projects around services such as smart traffic, smart street lighting and video surveillance, infrastructure sensing and mobile apps to boost citizens’ engagement.
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Mike Hower
Founder & Principal Consultant, Hower Impact
Mike Hower is the founder of Hower Impact — a boutique consultancy delivering best-in-class strategic communication advisory and support for corporate sustainability, ESG and climate tech.
Published Jun 17, 2014 2am EDT / 11pm PDT / 7am BST / 8am CEST