Smart Cities
Enabling communities to improve built infrastructure and resources through cyber technologies.
Infrastructure that is all around us supports every aspect of the modern human experience, providing the means of transportation, communications, water and sanitation, stormwater management, and the distribution of goods and commerce. Today, these physical systems are connected to the internet and to each other, creating hugely complex cyber-physical networks that require expertise in both systems science and large-scale infrastructure domains to make them work safely, effectively and cost-efficiently.
Localities must rethink how they manage these assets and invest in an arsenal of tools barely imagined a few decades ago — drones, sensors that send data and adjust systems to changing conditions in real time, and artificial intelligence, to name a few. Working across disciplines in hydroinformatics, safety and cyber security, occupant behavior and building energy consumption, internet-connected buildings, logistics, risk management and transportation optimization, our researchers are at the forefront of developing the technologies that make cities (and towns and rural communities) smarter, in turn helping smart cities make life better for everyone.