The University of Virginia School of Engineering is participating in a new National Science Foundation-funded smart and connected communities project aimed at giving citizens more equitable access to public services that are managed through smart systems. John A. Stankovic, BP America Professor in UVA Engineering's Department of Computer Science and director of theLink Labfor cyber-physical systems, is working with Desheng Zhang, assistant professor in the Department of Computer Science at Rutgers University; Fei Miao, assistant professor in the Department of Computer Science and Engineering at University of Connecticut; and Shan Lin, assistant professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Stony Brook University. The three-year, $2.3 million grant will help the city of Newark, N.J., develop strategies to ensure its digital public services are inclusive for all citizens. The researchers will analyze a common problem with the smart systems many cities are adopting to manage city-wide services. Conflicts in how these independent systems interact can contribute to a digital divide that leads to service inequities. The researchers will prescribe smart technology solutions that will help ensure citizens receive equal benefit from residential services. According to thenews release from Rutgers University, one objective is using technology to give residents equal access to information, a key for successful collaboration. “We have wanted to create one interactive map to be the sole source of information for every land parcel in Newark on a web site that will be intuitive for residents to use. This is a big step toward that goal,†said Newark Mayor Ras J. Baraka.