PLANNING AND LEADERSHIP FOR A BETTER WORLD
PLANNING AND LEADERSHIP FOR A BETTER WORLD Now in its second year, IBM’s Smarter Cities Challenge already is working with more than 30 municipalities in countries such as the United States, Mexico, the United Kingdom, Brazil and Vietnam. Last year, IBM gave out 24 grants. U.S. cities received eight of them.
In March, IBM plans to announce the next recipients of the grant program, which is designed to help cities address some of the critical issues they face, over a three-year period. IBM is awarding a total of $50 million worth of technology and services to 100 municipalities worldwide in this time.
Key factors for a successful grant application include strong city leadership, willingness to collaborate with many stakeholders, and the desire to make their cities smarter and more efficient. Cities also must champion actionable and measurable efforts that have the potential to make a real impact on the lives of its citizens. In addition, winning applicants will identify areas that are closely connected with a city's top priorities, and involve a range of disciplines and departments.
This year, IBM will continue to build on existing relationships and forge new partnerships. In December, IBM created a Smarter Cities Exploration Center in collaboration with the University of Guadalajara (UdeG) in Mexico, founding the first center of its kind in Latin America. Working together, IBM and the university are researching and identifying how to apply advances in technology to the high degree of instrumentation and massive volumes of data that make up today’s cities. Already, the center has begun developing a transportation pilot program that could cut commuting time in Guadalajara by 15 percent—that’s about $90 million U.S. dollars saved annually, as citizens can spend their time more productively and decrease carbon emissions. Under this initiative, the center has begun developing a transportation pilot that uses state-of-the-art supercomputers to analyze and forecast traffic for the city’s 1.7 million vehicles, and then manage the vehicle flow according to routes.
Guadalajara, which has seen explosive growth in the past 30 years, hopes IBM’s Smarter Cities initiative will help it create a single view of government services. This will provide insight and analytics into public service departments, such as health care, education and law enforcement. The city then will be able to upgrade those systems to intelligently respond to citizens’ growing and changing needs.
In January 2012, Philadelphia and IBM announced a partnership effort to support workforce development. Through the agreement, the two entities will increase the accessibility and functionality of the Digital On-Ramps initiative, a Philadelphia collaborative designed to deliver anytime, anywhere learning and workforce training to city residents. In addition to studying and offering recommendations to the Digital On-Ramps program, IBM donated educational hardware and software to the City to help students improve their skills in reading, language, math and science. IBM’s donations to Philadelphia, including the Smarter Cities Challenge grant-funded recommendations, added up to more than $1 million.
IBM is donating Reading Companion software that will be installed on computers in 19 area recreation centers. The software uses voice recognition to listen and provide feedback to users to help them improve their reading skills. IBM is also donating 100 Young Explorer learning computers to the Greater Philadelphia Urban Affairs Coalition. These computers will be used at several Freedom Rings public computer centers to help young children learn math, science and language arts concepts to better prepare them to succeed in school.
In 2011, IBM worked with Mecklenburg County, N.C.; Edmonton, Alberta; St. Louis; and Milwaukee, Wisc.
More details about
IBM’s Smarter Cities initiative can be found in these Smarter Technology
articles: "IBM Adds New Software for Smarter
Cities," "Cities Awarded $50 Million to Get
Smart," "Smart Cities Investments to Skyrocket" and
"24 Cities Get Grants to Become
Smarter."
IBM expands global cloud capabilities with advanced #SmartCloud services & new customer adoption http://t.co/qpbR1XxK #ibmcloudStill confused to think of your #cloudmoment! Here are some good quotes that can help you think of your own http://t.co/3dsI0nO6 #ibmcloudRT @Shubhs77: I experience #cloudmoment whenever I upload my Daddy's fav songs/files on the Dropbox installed on his phone. He just need ...Good morning @cloud_indonesia! When have #cloud touched your life? Share your #cloudmoment! Check out our more at http://t.co/J4nxZKQZWe've launched a new site with stories of the moment cloud "clicked" for folks. Check it out & share your #cloudmoment! http://t.co/J4nxZKQZGood Morning from Asia/Pacific! #ibmcloudThat's it for me! More updates from the #IBMcloud Forum Chicago coming your way tomorrow. Over to Asia/Pacific.@RCChicago Thank you!*Brand new* video: Innovate without boundaries and harness the power of cloud >> http://t.co/gxSPLFbL #ibmcloudLots of #cloudmoment stories here today @RCChicago. http://t.co/X1JRs370
Like us on Facebook 
Follow us on Twitter 
Get the Smarter Tech Newsletter 
Register to view the archived "Data Center Optimization Techniques: Stop Wasting Time & Money" eSeminar
Register Now > 
