The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency is launching a new Office of Financial Technology early next year in response to the growth of fintech, the agency said Thursday.

The new office will “build on and incorporate” the Office of Innovation, which the agency started in 2016.

“Financial technology is changing rapidly, and bank-fintech partnerships are likely to continue growing in number and complexity,” said Michael Hsu, acting comptroller of the currency. “To ensure that the federal banking system is safe, sound, and fair today and well into the future, we need to have a deep understanding of financial technology and the financial technology landscape. The establishment of this office will enable us to be more agile and to promote responsible innovation, consistent with our mission.”

Some progressive senators have been urging the OCC to change its previous guidance, which gives chartered banks the ability to provide crypto custody, hold cash reserves backing stablecoins, and use blockchain and stablecoins to verify bank-to-bank payments. The senators say that the guidance exposes banks to “unnecessary risk.”

Meanwhile, more Wall Street firms and large banks are moving further into the use of cryptocurrencies.

Read the article here: The OCC is opening a new office for fintech

Besides saving energy and reducing costs, smart street lighting can provide a backbone for innovative and cutting-edge IoT city deployments.

Local governments are interested in smart city deployments and growth; the SmartAmerica Growth challenge estimates that local administrations will invest more than $40 trillion over the next two decades in internet-of-things technology for smart cities. And cities like New York, Chicago, Washington, D.C., and Seattle are already heavily invested in smart city programs that focus on waste management, community engagement and reducing energy costs.

With the passage of the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act last year making more than $600 billion available for programs that touch smart city initiatives like smart traffic sensors, cities must be mindful of initial investments that will help other programs grow over time. One of the best places to start could easily be overlooked: smart street lighting.

Smart street lighting might seem like an aging topic, but it can be a backbone for innovative and cutting-edge IoT city deployments. Here’s how switching on the lights can help pave the way for more advanced programs.

Furthering smart cities

Connected lights help smart cities better manage their energy use and keep costs low, while also helping improve citizen safety. Between 2017 and 2022, research shows the implementation of street light use cases has grown from 61% to 72% and is expected to continue growing.

By using the right technology, cities can leverage the ubiquitous outdoor wireless communications infrastructure needed to support IoT street lighting initiatives to deploy a range of other IoT applications such as environmental monitoring or smart traffic sensors.

As a first step, planners could enable remote monitoring of lighting controls based on whether pedestrians or cyclists are in the area, or whether parts of the city, such as tunnels or bridges, need illuminating. Once the network and infrastructure are in place, other applications and services can share the same communications infrastructure, therefore reducing the overall costs of the IoT network infrastructure.

Recent research indicates that ever more IT decision makers are using IoT initiatives, like street lighting, to gain a competitive advantage (up to 29% from 20% in 2017). Cities can stand out among their counterparts by prioritizing IoT progress, and they can also appeal to more potential residents looking for a safer, more environmentally friendly place to buy or rent a home.

An international example

The City of London — or the Square Mile — is the historic financial district of the larger area widely known as London. The City of London has just 9,400 permanent residents — but up to 1 million people at peak times — and shows the impact that IoT street lighting can have on a community. The City has a goal to take control of its rising energy costs, lower energy use and improve public safety by replacing its outdated lighting system (around 12,000 lights). Specifically, the focus was on lighting streets, walkways, landmarks, bridges and tunnels.

While the project is young, it’s already saved around 80,000 kWh over the past financial year and has laid the groundwork for other smart functionality, including monitoring life preservers and environmental sensors on the Thames and other sensors as part of a zero-emissions pilot program. It started with a straightforward upgrade of aging streetlights and the foresight to base the network on a scalable communications technology, showing just how powerful this piece of the smart city puzzle can be in furthering progress.

Cutting down costs and saving energy

Because governments always keep an eye on their budgets and look for ways to reduce expenses, implementing smart street lights can go a long way in driving down energy bills and keeping them low. Case in point: Intelligent Energy Europe actually found that an obsolete lighting system could account for as much as 50% of a typical city’s entire energy bill.

Putting connected street lights in place improves efficiency and reduces energy consumption, therefore lowering costs. Additionally, they require less upkeep than traditional lighting, making them a smarter, more cost-efficient investment for the long-term.

The environmental and business cases are clear for starting the transition toward becoming a smart city by implementing connected street lights. If cities are looking for a way to fast-track energy and cost savings and IoT progress need look no further.

Read the article here: Can smart streetlights kick-start smart city progress? Yes, they can.

Environmental, social and governance (ESG) performance has become an increasing focus for investors and corporate boards alike – but it wasn’t always this way.

A recent report from Natixis Investment Managers found that back in 2014, 48% of institutional investors said ESG approaches were more about window dressing than making a difference. That’s all changed – and so have the expectations of enterprise software customers, as sustainability is now an important part of the selection criteria for technology buyers. We are in the era of ESG as an imperative.

The ESG imperative has been brought to the forefront by geopolitical conflicts, the COVID-19 pandemic, global supply chain pressure and climate change. Enterprise vendors need their CEOs to establish a strong ESG foundation, with ambitious future targets, as CEO Darren Roos notes in the latest ESG Sustainability Report from IFS:

Now more than ever, there must be a global focus on building a brighter future for the next generation, and the imperative for businesses and institutions to lead from the front is greater than at any other point in history.

The manufacturing industry has a critical role to play in the sustainability movement. While technology will always be part of the solution, ultimately the goal is change.

Vendors, customers and suppliers are looking for ways to make changes in a meaningful but manageable and sustainable way. There are several ways that companies can drive change and achieve a culture of sustainability:

Choose the right business applications that support your long-term sustainability requirements

Executive teams need business applications that satisfy ESG-related demands well beyond compliance – to enable them to exceed their sustainability goals. Decision makers should look for capabilities to make certain they’re prepared to measure and manage not just by financial value, but environmental and social impact. In addition to ESG reporting, key sustainability enablers to consider include:

• Artificial intelligence. Managing cost, revenue and the environmental impacts of product, services or operations can rapidly become a complex scenario. AI can help here, for example, by optimising the scheduling and routes of field service technicians to decrease the number of miles driven or reduce fuel consumption.
• Circularity. Management of a circular product lifecycle to minimize waste should not only encompass data needed to manufacture a product, but also include a carefully constructed plan for decisions and costs associated with reuse, recycling, reverse logistics, remanufacturing, lifecycle extension or disposal.
• Consider the whole business. Too often, a company will simply implement an ERP system’s financial module, but sustainability requirements mean they also need to consider the supply chain and HR modules to document sourcing and labour practices in an auditable environment
• Carbon footprint. To calculate carbon emissions, businesses need activity data such as fuel, electricity, transport, water, waste and refrigerant gases. Calculating this in Excel is still very common; driving the need for tech-driven solutions to reduce time spent collecting activity data.

Help customers and partners to be more sustainable and deliver more sustainable products 

Technology providers need to recognise the urgency of the move manufacturers are making to achieve more sustainable operations, and the specific value sustainability can deliver.

Demonstrating the potential value technology solutions will bring, and how vendors can advance manufacturers’ sustainability goals, comes next. Often, it works to start small with a clearly defined goal and build on that over time. The key is to identify your material ESG topics and develop a focused strategy. Often in manufacturing prioritized focus is on areas where sustainable manufacturing can have a big impact.

We’ve seen numerous examples of how technology solutions delivered by providers that share their customers’ vision of sustainability can yield compelling value. For example, IFS has played a vital role in realizing Rolls-Royce’s ‘Intelligent Engine’ vision. The Blue Data Thread enabled by the partnership between Rolls-Royce and IFS provides the data connectivity between airline and Rolls-Royce that allows businesses to significantly increase the time between engine overhauls and therefore reduce emissions.

Silvermill Group has also reaped benefits including the ability to control factors such as electricity and water, cut down on wastage and be more environmentally efficient.

Continuously influence change through transparency

Delivering on sustainability can’t just be a ‘once and done thing’. Manufacturers need to be continuously focusing on sustainability efforts not only across their business but also the extended supply chain to make a meaningful impact.

Naturally, the technology partners they choose need to be onboard with that journey to facilitate the technology changes needed. There has to be two-way discussion and open, transparent, continuous engagement, so that in turn, providers can continue to deliver value.

That value shifts over time, especially as consumers and customers mature in their sustainability performance, and therefore needs to be tracked and measured. This transparency, together with a common mindset and a shared, positive vision will lead to genuine joint value creation.

It is regarded as completely normal to measure every dollar that contributes to financial performance. The same approach needs to be taken in measuring ESG performance. This may add new layers of complexity and creates new requirements for ERP. Frameworks for measuring and reporting on ESG performance are continuously evolving, , and both customers and funders are demanding “show, don’t tell” data to create credibility.

So how do we get started?

1. Act now. Technology providers and manufacturers alike need to realise that the time for action on ESG performance and sustainability is now – and that they cannot and should not wait for government to take the lead, nor let regulations take them by surprise . While governmental consensus on ESG elements such as climate change and the environment is critically important, there is much that manufacturers and the software community can do to advance towards their sustainability goals. Starting small with a defined objective gets the journey under way.
2. Share the process with stakeholders. To meet ESG goals, enterprise software should be accompanied by sound organizational structure and processes. A strong governance structure, and roles and responsibility with clearly defined sustainability objectives ensure performance. By communicating information clearly enterprise-wide employees are more likely to acquire the skills and knowledge required to ensure the organization reaches its goals.
3. Assess the range of technologies (and data) needed. Sustainability doesn’t happen in a sole, peripheral technologies or data might be adopted to supplement your ERP system and bring you closer to meeting ESG goals. Consider an ecosystem approach with other solutions or external data sources as part of a composable architecture.

Manufacturers should not hold back but instead move positively forward on the path to sustainability by finding the right technology partner and creating that proactive, forward-looking team. At IFS, we have laid strong foundations to be able to achieve long-term change.

Read the article here: Manufacturers are embracing the ESG imperative – now they must find the technology to bring it to life

It’s no secret the need for sustainable and resilient infrastructure is becoming more urgent every year. In fact, industry experts predict that the world will have to invest $90 trillion in sustainable infrastructure by 2030 to truly combat climate change. However, this push for green infrastructure has proven to be a slow process. Currently, infrastructure construction and operations—more specifically, motor vehicles—account for approximately 70% of all global emissions.

To prepare ourselves, infrastructure agencies can utilize advanced digital technology to make quality, resilient and eco-friendly infrastructure practical now. With a critical eye toward climate change, technology can play a more impactful role in addressing sustainability, durability and even disaster recovery.

It can do this by not only offering innovative 21st-century, green transportation options but, more specifically, through how the infrastructure construction and maintenance industry uses materials and infuses resilient design concepts in infrastructure projects. Along with this, it can build stronger public faith and assurance that major goals are being met and funds are well spent by improving transparency. Digital technology can significantly improve and streamline project operations, as well as transform how we use data to improve the construction process.

Responsible Use Of Materials

With the recent passing of the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA), there will be an infusion of $1.2 trillion into the nation’s infrastructure, leading to a significant increase in the number of projects and, therefore, the need for materials. Although this bill is a monumental and critical step for our country, it’s important that the construction and development of infrastructure are done efficiently, being mindful of the use of materials.

Although recycling materials is an important part of construction and demolition (C&D), it still leads to a significant amount of waste. In 2018, C&D projects generated 600 million tons of waste debris. And it’s predicted that the volume of construction waste generated worldwide will nearly double to 2.2. billion tons by the year 2025.

Currently, up to 30% of the building materials from construction sites end up as waste. To prevent this waste across infrastructure projects, transportation agencies and their partners should consider using technology to track the use of materials, ensuring their quality and minimizing waste. Real-time data directly from job sites, accessible through cloud-based solutions, can inform important decisions around materials and budget. Additionally, with this insight, mistakes can be caught early, reducing the impact on budget and lessening material waste.

Improving Climate Resilience And Disaster Recovery

In addition to the challenges of managing large-scale infrastructure projects, transportation agencies face the difficulties and destruction caused by extreme weather events. In 2021 alone, the U.S. spent approximately $145 billion on 20 separate weather and climate disaster events. Resilient infrastructure will be critical in minimizing the impacts of the increasing severity of natural disasters.

The IIJA is making a major investment in climate resilience. According to Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, “Extreme weather events caused by climate change have become more severe and more frequent, causing not only danger to our communities but widespread economic impact, with the financial loss to American taxpayers from extreme weather events totaling more than $100.4 billion in 2020.”

Technology such as drones and inspection platforms can enable disaster recovery responders to survey and prioritize infrastructure impacted by catastrophes more efficiently. It could also play a critical role in developing and maintaining infrastructure that’s more likely to withstand natural events and ensure longevity through routine maintenance.

Digital twins are another innovative technology that can be used to create an exact replica of a project during its construction. A digital twin can also continue to be updated throughout its lifecycle. This allows maintenance crews to easily track damages and necessary repairs, helping ensure structural safety and longevity.

Enabling Data-Driven Transparency

The IIJA has set ambitious climate-focused goals, including reducing greenhouse gas emissions, ensuring the resiliency of our infrastructure and creating clean public transportation systems. But with years of projects ahead, trillions in funding and countless partners, how can the public be sure the goals of the bill are being achieved?

It’s not uncommon for many projects to still be managed and tracked on pen and paper. This industry has “lagged behind other industries in embracing digital technology to improve operations and realise efficiencies.” But the consistent capture of data from job sites and tracking of decisions throughout the construction process can help create unprecedented transparency and accountability. And with transparency and accountability, stakeholder confidence follows.

As top-performing organizations are now deploying and embracing tools to increase productivity, improve efficiency and safety and reduce costs on major capital projects, they can also use them to track their progress against the IIJA’s goals. Consistent and reliable reporting can help confirm infrastructure is constructed safely, efficiently and in a manner that tracks with the IIJA’s broader goals.

The Climate Is Right

The infrastructure industry is in a unique position to act on sustainability initiatives with the power of leading-edge and innovative technology to monitor and address materials longevity, infuse and maintain resilient design principles throughout all project phases and build data transparency and stronger public perception that tax dollars are being well spent. Doing so can help assure a brighter future and ensure that the longevity of the nation’s infrastructure will be based on efficiencies and tools that avoid wasting dollars, time and materials.

Read the article here: How Technology Can Help Bridge The Gap Between Infrastructure And Sustainability

Building strong communities and improving quality of life are just two of the many reasons passionate individuals chose to pursue careers in public service or public affairs.

Working in public affairs is fulfilling and rewarding work, yet when considering a career in public affairs, there are many different avenues one can choose to pursue. This broad discipline can be applied to a wide range of careers in public service, including many important fields that may not immediately come to mind. One of these critical areas is infrastructure policy, which is the design, development, and regulation of the physical systems that make up the building blocks of a community.

Science, technology, and infrastructure are important elements that play a pivotal role in health and human safety, and the policies that dictate their use and efficiency go a long way in improving the overall quality of life for members of society.

Let’s take a closer look at the areas of science, technology, and infrastructure policy.

What is science, technology, and infrastructure policy?

Infrastructure is the basic physical and organizational structures and facilities needed for the operation of society, including buildings, parks, and power grids, along with water, sewer, transportation, safety, and communication systems.

Science, technology and infrastructure policy is the development of designs, policies, regulations that ensure safe, strong, and adaptive systems of infrastructure. These structures are vital to a society’s functioning, economic development, and prosperity, and the science and technology that goes into establishing and securing these systems is regularly advancing and developing new and innovative solutions to existing problems.

Why is science, technology, and infrastructure policy important?

Even as the world becomes more digital, our reliance on physical infrastructure grows. There is a direct link between the physical structures that connect our societies and the growing digital structures that connect us virtually. In fact, the digital technologies making our physical world smarter are themselves dependent on physical systems. For example, the infrastructure of the internet is reliant on physical servers and hard drives, cables, and satellites. The internet, in return, has allowed us to make safer, stronger, and more adaptive physical infrastructure systems.

There are many ways in which infrastructure helps connect and improve communities — here are just a few:

• Electrical systems need to handle the growing number of devices in our homes and businesses.
• Agricultural systems need to produce adequate food supplies.
• Transportation systems need to keep up with the surge in global shipping and delivery services.
• Water systems need to provide populations with clean, drinkable water.
• Communication systems need to reach even the most remote locations.

Simply put, strong physical infrastructure is essential for the advancement of society. To continue building strong communities, we need mission-driven leaders who understand current trends and regulations and can implement the policies needed to ensure sound systems of infrastructure.

Read the article here: What is Science, Technology, and Infrastructure Policy?

As veteran technology writer Eric Ravenscraft wrote in Wired several weeks ago, “It’s been … months since Facebook announced it was rebranding to Meta and would focus its future on the upcoming ‘Metaverse.’ In the time since, what that term means hasn’t gotten any clearer.”

On the assumption that the “Metaverse” will likely influence our lives in many ways, some of them currently unfathomable, in the years ahead—and that many of you also are mystified by this and other developments in the tech world—I recently sat down with one of my favorite techies, Kristi Woolsey, an associate director at BCG Platinion, to find out more.

What I love about Woolsey is that she speaks in plain, easy-to-understand English, avoiding ‘technobabble’ as much as possible.

Here’s some of what she said:

Q: What is the Metaverse?

“The term Metaverse is used to describe a combination of the virtual reality and mixed reality worlds accessed through a browser or headset, which allows people to have real time interactions and experiences across distance.

“Right now, what will become the Metaverse is actually a series of disconnected metaverses, like the ‘walled gardens’ of the early internet [darpa.net, bit.net, or aol.net] that eventually came together to form the internet as we know it today. The current set of metaverse worlds each has its own access, avatars, interactions, and currency. Fortnite, for example, is separate from Roblox, which is separate from Decentraland and others.

“… The current increase in attention to the Metaverse is partly driven by the very recent ability to fully ‘own’ virtual objects, experiences, or land. Blockchain, the ‘crypto finance hub,’ makes it possible to precisely define a virtual thing so it can be bought and sold. There are entire metaverse worlds based on this new economy. Decentraland and Sandbox, for example, are both metaverse worlds that sell virtual land to businesses that build virtual buildings. Sotheby’s, the nearly 300-year-old auction house, has a building in Decentraland that your avatar can walk around and view what is being auctioned. Republic Realm, a company that develops land in the Metaverse, recently paid $4.3 million for a piece of virtual land in the metaverse-world Sandbox.

“If paying real money to own virtual land sounds a bit crazy, remember when most of us thought that purchasing domain names was crazy. But then, suddenly, it wasn’t crazy … [and many] people made a lot of money selling coveted domain names.”

Q: Why should leaders care?

“If you’re trying to reach an audience of 15-30-year-olds they’re probably not on the internet or on social media any more, they’re probably in the Metaverse.

“Nikeland, a place to hang out, play, and dress your avatar in virtual Nike products, opened in Roblox last year. By early this year, nearly seven million people had visited Nikeland. In 2020, 12.3 million people attended a single virtual concert by rapper Travis Scott, hosted in Fortnite. When you watch the video of that concert (available online), you realize after a short while that the dancing figures … were all real people, connecting from locations around the world.

“There are things you can do in virtual reality and augmented reality that you just can’t do in real life across distance. You can mimic being together in ways that aren’t possible over Zoom. You can point to something to explain, use hand gestures (in some platforms), draw on a piece of paper, go places together. Think about the incredible possibilities, such as a collaboration between surgeons, or creating a clay model for a new-car design. These and all sorts of other collaborative activities are all easy in the right metaverse world, which eliminates the impediment of distance.

“For organizations, a virtual or hybrid meeting feels as close as you can get to being together in a room. Of course, it’s not the same as in person, but it’s second best. My team is set up to have collaborative meetings this way. And when we need a work break, we have 15-minute one-on-one get togethers to play virtual ping pong with colleagues from all over the world. It’s the virtual equivalent of an office coffee break; it creates a real connection and builds social bonds.”

Q: When is it coming?

Within a couple of years, we’ll see “massive adoption and uptake,” she predicted. “It’s just a matter of time.”

Q: What should leaders do about it right now?

Organizations, Woolsey said, need to consider three metaverse categories:

1) Customer or consumer facing. “If your target market is 15-30-year-olds you need to be there. You need to deliver an experience that engages your audience and is consistent with your brand. You could build a store that sells virtual goods or connects to your e-commerce offerings, or you might choose to deliver an event or other type of engagement.”

2) Employee facing. “Metaverse experiences are perfect for hybrid meetings, multi-location training programs, and institutional events. Any time you have a team that is dispersed, there are opportunities to use this technology to bring them together, building community, affiliation and engagement.”

3) Internal operations. “Metaverse technology can be used to explore industrial or operational scenarios that would be far too expensive to build in real life. Auto companies already are designing in ‘digital twins,’ doing their first dummy crash test in a metaverse world, and collaborating on model modifications in augmented reality.”

Q: How do businesses get started?

“Don’t do Metaverse for the sake of doing Metaverse,” Woolsey cautioned. “Think through carefully where you are most likely to find value in each of the three categories I described. Go there now and experiment. Start small and test with your intended audience so you can understand the actual value both qualitatively and quantitatively. Based on what you learn, find the path that delivers strategic value and plan to scale.”

The ability to create value through the Metaverse needs to be one of many tools available to your organization to meet its strategic goals.

Good luck … and see you there! Or my avatar will see your avatar. Or, Whatever!

Read the article here: What Is The Metaverse And Why Should You Care?

The Colorado Springs Fire Department (CSFD) is making a big investment in drone technology. Drones are not new to CSFD—this one is a lot larger, sturdier, and with a lot more technology-supported capabilities.

The air support can enhance many types of fire department missions.

“From monitoring fires, wildland fires, structure fires, to search and rescue on the westside of the city, high angle rescue,” said Captain Mike Smaldino who pilots the drone.

The new tool has been around just weeks and is already in use by CSFD. Incident commanders at the recent fire near Interquest Parkway asked for an assist.

“Because there was so much smoke he needed to see where is the fire was going, and basically what do we have,” said Smaldino.

Even from above, smoke hindered visibility but the drone’s camera also includes an infrared option.

“For the most part, you can pick up the hotspots, you can actually see where the fire is and where it might be going.”

The infrared images show fire going toward a home, you can also see a fire truck in place for protection.

The person piloting the drone has a controller and there is a second one that can be handed to an incident commander. It allows them to see images in real time. If necessary they can also review recordings.

Read the article here: New drone technology aiding Colorado Springs Fire Department

The concept of the Internet of Things (IoT) has been around since 1985, when Peter Lewis spoke about it in a speech to the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation’s 15th Annual Legislative Weekend in Washington, D.C. However, the idea of connected devices was around as early as 1982 when a modified Coke vending machine at Carnegie Mellon University became the first connected appliance. It was able to report its inventory and whether drinks that had just been loaded were cold yet.

The Internet of Things and smart cities

Today, the Internet of Things has advanced much further than the possibilities suggested by those earliest ideas. The world is now seeing the IoT on a massive scale in the form of smart cities. Estimates for the size and growth rate of the industry vary widely by reporting organization.

For example, Grand View Research expects the global smart cities market to reach almost $7 trillion by 2030, amounting to a compound annual growth rate of about 24%. Approaching the subject from a slightly different angle, Markets & Markets expects the size of the market for global IoT in smart cities to grow from $130.6 billion in 2021 to $312.2 billion by 2026, for a compound annual growth rate of 19%.

Whether you look at the size of the market from the macro scale of the city itself or from the micro scale of the IoT within the smart city, it’s clear that the opportunities stemming from smart city growth are tremendous. Rapid urbanization and favorable government initiatives are driving adoption of the smart city concept.

Potential and current beneficiaries of the smart city trend

There is a wide variety of companies to invest in for those who want to invest in the space, but not all of these companies are currently in the smart city space. Some may be indirect beneficiaries, while others may be more direct beneficiaries.

For example, 5G leaders like chipmaker Qualcomm (QCOM) and infrastructure builder Nokia (NOK) could play a role in smart cities. Data centers are also important, which could mean that names like Amazon Web Services (AMZN) or Equinix (EQIX) might enjoy some benefit at some point. Amazon and Equinix are making a play for the space with information on their websites.

Telecom giant Orange (ORAN) is already making an impact with its smart city technology through various partnerships, as is tech giant Dell (DELL). To learn more about the opportunities for investing in smart city technology, I sat down with James Honan, CEO of Affluence Corporation, the parent company of smart city software firm OneMind Technologies. We discussed the IoT and how smart city technology is making cities around the globe more livable.

Q: How has IoT technology evolved over the years, and where do you see it going next?

A: The evolution of IoT is represented by three major phases: connecting the unconnected, creating smart and connected things, and building a software-defined autonomous world.  The future of IoT has the potential to be limitless. Advances to the industrial internet will be accelerated through increased network agility, integrated artificial intelligence (AI) and the capacity to deploy, automate, orchestrate and secure diverse use cases at hyperscale.

Q: How does IoT technology combine to create smart cities?

A: Smart cities use IoT technology to manage their resources. IoT devices include connected lights, meters and sensors, which smart cities use to collect data. Cities then analyze all that collected data and use it to improve their infrastructure, public utilities and services.

The devices used in smart cities combine to make everyday tasks more efficient and address issues pertaining to traffic, public safety and the environment. Some of the most commonly used smart city devices include smart utility meters, connected vehicles, smart grids, smart waste management solutions and smart air quality monitors.

Q: What can smart city technology do?

A: So-called “smart” devices typically aim to collect data while managing resources. For example, smart utility meters work with a smart grid to allow utility companies to manage the flow of energy more efficiently. Smart meters enable users to track their energy consumption, and Insider Intelligence expects utility companies to save $157 billion by 2035 due to their adoption. Smart grids could one day make home energy storage units and solar panels ubiquitous.

Generally, smart city technology architecture is divided into four layers: the sensing layer, which generates and captures data through sensors, the network later, which consists of network infrastructure, the data layer, which receives and stores vast amounts of data, and the service layer, which interprets all the information in an intelligent way for the customer.

Q: What potential applications exist?

A: A host of potential applications exist, depending on the type of user. For example, infrastructure operators can use the interface to get a holistic view of all the key information and real-time indicators so they can make informed decisions later. They can see what’s happening in real time, manage congestion and accidents or other incidents, improve operational efficiency, and reduce emergency response times.

Directors of operations can compare data over time, study trends, run data-driven investigations, measure the performance of their services, and analyze behavior and identify anomalies. Decision-makers can integrate all the data collected by the system into a single dashboard, define and measure historical and current performance indicators, conduct performance analysis, and make plans based on data.

Q: What are the benefits of smart city technology?

A: It generates awareness in real time as it collects and analyzes data. The intelligence provided by smart city tech enables enhanced services capable of anticipating users’ needs, reduces public spending while increasing transparency, supports decision-making, and reduces the environmental footprint while increasing sustainability.

Smart city technology provides a sustainable, secure environment where smart services can be implemented quickly and confidently. It also protects against both terrorist attacks and cyberattacks and improves recoverability in the event that an attack does occur or is attempted. The technology improves automation in the many departments that provide city services.

Q: Can you give us a real-life example of this technology in action?

A: Bogota, Colombia runs on smart city technology. The city has 7.8 million residents and 1.2 million vehicles, and it’s been dealing with significant traffic congestion since the 1990s. City authorities set up an alternate-day vehicle traffic system, but that didn’t solve their growing congestion problem.

Now, Bogota has one of the most complete and advanced mobility management solutions in the world. Smart city technology unified the city’s systems into one central control center for traffic management, vehicle counting, agent tracking, traffic cameras and incidents. Integrated systems include an accident-reporting tool, 1,600 agents, towing vehicles, a Twitter feed, traffic lights, bicycle lanes, bus stops and street works with hundreds of sensors.

As a result, emergency response times improved by 40%. Solving Bogota’s traffic congestion problems reduced the time people spend traveling through it and helped decrease air pollution, resulting in significant cost savings for the city.

Q: Tell us about OneMind.

A: OneMind defines itself as a “hypervisor,” which is a type of software for smart cities that provides access to several subsystems simultaneously. We bring operators a holistic picture of how the city is performing in real time, enabling them to solve incidents within the city. We create a connector layer that pulls together information from all the city’s systems and data sources across all its organizations and departments.

OneMind also gathers information from various sensors and cameras throughout the city, pulling all this data into a single location as part of the connector layer. By pulling all the data and information about the city into a single location, we make it easy for city officials to make decisions in the best interests of the city and handle incidents as they occur.

Onemind operates in a variety of industries, including city operations, transport infrastructures, construction, and operations for malls, campuses, stadiums, and arenas. Our technology is deployed around the world, from Los Angeles to Vietnam.

Q: What does it mean that smart city technology like OneMind is a “hypervisor”?

A: A hypervisor is a software layer that lays on top of expert subsystems that operate the city. It is capable of connecting and retrieving information from those subsystems, independently of the technology they use, and showcasing it on a unique layer. Essentially, a hypervisor breaks the silos between the information systems and gives a holistic view on the entire city, granting access to any data provided by operational subsystems.

A hypervisor also constantly monitors the collected data, compares it with analytics indexes and triggers alerts when thresholds are exceeded. It also links these alerts to a response plan previously configured by the user based on the city’s standard operating procedures and launches automatic responses where business rules allow it. It does all this to address the situation quickly and swiftly, mitigate the issue and improve the resilience of the city.

Q: Who are the major players in this market?

A: There are many competitors in the space, including big names like Siemens, Honeywell (HON), Bosch, Huawei and Verizon (VZ), but we believe these are the most direct competitors in terms of our market niche. Quantela was founded in 2015 as a simple dashboard company that worked with other partners to help cities digitize their urban infrastructure. It has evolved into a digital technology solutions company focused on control rooms.

Fluentgrid is a software products company that provides technology-driven, integrated solutions for smart energy, smart city and digital infrastructure. The company is based in India but has recently set up a base in the U.S. to address the complex, deregulated energy markets with its innovative cloud software solutions. Fluentgrid has a massive software portfolio for smart cities called Actilligence, which offers situational intelligence to city managers to help them make informed decisions.

Ubiwhere is a software and R&D company for the smart cities, telecommunications and internet of the future sectors. Its core product, Urban Platform, is an easy-to-use platform that supports city management in the areas of traffic and mobility, safety, infrastructure, and high-level decision-making.

Q: What makes your technology different from the offerings from those other companies?

A: Unlike the solutions offered by other companies, our technology works with the sensors and equipment that cities already have installed so that they don’t have to replace every part of their system. OneMind’s platform is nimble, easily connecting to any external subsystem technology. It also has unique features for operators, managers and city decision-makers.

OneMind’s technology can be deployed in any environment with high availability through cloud, multi-cloud, on-premises and hybrid access. It is also multi-tenant and SaaS-ready. The technology is fully configurable on the front end and uses a low-code engine to perform ETL data processes, configure business processes and automate alarm triggers and action workflows.

OneMind also offers an adaptive, multi-device front end that can connect your smartphone to the video wall. It has a modular, plug-in architecture that allows it to adapt analytics to the user’s needs and is a multilingual and multicultural platform.

Q: Can you share any success stories?

A: The OneMind product is deployed throughout the world. We have implementations in Oslo, Mexico City, Barcelona and San Francisco. We have recently been selected as the command and control software for one of the world’s largest smart city projects. One of our most recent success stories is a Smart Tourism project for Quang Ninh Province in Vietnam, which consists of a complete intelligence operations center that integrates several systems deployed throughout the city. The platform continues to evolve with the needs of the province, integrating any new system the city deploys and becoming a fully integrated system for the leaders’ daily decision-making. The project recently entered its first phase of deployment. As you can see, there are multiple use cases for our technology.

Q: What do you see as the future for smart city technology?

A: Traditionally, the smart city was made up of a series of smart processes hidden to the public, a labyrinth of clever technologies operated by those working behind the scenes to optimize the city’s everyday workings. New ways to access, store and process information using high-tech sensors, data analytics and multi-departmental control centers opened up a whole new world of possibilities for managing operations and improving residents’ quality of life from the “ivory towers” of city hall.

Today, the technology is becoming even more integrated into the daily lives of residents. Smartphones are giving city dwellers instant access to key pieces of information about public security, traffic and community news. They’re also allowing residents to feed their own data and experiences back to the city government. Essentially, cities are engaging with their residents to become smart on all levels.

In the future, smart city technology will anticipate the needs of residents using artificial intelligence. It will also become more interactive and more flexible. All of this will occur as cities tackle urban challenges while capitalizing on innovation.

Read the article here: How Smart City Technology is Making Cities Around the World More Livable

Autonomous vehicles and drones have almost fully proven their potential value in various military uses, first in detailed simulated environments and more recently in real-world tests. They are even able to operate in swarms now, using sophisticated artificial intelligence to not only avoid running into each other, but to share workloads and quickly complete complex tasks.

But they are still a long way to becoming commonplace on residential and city streets. A lot of that is because if a drone messes up on the battlefield, there is little chance that any friendly troops will be injured. They are normally operating far from people, or even in contested territory held by an enemy. But if a self-driving car blows through a stoplight or veers off onto the sidewalk of a crowded city street, the results could be tragic, not just for its passengers, but also for everyone around it. So those of us who dream of being driven to work by our vehicles every morning, or having them scoot us back home in the evening while we nap, will have to wait a bit longer for that to happen.

Ironically, the potential for autonomous vehicles to make streets safer was cited as a key reason why The House Transportation Subcommittee on Highways and Infrastructure held a hearing last week on the use of automated vehicles. Entitled “The Road Ahead for Automated Vehicles,” the hearing featured testimony from state and local officials, industry representatives and safety organizations.

The hearing comes as the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration released a report with some sobering statistics about a spike in serious accidents across the country. According to the report, there were 31,720 vehicle fatalities in the first nine months of 2021, which was 12% more than in 2020 and the highest number of deaths on the road since 2006. Autonomous vehicles operating safely could drastically cut those numbers, although most committee members seemed skeptical that the technology was anywhere near being ready for mass deployment.

“We have seen disastrous consequences when automation technology is deployed haphazardly,” said Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton, chair of the subcommittee. “To maximize the road safety impact of AVs, we must ensure that these technologies are held to the highest possible safety standards.”

Norton may have been referring to a slew of bad news for the autonomous vehicle industry over the past couple weeks. First we got word that Tesla was recalling over 50,000 vehicles for running stop signs. But that followed news from one of Tesla’s primary beta testers, a man named Taylor Ogan, who shared footage of his Tesla on Twitter narrowly missing a delivery truck and almost veering into a roadside barrier while trying to navigate a series of busy streets. And finally, there were also reports of hundreds of incidents where autonomous vehicles were traveling at high speeds and then suddenly applied their brakes for no apparent reason. So it’s been a relatively bad time for testing autonomous vehicles.

Ariel Wolf, general counsel for the Autonomous Vehicle Industry Association, which represents Ford, Waymo, Lyft, Volvo, Uber and others, stressed that autonomous vehicles have the potential to make roadways much safer compared with having all human drivers. He also said that once autonomous vehicles were commonplace, that the average household could save an average of $5,600 per year on transportation costs. However, his vision requires that those households rely on shared fleets of autonomous vehicles, which may not be realistic in car-loving America.

Interestingly, most of the speakers agreed that one of the biggest drawbacks to autonomous vehicle deployment was a lack of federal regulations to govern the safety and legality of operating self-driving cars. Instead, vehicles must comply with state laws, so it’s quite possible that a self-driving vehicle operating in one state could suddenly become illegal when it crosses into another.

Iowa Department of Transportation Director Scott Marler, speaking on behalf of the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials, explained why the federal government needed to set unified policies that both states and industry could follow.

“It is vitally important that the federal government and specifically the USDOT [United States Department of Transportation] continue to join in supporting these national, regional, state and local efforts,” Marler said. “The federal government and the USDOT are uniquely positioned to facilitate and sustain a technically informed and objective collaboration effort. Federal leadership can ensure national consistency in systems engineering and architecture to guarantee interoperability and standardized levels of safety across state lines.”

If a national strategy governing the laws and regulations for autonomous vehicles could be hashed out, then speakers said that many of the local success stories regarding smart cars and delivery vehicles could start to spread across the country. One such story was shared by Martha Castex-Tatum, vice mayor pro tem and council member for District K in Houston, Texas.

In Houston, they have been using smaller autonomous and electric vehicles designed by Nuro, a company founded in 2016 that focuses on delivery vehicles and self-driving robots. Castex-Tatum said that the vehicles were a double win for her city because they can be operated safely using automation, and eliminate the need for more gas-powered vehicles on city streets.

“Houston is one of the first cities to see AVs conducting commercial delivery service, with the deployment of Nuro’s zero-occupant, electric AVs, and I am glad that my own District K was one of the first three zip codes where service launched,” Castex-Tatum said. “These vehicles are offering our residents more zero-emission options with lower speeds and smaller, lightweight vehicles. Since 2019, Nuro has delivered groceries, prescriptions and hot food in partnership with Kroger’s, Domino’s, CVS and the Houston Food Bank.”

The hearing, and especially the latest roadside fatality statistics, really hit home for me. Back when I had to make a long commute to work, I unfortunately got to see a lot of bad accidents involving tractor trailers, passenger vans, motorcycles, cars, buses and everything else. I narrowly missed out on becoming entangled in a major pile up on the American Legion Bridge that unfolded at full highway speeds about two car lengths behind me—and provided quite the early morning scare. I also escaped several minor near misses where drivers were not paying attention when changing lanes, or were too distracted to notice that traffic ahead of them (where I was sitting) had slowed to a stop.

Back when I was just starting out as a journalist, racing to the scene of bad and fatal accidents to collect information and take photos was part of my beat. Those accident photos were oddly popular and often landed on the front page, but it was a soul draining assignment. So yes, I have seen the danger that human error can cause when driving, which is why I have no reason to doubt the latest NHTSA statistics. I look forward to the day when people can have their vehicles safely take them wherever they need to go. I have no illusions that something like that will happen anytime soon, but if unified federal laws and guidance can speed up the process, then it’s something that we should all support.

Read the article here: Could Smart Cars Finally be Driving Towards Reality?

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has added 22 new fields of study to the Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) Optional Practical Training (OPT) program for enhancing contributions of nonimmigrant students studying STEM subjects.

The program allows F-1 visa students earning bachelor’s, master’s, or doctoral degrees in certain STEM fields to remain in the U.S. for up to 36 months to work in their fields of study.

“STEM innovation allows us to solve the complex challenges we face today and make a difference in how we secure and protect our country,” said DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas. “Through STEM education and training opportunities, DHS is expanding the number and diversity of students who excel in STEM education and contribute to the U.S. economy.”

The additional 22 fields of study will help ensure the U.S. economy benefits from students earning degrees in the U.S. in STEM fields.

Additionally, DHS is updating and issuing new U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) policy manual guidance to “clarify how certain STEM graduates and entrepreneurs can use the national interest waiver for employment-based immigrant visa classification as an advanced degree professional noncitizen or noncitizen of exceptional ability.”

Relatedly, the Biden-Harris Administration released a fact sheet today on actions the administration is taking to attract STEM talent. The fact sheet details actions from the Departments of State and Homeland Security to advance predictability and clarity for pathways for international STEM scholars, students, researchers, and experts.

In addition to DHS’ 22 new fields of study included in the OPT, the State Department’s Bureau of Education and Cultural Affairs is announcing an Early Career STEM Research Initiative to facilitate non-immigrant BridgeUSA exchange visitors coming to the U.S. to engage in STEM research.

Read the article here: DHS Adding 22 New STEM Fields of Study to OPT Program