New drone technology aiding Colorado Springs Fire Department
Viai News
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
How Smart City Technology is Making Cities Around the World More Livable
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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
Could Smart Cars Finally be Driving Towards Reality?
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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?
DHS Adding 22 New STEM Fields of Study to OPT Program
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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
IBM and Samsung say their new chip design could lead to week-long battery life on phones
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IBM and Samsung have announced their latest advance in semiconductor design: a new way to stack transistors vertically on a chip (instead of lying flat on the surface of the semiconductor).
The new Vertical Transport Field Effect Transistors (VTFET) design is meant to succeed the current FinFET technology that’s used for some of today’s most advanced chips and could allow for chips that are even more densely packed with transistors than today. In essence, the new design would stack transistors vertically, allowing for current to flow up and down the stack of transistors instead of the side-to-side horizontal layout that’s currently used on most chips.
Vertical designs for semiconductors have been a trend for a while (FinFET already offers some of those benefits); Intel’s future roadmap also looks to move in that direction, too, although its initial work focused on stacking chip components rather than individual transistors. It makes sense, after all: when you’ve run out of ways to add more chips in one plane, the only real direction (other than physically shrinking transistor technology) is to go up.
While we’re still a ways away from VTFET designs being used in actual consumer chips, the two companies are making some big claims, noting that VTFET chips could offer a “two times improvement in performance or an 85 percent reduction in energy use” compared to FinFET designs. And by packing more transistors into chips, IBM and Samsung claim that VTFET technology could help keep Moore’s law’s goal of steadily increasing transistor count moving forward.
IBM and Samsung are also citing some ambitious possible use cases for the new technology, raising the idea of “cell phone batteries that could go over a week without being charged, instead of days,” less energy-intensive cryptocurrency mining or data encryption, and even more powerful IoT devices or even spacecraft.
IBM has previously shown off its first 2nm chip earlier this year, which takes a different route toward cramming more transistors by scaling up the amount that can be fit onto a chip using the existing FinFET design. VTFET would aim to take things further, however, although it’ll likely be even longer before we see chips based on IBM and Samsung’s latest technology out in the world.
It’s not the only company looking to the future of production, either. Intel previewed its upcoming RibbonFET (Intel’s first gate-all-around transistor) design over the summer, its own successor to FinFET production technology, which is set to be part of the Intel 20A generation of semiconductor products scheduled to start ramping production in 2024. The company also recently announced its own plan for stacked transistor technology as a potential successor for RibbonFET in the future, too.
Read the article here: IBM and Samsung say their new chip design could lead to week-long battery life on phones
Biden signs $1T infrastructure deal with bipartisan crowd
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President Joe Biden signed his hard-fought $1 trillion infrastructure deal into law Monday before a bipartisan, celebratory crowd on the White House lawn, declaring that the new infusion of cash for roads, bridges, ports and more is going to make life “change for the better” for the American people.
But prospects are tougher for further bipartisanship ahead of the 2022 midterm elections as Biden pivots back to more difficult negotiations over his broader $1.85 trillion social spending package.
The president hopes to use the infrastructure law to build back his popularity, which has taken a hit amid rising inflation and the inability to fully shake the public health and economic risks from COVID-19.
“My message to the American people is this: America is moving again and your life is going to change for the better,” he said.
With the bipartisan deal, the president had to choose between his promise of fostering national unity and a commitment to transformative change. The final measure whittled down much of his initial vision for infrastructure. Yet the administration hopes to sell the new law as a success that bridged partisan divides and will elevate the country with clean drinking water, high-speed internet and a shift away from fossil fuels.
“Folks, too often in Washington, the reason we didn’t get things done is because we insisted on getting everything we want. Everything,” Biden said. “With this law, we focused on getting things done. I ran for president because the only way to move our country forward in my view was through compromise and consensus.”
Biden will get outside Washington to sell the plan more broadly in coming days.
He intends go to New Hampshire on Tuesday to visit a bridge on the state’s “red list” for repair, and he will go to Detroit on Wednesday for a stop at General Motors’ electric vehicle assembly plant, while other officials also fan out across the country. The president went to the Port of Baltimore last week to highlight how the supply chain investments from the law could limit inflation and strengthen supply chains, a key concern of voters who are dealing with higher prices.
“We see this as is an opportunity because we know that the president’s agenda is quite popular,” White House press secretary Jen Psaki said Monday before the signing. The outreach to voters can move “beyond the legislative process to talk about how this is going to help them. And we’re hoping that’s going to have an impact.”
Biden held off on signing the hard-fought infrastructure deal after it passed on Nov. 5 until legislators would be back from a congressional recess and could join in a splashy bipartisan event. On Sunday night before the signing, the White House announced Mitch Landrieu, the former New Orleans mayor, would help manage and coordinate the implementation of the infrastructure spending.
The gathering Monday on the White House lawn was uniquely upbeat with a brass band and peppy speeches, a contrast to the drama and tensions when the fate of the package was in doubt for several months. The speakers lauded the measure for creating jobs, combating inflation and responding to the needs of voters.
Ohio Sen. Rob Portman, a Republican who helped negotiate the package, celebrated Biden’s willingness to jettison much of his initial proposal to help bring GOP lawmakers on board. Portman even credited former President Donald Trump for raising awareness about infrastructure, even though the loser of the 2020 election voiced intense opposition to the ultimate agreement.
“This bipartisan support for this bill comes because it makes sense for our constituents, but the approach from the center out should be the norm, not the exception,” Portman said.
The signing included governors and mayors of both parties and labor and business leaders. In addition to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, the guest list included Republicans such as Louisiana Sen. Bill Cassidy, Maine Sen. Susan Collins, New York Rep. Tom Reed, Alaska Rep. Don Young and Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan.
In order to achieve a bipartisan deal, the president had to cut back his initial ambition to spend $2.3 trillion on infrastructure by more than half. The bill that becomes law on Monday in reality includes about $550 billion in new spending over 10 years, since some of the expenditures in the package were already planned.
The agreement ultimately got support from 19 Senate Republicans, including Senate GOP leader Mitch McConnell. Thirteen House Republicans also voted for the infrastructure bill. An angry Trump issued a statement attacking “Old Crow” McConnell and other Republicans for cooperating on “a terrible Democrat Socialist Infrastructure Plan.”
McConnell said the country “desperately needs” the new infrastructure money, but he skipped Monday’s signing ceremony, telling WHAS radio in Louisville, Kentucky, that he had “other things” to do.
Historians, economists and engineers interviewed by The Associated Press welcomed Biden’s efforts. But they stressed that $1 trillion was not nearly enough to overcome the government’s failure for decades to maintain and upgrade the country’s infrastructure. The politics essentially forced a trade-off in terms of potential impact not just on the climate but on the ability to outpace the rest of the world this century and remain the dominant economic power.
“We’ve got to be sober here about what our infrastructure gap is in terms of a level of investment and go into this eyes wide open, that this is not going to solve our infrastructure problems across the nation,” said David Van Slyke, dean of the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs at Syracuse University.
Biden also tried unsuccessfully to tie the infrastructure package to passage of a broader package of $1.85 trillion in proposed spending on families, health care and a shift to renewable energy that could help address climate change. That measure has yet to gain sufficient support from the narrow Democratic majorities in the Senate and House.
Biden continues to work to appease Democratic skeptics of the broader package such as Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia, while also holding on to the most liberal branches of his party. Pelosi said in remarks at the Monday bill signing that the separate package will pass “hopefully this week.”
Texas Sen. Ted Cruz expressed concern during a Fox News interview Sunday that Republican support for the infrastructure law could ultimately lead Democrats to rally and back the second package.
“They gave Joe Biden a political win,” Cruz said of his fellow Republicans. “He will now go across the country touting, look at this big bipartisan win. And that additional momentum, unfortunately, makes it more likely that they whip their Democrats into shape and pass some multitrillion-dollar spending bill on top of this.”
The haggling over infrastructure has shown that Biden can still bring together Democrats and Republicans, even as tensions continue to mount over the Jan. 6 assault on the U.S. Capitol by supporters of Donald Trump who falsely believe that Biden was not legitimately elected president. Yet the result is a product that might not meet the existential threat of climate change or the transformative legacy of Franklin Delano Roosevelt, whose portrait hangs in Biden’s Oval Office.
“Yes, the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act is a big deal,” said Peter Norton, a history professor in the University of Virginia’s engineering department. “But the bill is not transformational, because most of it is more of the same.”
Norton compared the limited action on climate change to the start of World War II, when Roosevelt and Congress reoriented the entire U.S. economy after the attack on Pearl Harbor. Within two months, there was a ban on auto production. Dealerships had no new cars to sell for four years as factories focused on weapons and war materiel. To conserve fuel consumption, a national speed limit of 35 mph was introduced.
“The emergency we face today warrants a comparable emergency response,” Norton said.
Read the article here: Biden signs $1T infrastructure deal with bipartisan crowd
Smart bandage contains sensors to detect wound-healing process
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A new ‘smart bandage’ has been developed that contains a sensor which detects moisture levels in a wound and then transmits the data to a nearby smartphone, without requiring doctors to remove the bandage.
Developed by researchers at the University of Bologna in Italy, the bandage allows doctors to determine how well a dressed wound is healing without removing the bandage, which can disrupt the healing process.
By changing the geometry and materials in the bandage, the researchers believe it could be fine-tuned to suit different types of wound.
Chronic wounds can be a source of significant suffering and disability for patients who experience them.
Getting such wounds to heal can be difficult due to a large number of varying factors that impact the healing process, such as temperature, glucose levels, and acidity. One of the most important is moisture levels – too dry, and the tissue can become desiccated; too wet, and it can become white and wrinkly. Both these situations disrupt the healing process.
Checking the moisture level of a wound typically involves removing the bandage, which can cause damage to the delicate healing tissue.
The new smart bandage uses a conductive polymer that has been applied onto a gauze using a screen-printing technique; the gauze is then incorporated into commercially available bandage materials. The idea is that changes in the moisture level of the wound cause a change in an electrical signal measured by the sensor.
The organic semiconducting polymer can be easily deposited on several substrates as a standard ink.
“We also incorporated a cheap, disposable and bandage-compatible RFID tag, similar to those used for clothing security tags, into the textile patch. The tag can wirelessly communicate moisture level data with a smartphone, allowing healthcare staff to know when a bandage needs to be changed,” said Dr Marta Tessarolo of the University of Bologna, an author on the study.
To test their bandages, the researchers exposed them to artificial wound exudate, which is the liquid that seeps from wounds, and also tested different bandage materials and shapes. They found that the bandage was highly sensitive, providing widely differing readings between dry, moist and saturated conditions, suggesting it could be a valuable tool in wound management.
“We developed a range of bandages with various layers and different absorption properties and characteristics,” said Dr Luca Possanzini, another author from the University of Bologna.
“The idea is that each type of wound could have its own appropriate dressing, from slowly exuding wounds to highly exuding wounds, such as burns and blisters. However, we will need to further optimise the sensor geometry and determine the appropriate sensor values for optimal healing before we can apply our technology to various types of wounds.”
Various smart bandages have been developed over the years, including one that releases medications into a wound when commanded by an app and a smart patch that could allow people to self-administer Covid-19 vaccines.
Read the article here: Smart bandage contains sensors to detect wound-healing process
Jacobs' Fulcrum Bridge Technology Goes Into Production
Viai News
Jacobs Vehicle Systems, a worldwide manufacturer of engine retarding and valve actuation systems for the commercial vehicle industry, has started Fulcrum Bridge production at its U.S. headquarters in Bloomfield, Connecticut. Fulcrum Bridge makes it possible to combine conventional engine braking with automatic hydraulic lash adjustment – two technologies, which were previously incompatible, to both enhance vehicle performance and reduce operating costs.
Jacobs’ first Fulcrum Bridge product includes a high-performance compression release engine brake, manufactured on a state-of-the-art semi-automated manufacturing line and is part of an overall valvetrain system that will be supplied to an Original Equipment Manufacturer in the U.S. The technology’s first production application will be on an off-road application. Other heavy-duty off-highway applications, such as articulated dump trucks used in construction and mining, farm vehicles and vocational applications are expected to follow.
Steve Ernest, vice president of engineering & business development at Jacobs Vehicle Systems, commented: “Fulcrum Bridge is a breakthrough technology because engine makers no longer have to choose between Hydraulic Lash Adjusters (HLAs), which set and maintain the clearance in the valve train between valve and camshaft, and a Jake Brake®. With Fulcrum Bridge, it is now possible to have the advantages of our world-famous engine brake and know that the lash setting is good for the life of the engine.”
Engine braking is desirable because it reduces service brake wear and maintenance, enhances safety when operating on steep hills and with heavy loads, and lowers the total cost of ownership. HLAs are desirable because they enhance efficiency by allowing for more consistent valve motions throughout all engine operating conditions and wear over the engine’s lifetime and eliminates the need to periodically adjust the engine’s lash settings. Reduced servicing requirements are particularly beneficial with off-highway vehicles whose engines are not easily accessible and may require significant vehicle disassembly.
Conventional engine brakes were previously incompatible with HLAs because as the engine brake holds one exhaust valve open, the HLA will over-extend, possibly causing valve-to-piston contact once engine braking is turned off. Jacobs’ solution applies a reactive load to the HLA during an engine braking event to prevent this over-extension.
Even more benefits can be realized by using Fulcrum Bridge in on-highway applications. On-highway engines are facing strong emissions regulations from 2024 through 2030 worldwide. Using HLAs will allow the ideal valve lift to be maintained throughout the life of the engine thereby maintaining original engine combustion and emissions performance. This will keep DPF re-gen intervals consistent and keep the engine running healthy longer.
Read the article here: Jacobs’ Fulcrum Bridge Technology Goes Into Production
Lessons from the Pandemic: The Future of ‘Smart Cities’
Viai News
The COVID-19 pandemic is forcing us to rethink the future of cities. The increase in remote work will impact office footprints, transportation patterns, and consumption habits, while the adoption of AI and the increase in automation will continue to reshape the workforce. While early predictions about the “end of the city” now seem premature, there is no denying that the pandemic has posed significant challenges to urban centers worldwide. The exact impact of the pandemic on cities is difficult to predict. Still, there is an eagerness among policymakers, technologists, and urbanists alike to seize this moment to “build back better” and re-imagine cities that are more resilient, inclusive, and sustainable. It is not surprising that the concept of smart cities is gaining greater attention, given their perceived potential to solve complex urban problems.
A smart city essentially refers to a framework, composed of IoT and cloud computing, that collects, manages, and analyzes data to help cities be more efficient and responsive to citizens. It has many potential applications, ranging from IoT enabled traffic management systems that reduce traffic congestion and accidents, to smart grids, which can save energy and allow an easier penetration of renewable energy. In 2019, there were 379 fully deployed smart city projects in 61 countries, and one study found that the market will be worth $2.75 trillion by 2023. A survey of senior officials across 167 cities and 82 countries also revealed that 65% of city officials believe smart cities programs will be crucial for their futures post-pandemic.
This outlook among city officials likely stems from being forced to think creatively about the use of technology in their pandemic responses. For instance, Chicago used anonymized cellphone data to analyze travel patterns and track whether people were self-isolating. In Helsinki, city hall maintained a Special Operations Group that used data from digital technology platforms and scenario analysis to inform their decision-making. This past year also encouraged new public-private partnerships, which will be central to the success of smart cities projects. For example, California-based drone delivery startup Zipline partnered with Ghana’s government to deliver COVID-19 test samples to the country’s two largest cities – Accra and Kumasi.
However, not all outcomes of the pandemic have been positive for smart cities. The health crisis has also interrupted several smart cities projects and created new hurdles for city administrators. Most notably, city budgets have been squeezed, and one report anticipated long-lasting revenue shortfalls for subnational governments. In response, some governments are trying to get ahead of this financial gap and using recovery plans to bolster technology investment. For instance, the European Union has set up a €750 billion recovery plan, known as NextGenerationEU. Among the approved Member States’ recovery plans, top digital priorities include the digitalization of the public administration (~36%) and businesses (~17%) (see graph below). Cities are also expected to benefit from this funding. Additionally, London and five other European cities have invested €250 million in smart technologies through the Sharing Cities program, which brings together 34 partners from across government, industry and academia to test and scale the use of smart technology. Going forward, strategic investments and creative business models will be key to successfully scaling the use of this technology.
Budgets are not the only consideration. Another key lesson from the pandemic is that trust is a crucial element for the deployment of any digital service, product, or ecosystem. In Singapore, which was named the “smartest city in the world,” citizens were required to scan a QR code with identification information whenever they entered a public space for contact tracing purposes. The government originally gave assurances that the data would only be used for contract tracing. However, it was later revealed that police had been using the data for their investigations, sparking public mistrust. In Zhengzhou, smart city projects came under scrutiny after failing to prevent deaths following severe flooding.
Needless to say, the pandemic has prompted a shift in public outlook on data sharing, further incentivizing governments to address these real and potential harms. In July, the Dutch Data Protection Agency published recommendations to ensure smart city initiatives comply with data protection and privacy protections. Just two months prior, the UK’s National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) similarly published a series of principles encouraging developers to build smart cities with security in mind from the start. In China, home to half of the world’s smart city projects, the highest court ruled that businesses who use facial recognition technology must acquire users’ consent before collecting their facial information.
While these are promising initiatives, city governments can take even more proactive steps to ensure their citizens can trust and benefit from this new technology. Chief among the responses should be a data privacy policy, whereby citizens can be assured that their data is collected for a legitimate purpose and not stored beyond the necessary timeframe. At the same time, the use of data to guide local and national responses to the pandemic highlights the need to strike an appropriate balance between personal privacy and public interest. With increasing data collection, policymakers will also need to address pervasive fears of public surveillance. Sensors, cameras, and audio solutions that comprise a smart city collect vast amounts of data, but even a small amount can be revealing and abused by the government. Finally, smart cities need strong security policies; otherwise, the very IoT backbone that powers a smart city could be exploited by cyber criminals and other malicious actors. These should be key components of any smart city strategy, along with a robust consultation involving diverse stakeholders to understand local needs and concerns. In sum, as city officials, the private sector, and citizens look to the future, they should jointly develop and invest in smart cities that address citizens’ greatest needs, earn their trust, and embed security, privacy, and fundamental rights at the outset.
Read the article here: Lessons from the Pandemic: The Future of ‘Smart Cities’
America’s ‘Smart City’ didn’t get much smarter
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IN 2016, COLUMBUS, Ohio, beat out 77 other small and midsize US cities for a pot of $50 million that was meant to reshape its future. The Department of Transportation’s Smart City Challenge was the first competition of its kind, conceived as a down payment to jump-start one city’s adaptation to the new technologies that were suddenly everywhere. Ride-hail companies like Uber and Lyft were ascendant, car-sharing companies like Car2Go were raising their national profile, and autonomous vehicles seemed to be right around the corner.
“Our proposed approach is revolutionary,” the city wrote in its winning grant proposal, which pledged to focus on projects to help the city’s most underserved neighborhoods. It laid out plans to experiment with Wi-Fi-enabled kiosks to help residents plan trips, apps to pay bus and ride-hail fares and find parking spots, autonomous shuttles, and sensor-connected trucks.
Five years later, the Smart City Challenge is over, but the revolution never arrived. According to the project’s final report, issued this month by the city’s Smart Columbus Program, the pandemic hit just as some projects were getting off the ground. Six kiosks placed around the city were used to plan just eight trips between July 2020 and March 2021. The company EasyMile launched autonomous shuttles in February 2020, carrying passengers at an average speed of 4 miles per hour. Fifteen days later, a sudden brake sent a rider to the hospital, pausing service. The truck project was canceled. Only 1,100 people downloaded an app, called Pivot, to plan and reserve trips on ride-hail vehicles, shared bikes and scooters, and public transit.
The discrepancy between the promise of whiz-bang technology and the reality in Columbus points to a shift away from tech as a silver bullet, and a newer wariness of the troubles that web-based applications can bring to IRL streets. The “smart city” was a hard-to-pin-down marketing term associated with urban optimism. Today, as citizens think more carefully about tech-enabled surveillance, the concept of a sensor in every home doesn’t look as shiny as it once did.
Still, Columbus officials insist the Smart City project was not a failure. In fact, the final report labeled the project a success. Now Columbus wants to rethink the slippery term.
“It’s not supposed to be a competition for who has more sensors, or anything like that, and I think we got a little distracted at a certain point,” says Jordan Davis, director of Smart Columbus, the organization charged with continuing the challenge’s work. Some of the challenge’s projects will continue. Davis says the focus will be, “How do we use technology to improve quality of life, to solve community issues of equity, to mitigate climate change, to achieve prosperity in the region?”
Think back to 2015, and the challenge’s techno-solutionist goals made sense. The future was coming quick, and the DOT hoped its seed money would help a midsize city like Columbus work with companies to plan ahead, with equity in mind. When it selected the city, the department said it was impressed by the number of local companies that had pledged additional support for the project. The challenge is “about using … advanced tools to make life better for all people, especially those living in underserved communities,” then secretary Anthony Foxx said. (He is now the chief policy officer for Lyft.)
Now it’s clear that private firms can’t predict the future of cities and may not have their best interests in mind. Davis says Columbus’ selection led to a flood of proposals from companies that ultimately proved difficult to manage, and “at times distracting.” Meanwhile, Uber (and Lyft) have pulled out of autonomous vehicles, notably after an Uber testing vehicle struck and killed a pedestrian in Arizona. Google sibling Sidewalk Labs promised in 2017 to construct a sensored-up neighborhood of the future in Toronto. But it killed the project last year amid the pandemic and a bitter political battle with privacy advocates and local groups and developers.
Still, smart-city projects continue around the world. Toyota is building a self-driving-car-friendly community outside of Tokyo. Sidewalk Labs just announced it’s advising real estate developers in a handful of US cities on “innovation plans.” And Alibaba-led “smart traffic” projects continue in China, Malaysia, and Macau.
In the end, a smart-city revolution in Columbus may have been overly ambitious from the start. “A lot of people were expecting a lot from this project, and perhaps too much,” says Harvey Miller, a geography professor and director of the Center for Urban and Regional Analysis at Ohio State University, who helped plan and evaluate the challenge. He points out that $50 million ($40 million from the federal government, $10 million from the late Microsoft cofounder Paul Allen’s Vulcan Inc.) isn’t much money, especially spread out over five years. It’s not Columbus’ fault that industry promises about the imminent arrival of self-driving cars were way overblown.
“I think what Columbus did is test revolutionary ideas,” says Miller. “And I think they learned a lot, what works and what doesn’t work.”
What works, according to Columbus: Once the pandemic hit, the project transformed the autonomous shuttle into a food bank delivery operation, which self-drove 500 boxes of food a month between summer 2020 and spring 2021 to a local food pantry, bringing it closer to people in need. (A safety operator was always on board to monitor the tech.) Twenty-seven Columbus residents with cognitive disabilities tested an app to help them navigate public transit, with which 70 percent reported “satisfaction” afterwards. Seventy pregnant women tested an app-based Uber-like service to get to medical appointments. Compared with a control group that didn’t use the on-demand service, they visited doctors, pharmacies, and grocery stores more often. The report says the rides alone were unlikely to guarantee safer births and healthier babies, but suggested they could be a “valuable contribution.”
Five of the eight projects launched by the challenge will continue, including a citywide “operating system” to share data between government and private entities, the smart kiosks, and the parking and trip-planning apps. Smart Columbus will also focus on providing broadband access to all of its residents who lack it—a gap that officials say became even more problematic during the pandemic.
Davis, the Smart Columbus director, acknowledges that the program’s rules sometimes made it hard to shape projects around the real needs of the community. They had only so much room to deviate from the plan set out five years ago. Going forward, she says, the city will rely more on “empathy and engagement,” rather than “‘This is a really cool tech that’s coming out of the private sector.’”
Read the article here: America’s ‘Smart City’ Didn’t Get Much Smarter