Last year Georgia Tech introduced the ‘Georgia Smart’ initiative, which provides funding and technical assistance to local governments as they develop and deploy “smart community technologies” into their operations.
The program selects four winners from a pool of applicants, who then receive a $50,000 grant (courtesy of Georgia Power), direct assistance from a Georgia Tech researcher, and access to a network of peer governments and other experts for further support. The year-long projects conclude with a presentation that lay out findings and the next steps to be taken. Projects that fall under the “smart community technologies” banner can be anything from ‘intelligent infrastructures’ such as autonomous or connected vehicle technology, as explored last year by winners Chamblee and Gwinnett County, to information and communication technologies, such as Albany’s housing data analytics initiative.
The 2019 winners were announced earlier this month, and each boasts an ambitious “smart” project that will help find modern day solutions to some of the modern day problems facing their communities.
Macon-Bibb County
Like many other municipalities in recent years, Macon-Bibb County has put access to many of its resources online, via both the computer and smartphone apps. A 311 application (See, Click, Fix), allows users to report potholes or other issues that need fixing, while government employment applications are now handled via Neogov, another online system.
Those services can be difficult to access though for those in economically disadvantaged or rural neighborhoods, who often don’t have access to high speed internet or smart phones. Enter ‘SmartNeighborhoodsMBC,’ Macon’s entry to Georgia Smart, which will study how best to implement Smart Kiosks in strategic locations such as libraries and rec centers to make sure all citizens have the opportunity to have access to their local government.
The project, guided by Georgia Tech research scientist Dr. Arthi Rao, will use analytics to find the most appropriate locations for the kiosks, as well as develop a working prototype kiosk before the year-long grant ends. Data gathered, initially by participating university students, would be shared neighboring county agencies to help improve their own public interfacing.
Milton
The city of Milton is a very residential and family oriented Atlanta suburb, a fact reflected in its entry into Georgia Smart. A full 20% of its population is age 14 or younger, with three schools adjacent to its downtown and historic Crabapple community alone.
The ‘Walking School Bus’ smartphone app will seek to encourage parents to let their children walk or bike to school, improving children’s health and reducing the number of cars dropping off and picking up students. With safety as an obvious first concern, the app would allow parents to see locations and arrival times of their children’s groups, pairing them with parent volunteers and allowing access to school information including confirmation of arrival.
This “smart mobility project” looks to build on the successes of Milton’s Safe Route To School Program, which added sidewalk sections, traffic signals, cross walks and signage to the city in an effort to make the city more walkable and reduce congestion.
Woodstock
Another suburb of Atlanta, Woodstock has seen its population double over the past decade, and road infrastructure improvements have not quite kept up. Rising population plus the presence of physical barriers – notably I-575, an active railroad, and an odd downtown traffic intersection to name three – have led to some major traffic concerns in need of a ‘smart’ solution.
Its Georgia Smart bid is the ‘Smart Corridor Study’ which will examine the unique challenges faced by Woodstock and come up with modern solutions including the possibility of autonomous vehicles with drop-off lanes and managed right-of-way traffic controls, both meant to help relieve congestion and clear up parking issues.
Columbus
Georgia’s oldest consolidated government doesn’t want to be old fashioned, looking to become one of the state’s first “smart” cities, linking the very city itself to the internet.
Its Georgia Smart project will kick off the planning process to install “Internet of Things” devices, providing free public WiFi and population movement sensors in the “Uptown” district that will provide a whole new dimension of information to the city and allow it to reduce overall Police, Fire and EMT response time.
“Columbus is extremely excited to have been selected as one of the GA Smart Communities for 2019-2020.” Said Columbus Mayor Skip Henderson. “This will allow us to begin collecting data that can be used in a variety of ways. Predictive analytics will become more and more important as we look for economical ways to provide services for our City. This will enable us to intelligently deploy our resources to more efficiently serve our citizens.”
Autonomous vehicles, smart neighborhoods, phone apps that watch your kids – all things that would have seemed come out of a science fiction novel a decade ago. Spurred on by Georgia Tech and its sponsors in the Georgia Smart project though, they are very much on the horizon. A new wave of public-private partnerships is bringing the future straight to Georgia cities, helping to ensure that in a rapidly changing world, the Peach State is not only not left behind, but on the cutting edge.
