Ph.D. student Cait Kennedy and assistant professor Dr. Obed Pasha from CSU’s Maxine Goodman Levin College of Urban Affairs have led a project supported by the Cleveland Foundation, Cleveland State University, and the IoT Collaborative called the “Smart Cities Catalog Project.”

The goal of the project is to gather information on smart city projects and publish the results online so public sector organizations can better work together to solve community problems. “Smart cities” initiatives are projects that use advanced technology to improve the efficiency, effectiveness, sustainability, and equity of public services.

The catalog provides opportunities for public service organizations to pursue funding opportunities together and increase the visibility of their smart cities projects.

“The catalog project responds to a specific need shared by public sector leaders and helps bring organizations closer to improve the quality of life in communities across the country, as well as here in the Greater Cleveland area,” explained Pasha.

The team began by conducting orientation interviews with public sector leaders in Greater Cleveland to understand the existing landscape, the needs that can be addressed by the catalog, and the opportunities for the initiatives to grow. From there, the catalog idea was presented to a public sector advisory committee, after which the team began to build out the catalog.

“The interviews with the public sector leaders were great because I not only got to build a network, but I was able to see how public service organizations have different purposes but deploy similar technologies for similar end goals,” said Kennedy.

The future of the project will go beyond its adoptions to evaluate its impacts and if they are effective for the purposes intended. Additionally, there will be research to see the drivers of innovation and how to create an environment where innovation is accepted and accelerated.

Projects housed in the catalog come from regional public and nonprofit organizations. For examples, CWRU’s project, alpha-Satellite, aims at providing real-time COVID-19 risk assessment to assist individuals and communities with actionable strategies to slow the spread of COVID-19.

Similarly, countsupplies.org, a project started at CSU, allows hospitals to quickly and easily register and update their inventory of ventilators both in use, and available for use, on a daily basis. This project will help mitigate the threats of COVID-19.

Explore the Smart Cities Catalog Project and the catalog itself here.