Time and again, privacy experts have raised concerns about “smart city” being a euphemism for surveillance state, which is part of the reason roughly one third of smart city projects fail, and almost 80% of prototypes don’t reach their desired scope. Too often, these project failures occur when municipal leaders don’t take the time to engage with communities, or don’t fully commit to thinking through policy issues that are essential for fostering civic trust. 

In US Ignite's Augmented Reality Developer Challenge, RIoT in NC has selected six teams to move forward with development of their smart city AR applications.

Four teams developing smart base technologies demonstrated their working prototypes from last fall's 5G Pitch Day to Miramar leaders in early March, 2021. While many 5G applications seem far off into the future, the Marine Corps Air Station Miramar in San Diego is already looking into how the technology can improve military operations at the base. The 5G Living Lab at Miramar is a $4 million i…

US Ignite has launched a project to identify policy gaps in how cities and connected communities approach smart city projects.

A first-of-its-kind hip hop masterclass, Beats x Broadband, will connect musicians at Factory Two to students at the Flint Cultural Center Academy. LoLa technology will make it possible for students to interact in real time and participate in the musical experience without ever setting foot in the cross-town studio at Factory Two.

We're highlighting new community partners with two weeks of featured content across our media channels.

Join us for an interactive webinar on Monday, November 16 at 3:30pm EDT to learn more about how your community can apply to host a Facebook/US Ignite Augmented Reality Developer Challenge in 2021.

National Science Foundation-Funded PAWR Program Selects Two Finalists for Fourth Wireless Testbed Focused on Rural Broadband The PAWR Project Office (PPO) is co-led by US Ignite and Northeastern University - announcement originally published at www.advancedwireless.org WASHINGTON – July 27, 2020 – The Platforms for Advanced Wireless Research (PAWR) program, funded by the&…

Written by Sonali Singh for US Ignite In response to the effects of COVID-19, communities are looking into technologies that enable new methods to enhance risk mitigation efforts through video surveillance and artificial intelligence (AI). However, while there are benefits to video monitoring as a public safety tool, there is also serious concern over the accuracy of facial recognition technol…

In a new pilot project, autonomous technology company EasyMile is teaming up with the city of Westminster, Colorado to launch a fully autonomous shuttle for regularly scheduled delivery trips to a local food bank. The shuttle starts its rounds this week and will transport boxes of food from a local storage facility to the Growing Home food pantry. With no on-board operator, the shuttle will naviga…

Systemic racism, the encouragement of violence and brutality, and a lack of compassion in the face of suffering is tearing us apart. For the record, US Ignite stands with peaceful protesters demanding a change and acknowledges the rage of those who have protested peacefully for so long and still struggle to be heard. For George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery, and many others, we grieve their…

US Ignite shares several important learnings in the new publication, Trends in Smart Communities: 2020

US Ignite hosted a discussion on how community members are rising to the challenge of COVID-19 by finding ways to support local businesses. We assembled a panel of experts and convened participants from the cohort of over 30 communities that are part of our Smart Gigabit Communities project, which was started with funding from the National Science Foundation. Panelists shared real-world experience…

The COVID-19 pandemic has emerged as a challenge of unprecedented scale for communities across the world, leading to intense demand for innovation in health, social, and economic programs. While various top-down funding and policy recommendations have emerged at the national and regional levels, local leaders are focusing on solutions that meet their communities' specific needs, and placing an em…

Music credit: I dunno by grapes (c) copyright 2008 Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution (3.0) license. http://dig.ccmixter.org/files/grapes/16626 Ft: J Lang, Morusque   Our next podcast installment on smart city small cells is live! The episode is a follow-up to the Smart City Small Cells Forum workshop we hosted as a virtual event in April and runs about 15 minutes lo…