Columbus Wins The Smart City Challenge And $50m In Grants

On June 23, in the Douglas Community Center in an economically challenged area called Linden, Anthony Foxx, the Secretary of the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT), announced that Columbus, Ohio is the winning city in the Smart City Challenge. As a result, Columbus will be the beneficiary of $50 million in grants and support from high-tech industry sponsors to “create a fully integrated, first-of-its-kind city that uses data, technology and creativity to shape how people and goods move in the future,” according to the DOT. Of the $50 million, $40 million will come from the DOT and the remaining $10 million comes from Paul G. Allen’s Vulcan Inc. According to the Columbus proposal, the investment will be used for connecting citizens and visitors, providing sustainable transportation options, and improving job opportunities.

According to DOT Secretary Foxx, the Smart City Challenge was initiated by the DOT to “challenge cities to inventory the challenges they faced and how they would use innovation and technology to solve those challenges.” The challenge was first announced in December 2015 with a very short timeline. The first round of applications was due by February 4^th, the seven finalist cities were announced April 28^th, and the finalist announced June 23^rd – a record setting pace for any government initiative. But it doesn’t end there. The DOT expects to see implementation of solutions in Columbus in the next few years, with the assistance of the high-tech industry sponsors, which include Amazon (NASDAQ: AMZN), AT&T (NYSE: T), Autodesk (NASDAQ: ADSK0, DC Solar, Continental (ETR: CON), MobileEye (NYSE: MBLY), NXP (NASDAQ:NXPI), Sidewalk Labs, and Vulcan. In addition to the challenge sponsors, each city sought out additional industry partners. The DOT also announced the formation of a smart city collaborative with Vulcan that will bring new partners to the collaboration, including many of the auto manufacturers.

The federal government is also requiring that the industry sponsors support the other six finalist cities as they move forward with their plans. The other finalist cities include: Austin, TX; Denver, CO; Kansas City, MO; Pittsburg, PA; Portland, OR; and San Francisco, CA. The opportunity and challenge, however, may be much greater because a total of 78 medium-sized cities from 35 states submitted proposals.

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The selection of Columbus was a bit of a surprise given the high-tech environments of places like Austin, Portland, and San Francisco. However, according to Secretary Foxx, the focus on improving the health and lives of the community was a key factor in awarding Columbus the challenge. Peter Esser, the Head of Government Affairs at NXP, also expressed that “the Columbus proposal provided a path for growth beyond the initial applications.” In addition, Columbus has already arranged for an additional $90 million investment called the Columbus Innovation Fund.

Columbus has a population of roughly 850,000 with a greater metro population estimated by the U.S. Census Bureau of 2.37 million. Like many mid-west cities, Columbus has been going through an economic transformation and has had strong population growth. As such, the smart city investment will coincide with other investments to upgrade and expand the city’s infrastructure, including a project to install over 500 miles of fiber that was just completed.

Smart city initiatives are spreading throughout the world – from Germany to Dubai to India to Brazil. However, this is the first broad-based initiative of its kind in the US and features a partnership between the community, the federal government, and the high-tech industry. As a result, if successful, the initiative will likely drive a new model for infrastructure investment by cities and the federal government throughout the U.S going forward.

Some of the key areas of technology investments will be to improve transportation and transportation safety through vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) and vehicle-to-infrastructure (V2I) technology. There will be support of social services through the use of RFID technology from companies like NXP, a key partner in the Smart City Challenge. We expect there will be both cooperation and competition amongst the sponsoring companies.

While much of the smart city challenge is focused on transportation, the implementation of a smart city infrastructure has endless possibilities. The use of connected sensors combined with data analytics and deep learning can lead to a plethora of applications. Imagine an environment where a person’s identification and information is with them at all times by facial recognition and is secured through multiple levels of authentication that requires no action by the user. This will enable users to seamlessly replace ID cards, library cards, rental cards, even credit cards. In addition, the ultimate smart city could have asset tracking for all public and private items, be a completely cashless environment, and have transportation options that eliminate road signs, stop lights, and even speed limits. With a majority of the world’s population moving to dense urban centers and the continual growth in those urban centers, many smart city developments address the growth, quality of life, infrastructure, and environmental challenges associated with large cities. Many old European cities are turning to smart city technology to eventually eliminate the need for autos, which didn’t exist when the cities were built.