Workshop on Smart Cities, Arlington, Virginia, December 3-4, 2015

Sponsor: National Science Foundation (NSF)

Award Number: 1561760

PI: Christos Cassandras

This Workshop will bring together researchers and technical leaders from academia, industry, and municipal government in order to set a short and long-term research agenda for Smart Cities aiming to integrate the three broad fields of Engineering, Computer Science, and Social Science. The Workshop topics cover a variety of fields and specialized disciplines including: transportation, environment, energy, water, building design and management, urban planning, sensor and actuator networks, social science, economics, software platform design and data management. The Workshop is motivated by the continuing growth of urban areas, making their management one of the critical challenges our society faces today.

The emergence of mobile wireless sensor and actuation network technologies, along with broader developments in Cyber-Physical Systems, have created unprecedented opportunities through innovative services for transportation, energy distribution, health care, environmental monitoring, business, commerce, emergency response, and social activities. The Workshop will be structured to include presentations and discussions focused on what is possible for Smart Cities and what foundational research is necessary over the next decade to enable these new opportunities and bring them to fruition while mitigating unexpected consequences that may adversely affect urban dwellers. The results of the workshop will be captured in the form of presentations and breakout session reports which will be used as the basis for a final workshop report that will be published and shared with the broader communities involved with Smart Cities. This will lead to a roadmap for foundational research in all aspects of Smart Cities spanning engineering, computer science, social science, and policy issues. There will be special emphasis on education, since there is a need to develop new academic curricula in what is tentatively labeled Urban Science. The report will also define a state-of-the-art vision for Smart Cities whose realization will have significant impact on the design, management, and overall sustainability of urban environments over the next several decades.

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