Smart Grid Today: SCOPE Brings Together Many Groups for a Smart Boston

September 29, 2014 from Smart Grid Today

NSF chips in $1 million to program led by BU

Boston University’s (BU) Rafik B Hariri Institute for Computing, Computational Science & Engineering received over $1 million in funding from the National Science Foundation (NSF) and its industry partners last week to develop a “smart-city” cloud platform designed to streamline and strengthen multiple municipal functions. Called SCOPE (Smart-city Cloud-based Open Platform & Eco-system), the public-private initiative is designed to improve energy delivery and asset management and provide a range of services in the City of Boston and across Massachusetts, SCOPE’s founders said.

“The SCOPE project will leverage foundational research advances in sensing, data analytics, control and actuation to further research, prototype and evaluate novel ‘smart-city’ services,” in Boston, NSF Division of Computer & Network Systems Deputy Division Director Erwin Gianchandani, PhD, told us in a recent interview.

“By harnessing breakthroughs in cyber-physical, mobile and cloud computing technologies, SCOPE-enabled smart-city services will result in innovative solutions for energy distribution, transportation, healthcare and emergency response,” he added.

“SCOPE is funded through NSF’s program on Partnerships for Innovation (PFI): Building Innovation Capacity,” supporting “partnerships that span academia and industry,” Gianchandani said. “It has a specific focus on integrating technologies emerging from fundamental research with physical and virtual realities, as well as with human users, to produce and deliver services never-before imagined.”

US-based industry coalition, Smart Cities Council, defines a smart city as one that “gathers data from smart devices and sensors embedded in its roadways, power grids, buildings and other assets. It shares that data via a smart communications system that is typically a combination of wired and wireless.

“It then uses smart software to create valuable information and digitally enhanced services,” the SCC website said.

“Today’s cities are increasingly being challenged – to respond to diverse needs of their citizens, to prepare for major environmental changes, to improve urban quality of life and to foster economic development,” Director of the Hariri Institute and SCOPE Principal Investigator Azer Bestavros said in prepared remarks last week.

“So-called smart cities are closing these gaps through the use of technology to connect people with resources, to guide changes in collective behavior, and to foster innovation and economic growth,” he added.

Spearheaded by the Hariri Institute, SCOPE is led by a multi-disciplinary team of investigators from the BU Depts of City Planning & Urban Affairs, Computer Science, Earth & Environment, Electrical & Computer Engineering and Strategy & Innovation as well as the Office of Technology Development.

Among the initiative’s industry partners are (with descriptions taken from their individual websites):

Connected Bits – Maker of a mobile app that lets residents report maintenance concerns to the municipality;

CrowdComfort – Maker of software that lets building occupants report maintenance and environmental problems to the building’s owner or manager;

Integrated Technical Systems, maker of and installer of networked municipal systems covering a variety of safety, security and parking applications, among others;

International Data Corporation (IDC), a global market intelligence firm, and

Electrical technology including smart grid maker Schneider Electric.

Public partners include (with descriptions from their individual websites):

Boston Region Metropolitan Planning Organization – A group of state agencies, regional entities and municipalities that is responsible for conducting federally required metropolitan transportation-planning process for the Boston metropolitan area;

The City of Boston;

MassIT – Massachusetts’ lead state agency for technology led by the Commonwealth CIO, and

The MassTech Collaborative (MassTech) – An innovative public agency working to enhance economic growth, accelerate technology use and adoption and harness the value of research by engaging in meaningful collaborations across academia, industry and government.

Services to be developed
In collaboration with these stakeholders, SCOPE investigators will develop and implement smart-city services that aim to improve the quality of urban life – including:

Energy and environmental services that monitor/estimate greenhouse gas emissions for congestion management and coordination of smart-grid DR systems;

Transportation and mobility services to reduce traffic congestion, save time and wasted fuel, and reduce pollution;

Public safety and security services for big-data-driven dispatch of police/traffic details, snow removal, coordinated public works scheduling and municipal repairs;

Tools for management of city assets through mining of large data sets and crowd-sourced coordination of asset use, and

Social, institutional and behavioral mechanisms to facilitate adoption of new services, such as incentive programs and community report cards to promote transparency and sustainability.

In addition, SCOPE will collaborate with BU projects that use sensor networking and decision & control capabilities, for example in smart parking, adaptive traffic light control, public transport scheduling and emissions-aware traffic modeling.

SCOPE entails the development of novel application programming interfaces – adding capabilities that to date have not been available in public cloud offerings, including support for predictable operation of cyber-physical systems, data-quality management and data security, integrity and privacy services.

Serviced offered via cloud

Once developed, these services will be offered through the Massachusetts Open Cloud (MOC), a new public cloud designed and implemented through the Massachusetts Green High-Performance Computing Center (MGHPCC), based in Holyoke outside Boston, and supported by the Massachusetts Technology Collaborative.

“The SCOPE project highlights the collaborative efforts between the state, industry and academia that help make Massachusetts the leading innovation state,” said Gov Deval Patrick, D, said in prepared remarks last week. “Through our Massachusetts Big Data Initiative, we’ve made open government a priority – opening data sets across multiple state agencies, improving access by researchers and the public,” he added.

Teaming up stakeholders

“No single company can accomplish a smart city on their own,” Schneider Electric CEO of North America Operations Laurent Vernerey said in prepared comments. “We need to approach this opportunity collaboratively – with city government as leader, citizens at the center, technology as an enabler and private sector partners to help make the vision a reality.

“We see the SCOPE project as an exciting opportunity to demonstrate how these stakeholders can work together to develop innovative services intended to deliver substantial value to the people who live and work in the City of Boston and Massachusetts.”