John Holden had been community economic development his entire career when he began his job as a Smart City Manager around a year and a half ago in the Office of Strategy and Innovation with the City of Raleigh, N.C.
While not an information technology professional, Holden nonetheless spends his time at his new job vetting new technologies and developing pilot projects that fit within the scope of the City’s strategic plan. He has found a seamless transition from economic development to smart city development. He defines a smart city as one that looks to new innovations and technologies to improve its services to its citizens, while economic development looks more at increasing investment.
“The technologies we consider may be a bit cutting edge and innovative, but they must have a human-centered design approach,” Holden said. “I came to the conclusion that community economic development is about building ‘place’ through investment, and smart city development is about building ‘place’ through technology.”
One of Holden’s first projects was a smart lighting fixture deployment, known as Signify BrightSights, in the park next to the Peach Road Cultural Center, a community gathering place in an underserved neighborhood in Raleigh. The LED lights are programmed to dim at a certain time, and if there’s motion, the lights will brighten. Each light includes a Wi-Fi mesh node and temperature and noise monitors. Networking for Future, T-Mobile, Cisco and ExpressTek all collaborated to create a free Wi-Fi network that attracts between 500 and 600 users that log on every night.
Along with providing connectivity, the smart lighting saves $100 to $200 per light per month. Currently there are 11 lights in this park, saving between $13,200 to $26,400.
“We are not saving millions of dollars, but we are reducing our carbon footprint. Our city is one of the few in the nation that have a climate action plan. So that’s important to us as a city,” Harden said.
Holden is also testing a smart city program to make waste and recycling more efficient. The initiative also has an economic development benefit as it taps into technology invented by a local Raleigh man. Each box handles both waste and recycling. It uses AI-enabled cameras to analyze the items coming in so they can be sorted into the proper container. When the containers are full, a sensor alerts waste management personnel. The next version will be solar powered.
“Part of our strategy is to support the entrepreneur network in Raleigh and the Research Triangle, which is pretty strong, particularly in tech, but not exclusively,” Holden said.
Another of Holden’s initiatives is focused on digital inclusion by offering occupation training using virtual reality. The City is leasing six of these VR goggles, which are divided for use by two community centers. Using first-person simulations from a company called Transfr, the VR goggles provide full immersion training that introduces students to a wide range of occupations.
“The training company uses virtual reality to introduce careers to youth that may not have an opportunity to realize what it means to be a welder or a pipe fitter or a nurse or even an astronaut,” Holden said.
While all intersections can be made smart using cameras and sensors, Raleigh is taking it to the next level by using video AI to predict turning movements of bicycles, cars and people to reduce accidents. Certain traffic lights are also being programmed to give buses priority as part of the Bus Rapid Transit system. Essentially a dedicated lane is given to the buses so they can be treated like trains. When approaching the intersection, the bus sends a signal, which changes the light to green.
Before Holden came to Raleigh, there were smart city initiatives already in place in the city. There was an early warning system for floods that used a series of gauges and measurements from around the region to predict flooding events in the urban environment.
Holden appears to be happy about his transition into smart cities. He is overseeing technology that is reducing electricity usage, improving connectivity, promoting training and making the streets safer. He said he feels like his work is having an impact in the personal and professional lives of the people in his community. “We’re not there yet, but this is making a difference.”
