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There is now a CONTENT FREEZE for Mercury while we switch to a new platform. It began on Friday, March 10 at 6pm and will end on Wednesday, March 15 at noon. No new content can be created during this time, but all material in the system as of the beginning of the freeze will be migrated to the new platform, including users and groups. Functionally the new site is identical to the old one. webteam@gatech.edu
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Atlanta, GA | Posted: October 2, 2015
Alyson Powell
Institute for People and Technology
Summary Sentence:
Georgia Tech and Georgia State University are partnering with the City of Atlanta as founding members in the MetroLab Network.
Full Summary:
Georgia Tech and Georgia State University are partnering with the City of Atlanta as founding members in the MetroLab Network.
Tech Tower Atlanta aerialGeorgia Tech and Georgia State University are partnering with the City of Atlanta as founding members in the MetroLab Network, part of the Obama Administration’s “Smart Cities” initiative to help communities tackle local challenges and improve city services.
Supported by a $1 million grant from the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, the MetroLab Network seeks to research, develop and deploy technologies to address challenges in the nation’s urban areas such as reducing traffic congestion, fighting crime, fostering economic growth, and managing the effects of a changing climate.
“The MetroLab Network provides a forum for cities and universities to partner both within their own cities and to develop and diffuse solutions across cities using city-university partnerships on research and practice as the mechanism for that collaboration,” said Dr. Jennifer Clark, director of Georgia Tech’s Center for Urban Innovation. “[The] framework creates a sustained partnership rather than a project by project partnership.” Clark attended the announcement of the initiative during the Smart Cities Forum at the White House in September.
“How do we move from a 20th century city to a 21st century city using a world-class university as the research driver and a global city as the test bed?” Dr. Clark asked.
The Atlanta partnership is one of more than 20 city-university collaborations being supported by the initiative. Established city-university partnerships have produced transportation and water infrastructure projects that have increased efficiency and reduced the environmental impact. By becoming members of MetroLab, Georgia Tech will not only partner with Georgia State and the City of Atlanta, but also other cities in the network.
“The idea is to do this in a way that we can share best practices across the country, so that we can deploy these technology cases in multiple cities at the same time,” Dr. Clark said.
