It was in the early 2000s when Jim Misener, chair of the SAE C-V2X Technical Committee, first started to watch short-range communication come into form and the emerging ability for cars to “talk” to surrounding infrastructure. “Smart cities” had not yet become a common term.
Misener said the technology peaked SAE International’s interest, and the organization, which develops global standards, quickly set to work creating a set of standards to shape the way cities deploy smart infrastructure.
Since then, companies developing smart infrastructure have popped up across the nation and in Pittsburgh in what has become an emerging industry as cities look to upgrade and transform their aging infrastructures.
Now, this growing sector may get an additional boost with President Joe Biden’s proposed $2 trillion infrastructure plan.
Karen Lightman, executive director of Metro21: Smart Cities Institute at Carnegie Mellon University, praised the Biden administration’s recently proposed American Jobs Act for its dedication to expanding broadband coverage. She said upgrading and building out digital infrastructure would unleash a huge amount of smart infrastructure innovations being created at local universities that would finally be able to move forward with such an investment from the federal government.
“From a university standpoint, we get excited about this idea of the Internet of Things, this idea of connected devices and connected infrastructure and connected transportation that can improve quality of life, safety, reduce emissions,” she said. “All those things can happen, and it can open up new levels of innovation that we can’t even imagine. But all this does not mean diddly-squat if you don’t have that connectivity.”
As smart infrastructure proves itself an emerging opportunity in Pittsburgh, Griffin Schultz, CEO of Pittsburgh-based Rapid Flow Technologies, said local leaders should embrace and support its development.
“Just look at what has occurred over the past several decades about the transformation of Pittsburgh from an old industrial town into what it is today,” Schultz said. “Regardless of what the innovation might be, specifically it is more about the city officials and community in general allowing that type of innovation and collaboration.”
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Autor(en)/Author(s): Julia Mericle
Quelle/Source: The Business Journals, 14.04.2021
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