[Techtaffy Newsdesk]
IBM has selected 33 cities worldwide to receive IBM Smarter Cities Challenge grants during 2012. Launched in 2011, this three-year, 100-city $50 million program, IBM’s single-largest philanthropic initiative, funds in-person engagements staffed by teams of top IBM experts, who study and then make detailed recommendations addressing locally important urban issues.
For year-two of the IBM Smarter Cities Challenge, cities around the world once again competed vigorously to benefit from IBM’s human talent and technology. The winning cities proposed intriguing projects and areas of focus for IBM experts. They included initiatives for: economic and workforce Development — attracting a diverse variety of jobs and industries; transportation — integrating bus, rail, bicycle, car and pedestrian modes of transportation; sustainability — measuring vehicle miles traveled more precisely to help lower pollution levels; health — using inhaler and air quality data to identify and reduce asthma outbreaks; education — applying data analytics to identify the most effective investments for improving an entire school system; and urban planning- – revitalizing and redeveloping older neighborhoods.
Following are the cities that earned IBM Smarter Cities Challenge grants in 2012:
- Accra, Ghana
- Ahmedabad, India
- Atlanta, Georgia, USA
- Birmingham, UK
- Boston, Massachusetts, USA
- Cheongju, Korea
- Chonburi, Thailand
- Curitiba, Brazil
- Da Nang, Vietnam
- Dortmund, Germany
- Durham, North Carolina, USA
- Eindhoven, Netherlands
- Geraldton, Australia
- Houston, Texas, USA
- Ishinomaki, Japan
- Jacksonville, Florida, USA
- Jurong Lake District, Singapore
- Louisville, Kentucky, USA
- Malaga, Spain
- Medellin, Colombia
- New Taipei City, Taiwan
- Nanjing, China
- Nairobi, Kenya
- Omaha, Nebraska, USA
- Ottawa, Ontario, Canada
- Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA
- Pune, India
- Rabat, Morocco
- Rosario, Argentina
- Siracusa, Italy
- Surrey, British Columbia, Canada
- Tshwane, South Africa
- Toluca, Mexico
IBM’s Smarter Cities Challenge is an outgrowth of IBM’s Corporate Service Corps grants program, in which IBM deploys teams of top employees to areas in the developing world to work on projects that intersect business, technology, and society. Since the launch of Corporate Service Corps in 2008, nearly 1,400 IBM employees based in 50 countries have been dispatched on more than 140 team assignments in 24 countries.
The Smarter Cities Challenge is sponsored by IBM’s Corporate Citizenship program and IBM’s International Foundation.