IIT-B and Toronto University to make Pune AI-powered Smart City
Artificial Intelligence (AI) is literally changing the world as it's being increasingly applied in more and more fields. AI is also being used to build Smart Cities for improving people's lives with cutting-edge urban planning and infrastructure and latest digital and information technologies. The University of Toronto and IIT-Bombay are deploying AI to make Pune a truly "Smart City" in India. Here's how.
Partnership between Pune, University of Toronto, IIT-B
The University of Toronto and IIT-Bombay are collaborating for the project to make Pune a "Smart City" using AI. It will be the first project under the recent MoU signed by Pune Smart City Development Corporation, University of Toronto, and IIT-Bombay. The long-term partnership focuses on affordable housing, tackling the large number of rural immigrants arriving in Pune, cyber-security, and digital systems interoperability.
University of Toronto's statement
The university stated their objective is to "focus on finding solutions to urban problems by tapping into technology-based 'smart solutions' that aim not only to improve economic growth for the (Pune) city of approximately six-million but also to create a more sustainable and resilient region".
Distinguished Urban Systems professor to head Pune project
Mark Fox, Professor of Urban Systems Engineering at the University, is leading the project and would arrive in Pune in December. AI would be deployed to "standardize" Pune's data. The University said developing "data standards" can help Pune as well as other cities to "improve the analysis, design, and delivery of city services." Over 220 faculty members in the university work in urban research.
The University of Toronto on Mark Fox
According to the university's statement, Fox is an expert "on ontologies (information science) that provide precise city data, analyzed and culled from many different sources - key to digital systems interoperability - and designs computational searches that can look for solutions to urban problems."
Pune will be a test case in India
Mark Fox, who has been involved in the field of AI since 1974, was interested in working in India ever since the government announced "Smart Cities Mission" in 2015 to build 100 smart cities by 2020. Pune will reportedly serve as a test case and also as a "template" for AI to be "leveraged" for finding solutions in a rapidly urbanizing country like India.
