DEPARTMENT: Office of Innovation
DEPARTMENT HEAD: Jose De La Cruz, Chief Innovation Officer and Craig Hopkins, Chief Technology Officer
COUNCIL DISTRICTS IMPACTED: City-wide
SUBJECT:
Briefing and possible action on the proposed SmartSA Innovation Zones Pilot Program in three SA Tomorrow activity centers including, the South Texas Medical Center, Downtown and Brooks.
SUMMARY:
The purpose of this item is to provide the Innovation and Technology Committee with an overview of the Proposed SmartSA Innovation Zones Pilot Program.
BACKGROUND INFORMATION:
In FY 2017, the City of San Antonio launched a Smart City Program, called SmartSA. This vision was established to help guide future smart city projects and strategies and to build a connected, inclusive and resilient community supporting a high quality of life. In FY 2018, the SmartSA strategy focuses on addressing two challenges: mobility and access to City services.
To advance these focus areas, the Innovation Office and Information Technology Department are proposing a pilot program that identifies "Innovation Zones" to test new and emerging smart city technologies, to understand the data it produces and to leverage that information to analyze and predict problems that can be solved by the City of San Antonio and its partners. Innovation Zones will serve as pilot areas to provide an opportunity for the City of San Antonio to test various smart city technologies in a defined geographic area prior to city-wide implementation.
As part of an overall smart city strategy, several U.S. cities including Dallas and Atlanta have created an "innovation zone" to pilot various smart city technologies before wide scale implementation. These cities have partnered with private sector companies to test smart city technologies within a defined geographic area, including: smart streetlights, smart parking, sensors, wi-fi connectivity and interactive digital kiosks.
In considering an area for an innovation zone...
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