IBM Smarter Cities Challenge Names Five Winners

Five cities have been named the winners of IBM’s Smarter Cities Challenge program – Busan, Korea; Palermo, Italy; San Isidro, Argentina; San Jose, US; and Yamagata City, Japan. The cities will receive pro bono consultative advice from company experts and are focusing on the following areas:

  • As Busan is prone to extreme weather and natural hazards like typhoons and earthquakes, Mayor Suh has requested the help of IBM to introduce cognitive analytics capabilities to Busan’s current disaster management infrastructure to create a safer, more resilient city;
  • Palermo has received a huge percentage of the 160,000 migrants that have traveled to Italy in 2016 and sees an opportunity to make the city as inclusive as ever by designing a proper welcoming, first-aid, and integration path, for each immigrant;
  • San Isidro seeks to focus on renewable energy in public buildings and social housing;
  • The IBM team will be working with the city of San Jose to develop new web applications and data analytic tools that will support the city’s affordable housing initiatives and assist residents in finding available affordable housing units; and,
  • The city of Yamagata has developed the Yamagata Wide Area Tourism Council to increase tourism and employment opportunities in the region. IBM will use data analysis to help develop a road map to market the city to foreign visitors and increase tourism.

“Over the last seven years, we have seen strong applications from more than 800 cities around the world who have proposed ways that IBM’s talent and technology could help them to address their toughest issues, but 2017 really stood out,” said Jennifer Ryan Crozier, IBM’s vice president of corporate citizenship and president of the IBM Foundation. “We congratulate this year’s winners and look forward to collaborating with each of them on the Smarter Cities Challenge.”