Empire State Development (ESD) has announced the seven New York state cities who will receive a total of $1 million in funding to aid in the development of innovative public-private partnerships using technology to address current municipal challenges. Funding was provided through New York State’s Smart Cities Innovation Partnership – a collaboration between ESD, the Technology & Innovation Portfolio in the Governor’s Office, and the Israel Innovation Authority (IIA).
The seven cities and their projects are:
- Glen Falls – will receive $96,700 to develop and refine a vertical farming system, with produce going to support local restaurants, food banks, and other institutions;
- Jamestown – will use $200,000 for advanced remote water meter monitoring. It plans to upgrade several thousand water meters with advanced water meter sensors;
- New York City – will receive $50,000 for automated mobility counts to be used in a pilot using automated sensing hardware and computer vision algorithms. It will also receive $90,500 for a real-time flood monitoring dashboard to provide residents and researchers online access to collected flood data;
- Schenectady – will use $55,000 for smart remote courts that will streamline court schedules and $22,000 for emergency medicine triage;
- Saratoga Springs – is awarded $100,000 for connected wi-fi street lights;
- Southampton – will use $200,000 for environmental monitoring of nitrogen pollution to reduce the public threat posed by blue-green algae; and,
- Syracuse – is awarded $150,000 for the deployment of unmanned aerial systems (UAS) for algae bloom monitoring and treatment. The city also received $50,000 for vacant structure monitoring and inspection using sensors.
Eric Gertler, ESD Acting Commissioner and President & CEO-designate said, “New York’s cities have long been sources of collaboration, ingenuity and opportunity, and the Smart Cities Innovation Partnership activates the private sector to provide inventive solutions to civic challenges that affect so many New Yorkers’ day-to-day lives, particularly as we continue to fight a global pandemic that has had enormous impact on municipal operations and services. I look forward to seeing the new partnerships that will be created by this program, the technological solutions they will produce and their positive impact on residents throughout the state.”
