NIST and DHS Jointly Sponsor Global City Teams Challenge 2018 Smart and Secure Cities and Communities Challenge

The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) have announced they will jointly sponsor the 2018 Global City Teams Challenge (GCTC) – “Smart and Secure Cities and Communities Challenge” – which will focus on designing smart city technologies with cyber security as the top priority. The goal is to create systems that are more secure, reliable, resilient, and protective of privacy.

The Global City Teams Challenge was created by NIST and US Ignite as a collaborative platform for the development of smart cities and communities. Rather than working in isolation, participants such as local governments, nonprofit organizations, academic institutions, technologists, and private corporations are able to form working groups examining Internet of Things (IoT) applications within the smart city and community environment.  These working groups may be project teams, action clusters – a team of technology providers and one or more municipal partners – or,  SuperClusters – a collaboration of action clusters organized around common project objectives and shared solutions. Currently, there are five official SuperClusters: transportation, city data platform, public safety, energy/water/waste, and public WiFi with two others under construction (healthcare and data governance).

GCTC’s long-term goal is “to establish and demonstrate replicable, scalable, and sustainable models for incubation and deployment of interoperable, standard-based solutions using advanced technologies such as IoT and CPS, and demonstrate their measurable benefits in communities and cities.” To date, it has recruited and incubated over 160 action clusters with participation from over 150 cities and 400 companies/organizations from around the world.

Those interested in joining the Global City Teams Challenge can find information here.