Vanderbilt Initiative for Smart-City Operations Research (VISOR)

Overview

VISORType: Vanderbilt Initiative Award (ViA)

The rapidly emerging smart city concept aims to enhance the quality and performance of urban services, reduce costs and resource consumption, and provide an infrastructure to engage citizens more effectively. Creating partnerships where the city, adjoining universities and industry collaborate to serve local causes and adapt technologies to community needs is critical. Vanderbilt Initiative for Smart City Operations Research (VISOR) will yield a trans-institutional center focused on multi-disciplinary research for formulating, developing and deploying “smart city” applications. Greater Nashville needs such initiatives to deal with its projected growth and corresponding population explosion (the population is expected to reach 3 million by 2040). This influx and growth in jobs—driven by commerce and entertainment—requires significant research, planning, problem solving, sustainable development of the region’s infrastructure, including transportation and utilities to keep the city operating effectively. Project participants will work with Metro Nashville governmental agencies to develop a technical and policy platform that enables living city labs in which to study, research, and develop solutions to the challenges and problems faced by the city and by extension other cities around the world.

Faculty Participants

Lead Faculty in bold

School of Engineering

Peabody College

College of Arts & Science

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