A city within a city is being developed at a nondescript facility on Pino Avenue, providing a playground of sorts for technology startups. The site, nicknamed the Pino Yards, is meant for deploying and testing new Internet of Things and artificial intelligence technologies.
There's a trailer utilizing technology from SmartCone that may provide mobile hotspots alongside cameras. Elsewhere there are street lights that can be controlled remotely.
With the Pino Yards, which has its own park and eventually its own bus stop, the city of Albuquerque hopes to find new ways that devices with connectivity and other technology can benefit the public and the government. The effort started under Mayor Tim Keller's administration a few years ago and is being led by the department of technology and innovation.
Albuquerque startups OptiPulse, which is commercializing a new type of broadband technology, as well as gunshot detection firm EAGL Technology have partnered with the city on the effort, according to a June prospectus from the city that details the project. Major tech companies including Cisco, Oracle and Verizon are also providing support, the prospectus says.
Additionally, the city is drafting agreements that companies could make with the city to test certain IoT products at the Pino Yards. The agreements have not been finalized, but the office of innovation and technology hopes to make them available in three to four months, said Brian Osterloh, director of technology and innovation for the city.
Ideas for new uses can come from anywhere, but the city has utilized data from 311 requests, put in by residents to address things like noise complaints and questions about city services and facilities, to formulate use case ideas. While some devices provide little municipal value, the city hopes others will improve access, safety and provide insights into human behavior — with extra revenue to boot.
Case in point: The city has considered an attempt to make money by monitoring the use of parking spaces before scrapping the idea. Similarly, a crosswalk monitoring system in development at the Pino Yards may provide information about pedestrian walking patterns and driver activity in the vicinity.
In the end, the city wants to use smart tech for "furthering the goals" of local communities, Osterloh said, adding that he also wants the effort to be used for "stoking and exploding" curiosities in students.
The city is partnering with Central New Mexico Community College's Internet of Things boot camp, with some street lights utilizing IoT tech being controlled by CNM Ingenuity instructor Brian Rashap, according to Osterloh.
Together, the two organizations have "partnered on a solar-powered wifi trailer, a pothole detection system, and drone-deployable search and rescue beacons," Rashap wrote to Business First in an email. IoT tech has a variety of applications from traffic monitoring to water management and air monitoring, he added.
Cities around the country have attempted to adopt the use of connected technologies. Boston, for example, unveiled a "smart streets" initiative using video cameras, sensors, a platform for data analysis and LED lights to gather and use data to inform decisions regarding traffic rule enforcement, public education and "better streets, sidewalks, or signage," according to the Boston city government's website.
And with its testing ground at the Pino Yards, the city hopes to continue capitalizing on the opportunities afforded by certain "smart" technologies in discovering ways to incorporate them.
