Mayor Bowser and D.C. Chief Technology Officer Archana Vemulapalli were joined Thursday by Cisco CEO Chuck Robbins to announce a new innovation partnership between the District and the multinational tech giant.
Washington, D.C. will become the United States’ first “Lighthouse City,” part of a Cisco initiative to pioneer smart city infrastructure through pilot programs and government partnerships. D.C. joins other global cities like Barcelona, Hamburg, Adelaide and Jaipur in sharing the “Lighthouse City” designation.
As part of this partnership, Cisco will open two new coding academies at D.C. public schools in FY17, though the locations are yet to be determined. The company will also continue to work with the D.C. government to pioneer IoT and smart city solutions.
Conversations about a closer working relationship between D.C. and Cisco began when District CTO Archana Vemulapalli met Cisco’s Robbins at a conference some months ago. Conversations have been ongoing since then, according to an OCTO spokesman, culminating in today’s announcement.
The District and Cisco also announced today the completion of the first phase of the Pennsylvania Ave 2040 (PA 2040) project—a joint initiative with the city government, Golden Triangle Business Improvement District and National Capital Planning Commission to integrate Internet of Things technology into a section of downtown D.C.
Phase one of the project saw the installation of 71 smart streetlights in the Golden Triangle corridor. The LED streetlights use IoT sensors to adjust brightness based on outdoor light levels and detect motion so they can brighten when pedestrians are walking by, for instance. The data from the sensors will also be open to all city agencies.
In addition to providing light, the street lamps also serve as wifi hotspots and traffic monitors. As part of the completion of the first PA 2040 phase, 90 acres in the Golden Triangle now have nearly 100 percent coverage of public wifi. And the smart street lights are able to provide traffic managers with block-by-block analysis of traffic patterns.
Other smart city improvements to the Golden Triangle include two water sensors and soil monitors to reduce unnecessary water usage and five trash cans that can sense and report fill levels to optimize trash collection.
According to OCTO, energy consumption in the pilot area has been reduced by 50 percent from 34,200 watts to 18,000 watts.
The installation is part of the District’s broader SmarterDC initiative to incorporate smart city technology in areas like self-driving cars, internet access and public transportation management.
See more on OCTO's #SmarterDC plan:
