SMART Community Council has hosted SMART Community Exchanges across the U.S. and Europe during the past decade, engaging executives, investors, innovators and advisors in hot spots of technology innovation.

Strong technology cooperation and the initiative to make communities smarter get support on both sides of the Atlantic. Leaders face the same challenges and see partnership opportunities to test, prove, commercialize and implement SMART solutions.

The 10th Annual SMART Community Exchange brings together SMART leaders, entrepreneurs, technologists, innovators and investors. The event will take place on Monday, October 30, from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. at the Curiosity Lab in Peachtree Corners.

The focus is on SMART-R (SMART + Resilient) Infrastructure, energy, mobility, transportation, frontier technologies, safety and security, health and wellness, education, finance and more.

Participants include delegates from enterprises and organizations, higher education institutions, federal, state, and local governments, economic development, industry, manufacturers, labor organizations and workforce development.

“There is so much potential for companies to grow business through strategic partnerships in the hot spots of tech innovation across the United States. Many of these ‘hot spots’ are SMART Communities, such as Peachtree Corners, Georgia, and the Curiosity Lab, co-host of the SMART Community Exchange 2023,” said Tana Torrano, co-founder of the SMART Community Exchange.

Curiosity Lab at Peachtree Corners is a 5G-enabled intelligent mobility and smart city living laboratory near Atlanta.

Designed as a proving ground for IoT, mobility and smart city emerging technologies, the lab’s centerpiece is a three-mile public autonomous vehicle roadway leveraging cellular vehicle-to-everything (C-V2X) technologies.

The ecosystem’s infrastructure includes intelligent traffic cameras and signals, smart streetlights, the country’s first “IoT Central Control Room” implemented in a city and a 25,000-square-foot innovation center.

The Curiosity Lab, owned and operated by the City of Peachtree Corners, is one of North America’s only real-world testing environments.

SMART technology broadens access to new opportunities and markets in tech-intensive economies and benefits communities, businesses, governments and citizens on both sides of the Atlantic.

“US-EU cooperation matters today more than ever. We share the same values and commitment to serve as a catalyst for joint innovation. … Together, we are stronger to face today’s challenges and reap the benefits in a fast-changing world where technology plays a critical role,” stated Minna LeVine, Chair of the SMART Community Council.

Interested in attending? Register here! Registration is $97 per person and includes lunch, programming, VIP networking and a tour of Curiosity Lab.

The City of Peachtree Corners announced a partnership with Intelligent Traffic Control Ltd (ITC), an Israeli startup that provides a software solution for existing traffic infrastructure.

ITC’s smart solution aims to improve travel experiences by measuring traffic to predict and mitigate congestion before it occurs.

ITC will partner with Curiosity Lab to launch this solution for the first time in the United States. The company plans to deploy the solution in select Peachtree Corners traffic intersections for demonstrations and testing. 

ITC’s software connects to existing traffic cameras and uses computer vision analysis to identify all road objects and collect data, including speed, acceleration, traffic flow, distance, pedestrian activity and more. 

ITC’s software also complies with privacy regulations by hiding license plates and faces. 

Using machine learning models, data is then analyzed to create a traffic model that highlights patterns of each intersection or corridor. This information is connected across a grid of intersections to create one holistic image. 

ITC is also predicting traffic patterns based on historic data, enabling cities to have more control over traffic congestion. 

“With our solution already deployed across Israel, in Australia and other countries worldwide, Curiosity Lab will serve as a real-world playground for us to continue to develop our solution and to officially launch in the U.S. with an official office in the Innovation Center,” said Aharon Brauner, ITC Co-Founder and CEO. 

“That ecosystem is the perfect opportunity for us to demonstrate the effectiveness of our solution with consistent mixed traffic, public transit and pedestrian activity along the corridor.”

In addition to uncovering patterns, ITC’s solution can create traffic simulations across intersections and corridors where the software is deployed. 

Traffic controllers and city managers will be able to visualize and simulate countless theoretical traffic scenarios for the software to solve.

ITC’s software can also manage traffic based on a city’s specific goals, whether limiting carbon emissions and improving sustainability or providing general traffic management, prioritizing pedestrians or public transit and more.

“Our software not only learns and adapts traffic signals and patterns in real-time, but also has the capability to manage traffic to prioritize certain categories of road users,” said Dvir Kenig, ITC Co-Founder and CTO. 

“This allows cities to manage each intersection or corridor differently based on the type of traffic they are seeing and/or time of day,” he added.

“According to recent studies, more than 40% of traffic accidents occur in intersections, and congestion accounts for 25% of car greenhouse gas emissions – with the average driver spending three days per year stuck in traffic,” said Brandon Branham, Curiosity Lab Executive Director. 

“We will be able to manage intersections in real-time and can easily download a traffic report and adapt traffic signal patterns remotely, which is a huge advantage for city managers when there are major wrecks, community events and sudden surges in traffic,” he explained.

Peachtree Corners has announced that Clevon, a global autonomous delivery company, is joining the city’s Curiosity Lab ecosystem. The company’s autonomous robot carriers (ARCs) are designed to help fulfill last-mile package, grocery, restaurant, retail and industrial deliveries around the city. 

“It was only fitting to bring our second major operation here in the United States to one of the most advanced smart city environments in the world at Peachtree Corners,” said Sander Sebastian Agur, Clevon’s Chief Executive Officer.

Clevon’s fully electric ARCs aim to reduce failed deliveries, carbon emissions, cost of delivery per customer and stolen packages.  

“We’re proud to have adopted some of the world’s most advanced emerging technologies here in Peachtree Corners, and we’re delighted to continue that tradition by welcoming Clevon and their autonomous robot carriers to our community,” said Brandon Branham, Curiosity Lab Executive Director. “From a city perspective, we are always looking to improve our residents’ everyday lives with exciting new technologies. Showcasing how robotic solutions can help enhance package delivery operations while reducing congestion and emissions gives us a further peek into a brighter future.”

Clevon’s ARCs operate on U.S. public roadways and are built to deliver multiple shipments during a single trip. As part of the Curiosity Lab ecosystem, Clevon will explore live testing for 5G adoption in partnership with T-Mobile.

“We are proud to be supporting Clevon in this greater mission to create more sustainable and efficient delivery solutions,” said Dave Bezzant, Vice President, T-Mobile for Government.