How does the future of transportation view the creation of smart cities?

The use of technology, telematics and data is always evolving, opening the door for infinite future possibilities. This idea of a constant evolution challenges businesses in the transportation industry – and all other industries for that matter – to stay up-to-date on current technological advances to remain competitive. Some forward-thinking and early adopting businesses may even strive to remain a step ahead. With the challenge to stay innovative, who better to turn to then the upcoming workers of the industry: Generation Z. This generation, born 1995-2012, is the *first to be raised in a true technology-driven world and because of this, will be the biggest influence on the future of transportation technology.  

Starting in May 2018, Teletrac Navman provided college students the opportunity to submit an essay or video for the chance to be awarded a $3,000 scholarship. The submission period lasted two months and resulted in more than 100 entries from students all over the United States. All students had the choice of submitting one of two prompts:

• How has technology changed the transportation industry? How do you think it will continue to change it?
• How can your field of study impact the creation of smart cities?

For students to be eligible to enter, they had to be currently enrolled in an accredited American 2- or 4-year university or college, preferably studying in the fields of technology, software development, or transportation; but no major or minor was required. All essay submissions had to be between 500-700 words and all video submissions less than two minutes. 

Our first winning submission was an essay by Isabelle Farmer from DigiPen Institute of Technology in Redmond, Washington. Her essay explores how her major, game and media design, will one day help to optimize the building of smart cities. Isabelle writes,

“In the case of automatically processed data, more data points are typically better, as this allows an increasingly more nuanced and evolving view of the city’s population and their habits as well as how to allocate resources to accommodate such a populace. Game and interactive media designers can help to ensure the manner this data is gathered is convenient and valuable, but not intrusive.”

To read her full essay about game and media design influencing the building of smart cities, click here.

The second winner, Caroline Orange, a chemical engineering major at Georgia Institute of Technology, submitted a video explaining that chemical engineering can be used during the development of smart cities. In her video, she discusses how smart cities can also become sustainable eco-cities – sustainability is a popular cause for Generation Z – implying chemical engineering will change the evolution of smart cities by making them eco-friendly as well technologically advanced as.

“Any smart city revolves around the following areas: water management systems, infrastructure, transportation, energy, waste management, and raw materials consumption. In all, chemical engineering is deeply involved,” Caroline Orange stated. 

She continued, “For example, at my school, Georgia Tech, researchers are working to turn Atlanta into a smart city. One of the sections of this transformation revolves around greener cement. According to their research, concrete, the world’s most widely used construction material, accounts for nearly 5% of carbon dioxide emissions generated by human activities.” Watch the video below to learn more about using chemical engineering to development smart cities.

Technology is quickly developing in the transportation industry and will only continue to advance along with future workforce. With the influence of Generation Z, compiling data from telematics and using it to enhance businesses in the transportation industry will continue the advancement of smart cities.

Learn more about telematics: https://www.teletracnavman.com/telematics-definitions/what-is-telematics
 

*Source: CSNEWS