The "Smart Cities" movement has been around for some time and truly smart cities are actively seeking to link their higher education sector with "city development that specifically focuses on technology-based systems and services." Summarizing the Knowledge Management and E-Learning: An International Journal special issue on "Smart cities of the future: Creating tomorrow's education toward effective skills and career development today" (Vol 6, No 4, 2014), smart cities utilize "technology as a critical enabler to solve rising urbanization issues and improve the cities' environments."
The approach in many U.S. cities is to link the need for a highly educated workforce with growth in the actual number of jobs. Chicago is identified as one of the cities achieving success by linking higher education and business "to ensure that its citizens are motivated, and enabled, to be a driver for these innovations." The Chicago approach links career and technical education to create a pipeline from high school to university to employment.
With Chicago suffering from negative publicity related to gang-related shootings over the last several years, it could provide a compelling example of change. South and West side citizens have repeatedly pointed to the systemic issue of poverty that results from poor job opportunity, a fundamental challenge that could be addressed by a smart city focus coupling education to technical training with a job as the reward. Having two of the top-100 ranked institutions in the world resulted in Chicago being placed No. 8 in the world in providing a base for elite institutions. Numerous other colleges and universities are available throughout Chicago and its suburbs that, when linked with emerging technology opportunity, make it potentially one of the best places to study in the U.S.A. as well as the world.
Chicago is only one of several cities throughout the world (including Barcelona, Amsterdam, Stockholm, and Yokohama) striving to create smart cities. With these cities already seeing success, India has committed to creating 100 smart cities by 2020, an initiative sure to help India in its rise to global prominence. One can only hope that the efforts in India will result in many more educational and work opportunities for its citizens, creating the kind of thriving educational opportunity envisioned in Chicago and elsewhere.
The approach in many U.S. cities is to link the need for a highly educated workforce with growth in the actual number of jobs. Chicago is identified as one of the cities achieving success by linking higher education and business "to ensure that its citizens are motivated, and enabled, to be a driver for these innovations." The Chicago approach links career and technical education to create a pipeline from high school to university to employment.With Chicago suffering from negative publicity related to gang-related shootings over the last several years, it could provide a compelling example of change. South and West side citizens have repeatedly pointed to the systemic issue of poverty that results from poor job opportunity, a fundamental challenge that could be addressed by a smart city focus coupling education to technical training with a job as the reward. Having two of the top-100 ranked institutions in the world resulted in Chicago being placed No. 8 in the world in providing a base for elite institutions. Numerous other colleges and universities are available throughout Chicago and its suburbs that, when linked with emerging technology opportunity, make it potentially one of the best places to study in the U.S.A. as well as the world.
Chicago is only one of several cities throughout the world (including Barcelona, Amsterdam, Stockholm, and Yokohama) striving to create smart cities. With these cities already seeing success, India has committed to creating 100 smart cities by 2020, an initiative sure to help India in its rise to global prominence. One can only hope that the efforts in India will result in many more educational and work opportunities for its citizens, creating the kind of thriving educational opportunity envisioned in Chicago and elsewhere.
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