July 16, 2019 by
School of Cities Staff
Shoshanna Saxe, an assistant professor of civil and mineral engineering and a School of Cities faculty affiliate, writes an op-ed about smart cities for The New York Times.
"The most critical question, however, is whether having a smart city will make us meaningfully better at solving urban problems. Data and algorithms alone don’t actually add very much on their own. No matter how much data a city has, addressing urban challenges will still require stable long-term financing, good management and effective personnel. If smart data identifies a road that needs paving, it still needs people to show up with asphalt and a steamroller," says Saxe.
"Sensor-equipped garbage cans sound cool, but someone still has to take out the trash."