Foundations of Smart Cities

This unit introduces the origins, drivers, and defining characteristics of cities and smart cities, and guides students through mapping urban needs, establishing a vision, and creating a high-level plan. Students will also learn foundational urban technology concepts, basic data literacy, and introductory security and governance considerations to prepare for technical design and implementation in later units.

Learning Objectives

• Analyze historical and contemporary drivers of urban growth and their implications for smart city development, citing concrete examples
• Evaluate and classify cities against smart city criteria and map evolving urban needs and stakeholder challenges to prioritize project goals
• Design a high-level smart city vision and actionable plan that integrates core technological building blocks, governance roles (including IT leadership), and measurable objectives
• Apply foundational data literacy and basic cybersecurity principles to a smart city use case by proposing data flows, data governance elements, and mitigation strategies for common urban risks