19th November 2015.- FIWARE is proud to announce that the FIWARE’s participation as a Partner in the National Institute of Standards and Technology’s, NIST, Global City Teams Challenge 2016, GCTC 2016, program has been officially confirmed on the 12th November 2015 at the GCTC 2016 Kick-Off Workshop in Gaithersburg, Maryland, USA.
As explained by Jacques Magen, responsible for FIWARE globalization activities (FIWARE Mundus Programme), “FIWARE and GCTC share common objectives in providing cities and their stakeholders with an environment and a program that can help them replicate Smart Cities solutions and services that are efficient and scalable through replicable, standards-based collaborative platforms. This also represents a great opportunity for the FIWARE community to expand its reach internationally and contribute to boost innovation for the development of Smart Cities’ applications and services all over the world”.
“Cities around the world are looking to advanced Internet of Things concepts to make their communities safer, more vibrant, and more livable and workable,” said Chris Greer, Senior Executive for Cyber-Physical Systems at the US National Institute of Standards and Technology. “We can best achieve these goals by working together on interoperable smart city architectures that can serve as the foundation for innovation in cities worldwide and we are pleased to join with FIWARE through our Global City Teams Challenge in an international, cooperative effort.”
As stated by Juanjo Hierro, FIWARE Chief Architect, “FIWARE’s participation in the GCTC 2016 initiative has the main goal of showcasing the benefits coming from the adoption of common “de facto” standard technologies in and for Smart Cities that FIWARE has been developing over the last few years. Global de-facto standards for portability and interoperability will indeed contribute to the creation of a truly sizeable market for smart city services and applications, where developers and solution integrators can invest with a global outlook on sustainable business models.”
FIWARE provides an open source implementation of some of the key standards adopted by the Open and Agile Smart Cities initiative, which currently groups more than 60 cities from 12 different countries.
Jesús Villasante, Head of Unit at the European Commission, declared that “through its participation to GCTC 2016, FIWARE also contributes to build up and strengthen sustainable innovation ecosystems, leveraging on its valuable experience in engaging with relevant players at the European and international level.”
About GCTC 2016
The GCTC 2016 initiative has been launched by the U.S. Department of Commerce’s National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and several GCTC 2016 partners are merging forces to bring together on the one side communities facing various smart city challenges and, on the other, innovators with the right set of technologies to tackle and overcome such challenges.
The GCTC Program will bring smart city communities and innovators together to encourage collaboration on a range of issues from disaster response to energy management to mass transit improvement. The goal is to help communities and businesses connect to improve resource management and quality of life by using effective networking of computer systems and physical devices, including Internet of Things (IoT) or cyber-physical systems.
For further information, contact: Sokwoo Rhee (sokwoo.rhee@nist.gov), Associate Director of Cyber-Physical Systems Program
