Quantcast

The DNAinfo archives brought to you by WNYC.
Read the press release here.

CityWorks Bringing Urban Infrastructure Projects to Goose Island

By Paul Biasco | March 23, 2015 11:27am
 CityWorks will launch with between six and eight projects.
CityWorks will launch with between six and eight projects.
View Full Caption
CityWorks

GOOSE ISLAND — Backers of a new lab opening on Goose Island hope their latest project becomes a testing ground for urban infrastructure projects that ultimately spread across the country.

CityWorks is the second major program announced by UI Labs, a public-private research collaborative, and is set to be up and running this summer.

"The goal is to use Chicago as a ‘test bed’ of urban innovation, drive breakthroughs and create proven technology solutions that can be commercialized, scaled quickly and replicated in other cities," said UI LABS Executive Director Caralynn Nowinski

CityWorks will focus improving area management, physical infrastructure, water and sanitation systems and transportation and logistics systems.

The program will launch in 2015 with six to eight demonstration projects.

UI Labs will announce the first series of projects in the coming months, according to the announcement.

“Infrastructure forms the backbone of our cities, our economy and our society,” Nowinski said. “The challenges involved are so big that solutions require the combined efforts of the best and brightest at multiple organizations, which is what we have brought together to launch CityWorks.”

The first lab at UI Labs, the $340 million national Digital Manufacturing and Design Innovation Institute, seeks to reinvent manufacturing for the 21st century.

Crews broke ground on that lab in October.

The founding members of CityWorks include Microsoft, Accenture, ComEd and Siemens.

Those groups have been working with the city as well as local academic institutions and civic partners to form the program.

“Chicago is an ideal platform for exploring urban innovation, with a mix of old and new infrastructure, strong public sector support, world-class universities and an ever-growing startup scene,” said Dan’l Lewin, Corporate Vice President Technology and Civic Engagement of Microsoft.

Other partners involved in the project include the Chicago Metropolitan Agency for Planning, Clean Energy Trust, Center for Neighborhood Technology, Illinois Institute of Technology, Illinois Science and Technology Coalition, Metropolitan Pollanin Council, Northwestern University, Smart Chicago Collaborative, University of Illinois at Chicago, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and World Business Chicago.

“With the support of academia and the private sector, we believe that CityWorks will help us improve upon Chicago’s already world-class infrastructure for residents in neighborhoods throughout the city," said Mayor Rahm Emanuel.

For more neighborhood news, listen to DNAinfo Radio here: