Montgomery County Participates in SmartAmerica Challenge (Video)

Montgomery County is unveiling it’s achievements in the SmartAmerica Challenge sponsored by The White House Presidential Innovation Fellows and the National Institute of Standard and Technology (NIST).

This prestigious initiative brought together different sectors to demonstrate innovative cyber technology pilot projects with the potential for enhancing socio-economic benefits for residents, creating jobs in local communities and promoting new business opportunities throughout America.

County Executive Ike Leggett will lead the Montgomery County “team” in making a presentation to senior White House staff and policy advisors and industry executives.

The project “SCALE: Safe Community Alert Network,” is a collaborative partnership with the County involving researchers from UC-Irvine and MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology), along with multiple vendors including IBM, the French-based low-bandwidth provider Sigfox and Twilio, a cloud communication firm.

Using low-cost advanced sensor and receiving technology, the pilot network will demonstrate deployment of a public sector automated safety alert and community awareness network that protects vulnerable populations. Working with the Montgomery County Housing Partnership (an affordable housing developer in the County), SCALE has deployed a variety of connected sensors in a Rockville apartment building that will detect different environmental distress factors (e.g., smoke, heat, carbon monoxide, hazardous gas), transmit the data to a cloud service, and, if a problem is detected, dispatch emergency response services.

On June 11, Montgomery County will make a public presentation at the SmartAmerica Challenge Exposition at the Washington D.C. Convention Center, 801 Mount Vernon Place NW. The exposition is open to the public. Registration and detailed information are available at www.smartamerica.org.

See a synopsis of the “Safe Community Alert Network” pilot project.

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