#110 The Array of Things

Charlie Catlett from The University of Chicago and Doug Pancoast from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago will talk about a new partnership with the City of Chicago to prototype a network of urban sensing and embedded information systems “nodes.”

The network is intended to be a public utility, including sensors for temperature, humidity, light, sound, motion, infrared, and various components related to air quality and the data published in 30 second intervals to enable app development.

The project, part of Chicago’s Tech Plan, aims to provide test nodes in several locations by late summer 2014, and expects to deploy 8-20 nodes in the Loop by October 2014. Contingent upon federal funding requests, the ultimate goal is to develop a network of over 500 nodes.

New Feature: Topic Facilitators!

One of the outcomes of our first Leadership Council Meeting was the idea of having facilitators to help guide conversations and potential apps for specific topics. The facilitators and topics are:

• Transportation: Steven Vance
• Education: Elnaz Moshfeghian, Josh Kalov
• Environment: Scott Beslow
• City data: Gene Leynes, Tom Schenk
• Orientation: Christopher Whitaker

Want to start your own topic? Mention it at the meeting and we’ll get you set up! Please note that becoming a facilitator will require committing to coming to hack nights on a regular basis and/or finding a backup to come when you can’t.