Collecting rainwater from rooftops and using it to spray buildings during hot weather could help cities cut air conditioning use, lower urban temperatures and lessen the impact of heatwaves, according to new research from The University of Manchester. Cities around the world are facing rising temperatures, putting pressure on public health, infrastructure and energy systems. As people rely more on air conditioning to stay cool, energy demand increases and waste heat released from buildings can make urban areas even hotter. Urban watering technologies are becoming important ways for reducing extreme heat in cities, but their use is often limited by the availability of water. In the study, published in Earth’s Future, researchers used process-based numerical simulations and Artificial Intelligence (AI) to test a system that stores rainwater collected from rooftops and automatically sprays it onto buildings during hot weather. Using Tokyo as their case study, they found that cooling rooftops, the system reduced the amount of energy needed for air conditioning. The cooler roofs transferred less heat into buildings, while lower air conditioning use meant less waste heat was released into the city. Together, these effects helped reduce urban temperatures, cutting the number of heatwave days overall and lessening the intensity of extreme heat events. Lead author Dr Zhonghua Zheng, Co-Lead for Environmental Data Science & AI at Manchester Environmental Research Institute (MERI) and Senior Lecturer (Associate Professor) in Data Science and Environmental Analytics at The University of Manchester, said: “Cities around the world are facing growing challenges from extreme heat. Air conditioning can help keep people safe and comfortable, but it also consumes large amounts of energy and releases additional heat into the urban environment. “Our study shows that harvesting rainwater from roofs and using it strategically for cooling could provide a practical way to reduce both energy demand
Aug 11, 2026 · via envirotecmagazine.com
AI Intelligence Briefing — August 11, 2026 • Open-weight AI models are catching up to the frontier. The safety gap remains. — A new SaferAI report finds Z.ai's open-weight GLM-5.2 approaches frontier AI capabilities in cyber and bio domains while refusing none of the offensive tasks it was given, renewing concerns that powerful open models could outpace governance. 🔗 Graph: AI Security, Model Agnosticism, AI Governance 📅 Published: 2026-08-04 📰 https://techcrunch.com/2026/08/04/open-weight-ai-models-are-catching-up-to-the-frontier-the-safety-gap-remains/ 📌 Key takeaways: • GLM-5.2, China's Z.ai open-weight model, is only months behind OpenAI's GPT-5.5 and Anthropic's Claude Opus 4.7 on cyber and bio capabilities, yet refused zero offensive cyber or biology tasks in SaferAI's evaluation. • Once weights are downloaded, safety measures become unenforceable — users can remove safeguards, fine-tune, or alter system prompts on their own hardware with no oversight. • SaferAI found hundreds of universal jailbreaks in frontier models (Grok 4.5, Gemini 3.1 Pro) using combined techniques like roleplaying and authority impersonation, but closed-model safeguards at least slow attackers; open-weight models offer no such friction. • For UCSD's TritonAI, this reinforces the case for hosted gateway architectures (LiteLLM) where safety controls remain enforceable — open-weight models can be deployed inside the firewall with governance, but downloading weights to endpoints removes institutional control. • Watch: Pre-training data filtering emerges as a partial mitigation — removing offensive cyber/bio content before training rather than relying on post-hoc refusals, though this is far harder for cybersecurity than for biology since coding and hacking share foundational skills. 💡 Signal: The open-weight vs. closed-model safety gap is becoming a first-order enterprise risk consideration, not just a policy debate. For institutions running hybrid AI strategies, the control plane (gateway, API, monitoring) is now the primary safety mechanism — the model weights alone can't be trusted to self-govern. • 3 AI-Related Questions for Notre
Aug 11, 2026 · via buttondown.com
Five mobility innovators convene in Chattanooga for six weeks to make industry connections Thanks to The Company Lab (CO.LAB), these founders are building solutions that are reshaping how people, goods, energy, and data move. The Company Lab (CO.LAB) in Chattanooga is welcoming its second round of founders for its second accelerator program of the year. This time, each founder is focused on mobility: the solutions that move people, goods, energy, and data. Over the six-week programming period, the startups will work alongside CO.LAB’s corporate partners, mentors, investors, and regional leaders to pressure-test their ideas, connect with potential customers, and pursue real-world opportunities. “Chattanooga gives startups something incredibly valuable: a city where innovation can move beyond the pitch deck. With world-class infrastructure, industry partners, and real-world test beds, founders can learn faster, build stronger solutions, and create meaningful pathways to commercialization,” said CO.LAB CEO Tasia Malakasis in her cohort announcement. Meet the Mobility Cohort - Endeavor Composites, Inc. transforms carbon fiber manufacturing waste into high-performance composite materials that help manufacturers reduce costs, minimize waste, and improve sustainability without sacrificing performance. - Seeteria uses existing warehouse cameras and AI-powered software to provide real-time operational visibility that helps distribution centers improve efficiency, reduce delays, and increase throughput without adding new hardware. - Cybership provides an all-in-one warehouse management platform that helps fulfillment operators streamline inventory, orders, shipping, and warehouse operations with enterprise-level capabilities designed for small and mid-sized businesses. - Surge transforms urban infrastructure into sensor and edge computing nodes, providing privacy-preserving, real-time data for autonomous mobility, smart cities, logistics, and infrastructure operators - Meridian gives freight brokerages a real-time view of their business by connecting data across transportation, CRM, financial, and HR systems. Leaders can ask questions in plain language and get answers in seconds without needing analysts or custom reports. Teknovation
Aug 11, 2026 · via teknovation.biz
Abstract Biometric recognition is crucial for secure and reliable access control in high-security systems that include surveillance, law enforcement, and smart cities. Though the Deep Learning (DL) models present exceptional performance in biometric recognition, a few challenges faced by biometric recognition are revealing an individual’s identity when stolen and falsifying legal documents, passports or criminal records. To alleviate these kinds of issues, this work proposes a new multimodal biometric authentication model for providing recognition using fingerprint and finger vein images. Initially, both images undergo pre-processing by an Adaptive Weiner Filter to discard the noise from the images. Later, the minutiae points are detected by Hit-or-Miss Transformation, and then the authentication phase is performed by SqueezeNet. The SqueezeNet is trained with the Stock Exchange Regime Algorithm (SERA). Similarly, the finger vein images are forwarded to the pre-processing phase to remove the noise, which is then followed by vein extraction that is implemented using Repeated Line Tracking. Here, the output attained from the vein extraction phase is given to the feature extraction phase that uses grid-based location to form features, and then it is forwarded to the authentication process, which is done by a Deep Neuro Fuzzy Network (DNFN). Finally, after the authentication process, the outcomes are being trained by the proposed Stock Exchange Regime Algorithm (SERA), integrating both Stock Exchange Trading Optimization (SETO) and Flow Regime Algorithm (FRA). The outputs obtained from SqueezeNet and DNFN are combined by Motyka similarity to determine the outcome. The SERA-based SqueezeNet+DNFN model demonstrates strong performance across multiple evaluation metrics, achieving an accuracy of 94.5%, sensitivity of 91.3%, specificity of 95.1%, an Equal Error Rate (EER) of 0.078, a False Acceptance Rate (FAR) of 0.089, and a False Rejection Rate (FRR) of 0.083. These results correspond specifically to the combined fingerprint and finger vein modality using
Aug 11, 2026 · via nature.com
For many, last week’s cyberattacks on water systems throughout the U.S. was a wake-up call. Many municipal water systems are sitting ducks for hackers. But experts say there’s plenty that operators can do to protect city water. “The systems are unprotected because they are misconfigured,” Annie Fixler, director of the Center on Cyber and Technology Innovation Foundation for Defense of Democracies, told Smart Cities Dive. “They are configured for ease of access without security in mind.” When water systems were digitized in the 1990s and 2000s, manual operators were replaced with programmable logic controllers, internet-facing computers that monitor input signals from sensors to control output devices like motors and valves, Fixler explained. But the systems were configured to make it easy for operators “without thinking that some malicious actor might want to use that same access to sabotage systems,” she said. ”While they could and should be behind layers of firewalls, authentication pathways and access controls, they are not set up that way because they were set up quickly or by someone who was not familiar with cybersecurity concerns or by a third party who similarly wasn't thinking about the security aspect and said, ‘Here you go. Here's your remote access. You're all good to go. Bye.’ We are now paying for the lack of investment.” Many municipal water systems, especially in smaller cities, lack the staff to focus on things like firewalls and cybersecurity because “keeping the water on is their main goal,” Lessie Skiba, deputy managing director for the Cyber Readiness Institute, told Smart Cities Dive. More than 97% of the nation’s 156,000 public water systems serve fewer than 10,000 customers; many of those have aging systems and operate with minimal IT or cybersecurity personnel, a Cyber Readiness Institute report found. “Their capacity to respond to a cyber
Aug 11, 2026 · via smartcitiesdive.com
University of Michigan Project Changes Course Due to Regulations The University of Michigan’s Transportation Research Institute’s Mcity is an advanced mobility research center. As a public-private partnership among the university, the city of Ann Arbor and dozens of other government and industry entities, it’s been focused on connected, automated technologies that are the backbone of intelligent transportation. While its work continues, regulatory shifts have forced a change. “We stood up dedicated short-range communication, a 5.9-megahertz dedicated band. Then the FCC came along and truncated our band and said you cannot use dedicated short-range communications anymore,” says Debra Bezzina, managing director for the Ann Arbor Connected Environment. “We had to recall all of the vehicles that we had deployed, and at that time, we had about 1,650 of them,” she says. “They all had to come back in and have their devices taken off. All 75 of the roadside units that were deployed in Ann Arbor had to be turned off.” DISCOVER: Modern networking solutions can enable smart city research. The research continues, but in a new form. “We have transitioned to a cellular-based solution: Cellular V2X, Vehicle to Everything. It’s still in the same band and it’s still direct communications, but this is based on cellular,” Bezzina says. Funding has come in the form of U.S. Department of Transportation grants, including one for the Smart Intersections Project that delivered $10 million in federal funding and a $10 million cost share. “That was to equip 21 intersections with C-V2X technology and perception systems, a combination of video cameras and LIDAR,” she says. Another project, the Ann Arbor Connected Environment Reimagined (or ACE 2.0) got about $12.5 million, with $10 million in federal funding and a $2.5 million cost share. “Then we have a third, smaller project, part of the city of
Aug 10, 2026 · via edtechmagazine.com
📝 Summary UTM strengthened its strategic partnership with China through the Ambassador GlobaLecture 2026, featuring Chinese Ambassador Ouyang Yujing, who emphasized the importance of innovation and collaboration in addressing global challenges. The event highlighted UTM’s commitment to advancing global partnerships, innovation, and academic diplomacy, with the university’s Vice-Chancellor stressing the need for universities to translate international partnerships into tangible solutions that improve people’s lives. The lecture and subsequent discussions showcased UTM’s expanding partnerships with Chinese universities and its role in supporting Malaysia’s international higher education agenda. KUALA LUMPUR, Aug 5 – Universiti Teknologi Malaysia (UTM), through UTM International Kuala Lumpur, reaffirmed its commitment to advancing global partnerships, innovation, and academic diplomacy by hosting the Ambassador GlobaLecture (AGL) China 2026, featuring His Excellency Ouyang Yujing, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the People’s Republic of China to Malaysia. Held at the Seminar Hall, Menara Razak, UTM Kuala Lumpur, the programme brought together more than 100 participants comprising diplomats, university leaders, academics, researchers, and local and international students. The lecture, entitled Innovation, Partnership & Shared Prosperity: China-Malaysia Community with a Shared Future in a Changing World, served as a timely platform to explore how higher education institutions can strengthen bilateral cooperation in addressing emerging global challenges through innovation, research excellence and talent development. The Ambassador GlobaLecture is a flagship initiative of UTM International that promotes academic diplomacy by connecting the diplomatic community with academia to encourage meaningful dialogue on international affairs, education, science, technology and sustainable development. Since its inception, the platform has strengthened UTM’s role as a trusted convenor of global conversations while expanding opportunities for collaboration between Malaysia and strategic international partners. Delivering the lecture, Ouyang Yujing emphasised that innovation is becoming a defining pillar of China-Malaysia relations. While bilateral cooperation has traditionally centred on trade and infrastructure development, both countries
Aug 10, 2026 · via news.utm.my
New City Clean Air Hub to help city leaders deliver clean air and healthy communities What’s new: EDF and partners at the Community Data Health Initiative (CDHI) just launched the City Clean Air Hub — a one-stop resource to help Mayors and other city leaders chart a path to cleaner air. The hub connects local leaders in and out of government with the data, analytical tools, policy insights, best practices and implementation guidance they need to take action. It also allows users to look up the health impacts of air pollution in their U.S. city, county or metro area, providing a localized starting place for understanding the problem and designing solutions. We launched the hub at a webinar (full recording above) featuring mayors and other local leaders from cities large and small sharing their experiences at various stages of their clean air journeys, including: - Mayor Donya L. Sartor, PhD. of Jonesboro, GA - Mayor Roderick D. Hampton of Haynesville, LA - Trisha Stein, Chief Strategy Officer, Detroit, MI - Dr. David Margolius, MD, Director of Public Health, Cleveland, OH - Komal Sheth, MPH, Senior Analyst, Houston Health Department The City Clean Air Hub marks the most recent phase of EDF’s work as part of CDHI, which seeks to expand cities’ capacity to take on environmental challenges that directly affect people’s health — starting with air pollution and extreme heat. CDHI is a collaboration between the Data-Smart City Solutions program at the Bloomberg Center for Cities at Harvard University, Environmental Defense Fund, the African American Mayors Association and Meharry Medical College. Why it matters: Air pollution is a silent and often invisible killer — the second leading risk factor for early death worldwide. It also shares many of the same root causes with climate change and is being worsened by
Aug 10, 2026 · via blogs.edf.org
Newswise — Spend just one day in New York City, and you might be transferring subway trains, hailing taxis, calling Ubers, sitting in traffic, or scrolling the streets on Google Maps for hours. Each one of these interactions constitutes a decision and data point, produced by just one person. Multiply that by a population of 8 million more, on top of tourists, and the busiest city in the U.S. generates millions upon millions of decisions and data points every single day. New artificial intelligence models that parse through that vast sea of human-generated data, however, could further expedite and smooth the decision-making process, from commute times to traffic safety. This is the crux of Binghamton University, State University of New York Assistant Professor Yingxue Zhang’s recent National Science Foundation CAREER Award, for which she won a five-year grant of $584,649. “In urban life, people make decisions every day. Taxi drivers want to pick up passengers, and if people want to go to work, they need to switch to different public transits,” said Zhang, a faculty member at the Thomas J. Watson College of Engineering and Applied Science’s School of Computing. “They make decisions every day, every hour, every second. We want to model this kind of process to make the whole decision-making process more efficient and effective.” The CAREER Award is the NSF’s most prestigious distinction, given to early-career faculty who are poised to become the future leaders in research and education in their respective fields. Zhang’s project will be the first to use a particular type of deep learning technique, called offline reinforcement learning, to wrangle the ever-changing dynamics of urban life and spaces. “This technique has never been applied in the urban domain, which is a spatial-temporal domain. The data is spatial-temporal data. We have spatial correlations, and
Aug 10, 2026 · via newswise.com
KUALA LUMPUR (Aug 10): ITMAX System Bhd (KL:ITMAX) has secured approval from the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) for a RM134.3 million project to develop communications infrastructure and digital connectivity for the Kota Kinabalu Smart City project. According to its Bursa filing on Monday, the smart city integrated systems and solutions provider has also been designated as the universal service provider for the project, which will see the group design, supply and install and commission the infrastructure. The project will be carried out over an implementation period of up to 24 months, followed by a five-year operational period upon completion. The service period commenced on Aug 6. The latest award expands ITMAX’s smart-city business, with its systems supporting urban monitoring and services through digital infrastructure. ITMAX said the project is expected to boost earnings and marks its entry into East Malaysia as it expands nationwide. ITMAX managing director and CEO William Tan Wei Lun said the group sees significant growth potential in East Malaysia, where smart city development remains at an early stage and demand for intelligent digital infrastructure continues to grow. Under the project, ITMAX will deploy a Network Operation Command Centre and Smart Video Surveillance System across Kota Kinabalu, aimed at improving public safety and the city's operational efficiency. “As one of Malaysia’s key tourism destinations, we believe Kota Kinabalu will benefit from smarter urban infrastructure that supports sustainable city development and the continued growth of its tourism economy,” Tan said. The approval does not require the consent of ITMAX shareholders or any other relevant authorities, while none of its directors or major shareholders has any direct or indirect interest in the project. Shares of ITMAX closed up half a sen or 1.09% at RM4.65 on Monday, valuing the group at around RM4.83 billion.
Aug 10, 2026 · via theedgemalaysia.com
The robotaxi wars are heating up. Waymo is expected to end its partnership with Uber in Atlanta and Austin, Texas, in 2028, according to multiple media reports. Waymo robotaxis have been available in those cities through the Uber app since 2025. The two ride-hailing companies dissolved their three-year partnership in Phoenix in May, according to the Financial Times. Uber plans to begin robotaxi rides using Lucid vehicles in Los Angeles and the San Francisco Bay Area this year, CEO and Director Dara Khosrowshahi said during the company’s Aug. 5 earnings call. Uber plans to source up to 20,000 Lucid electric vehicles outfitted with self-driving technology and has ordered 10,000 Rivian robotaxis with an option for 40,000 more to be deployed beginning in 2028. What does that mean for cities and the outlook for robotaxi companies? Uber recognizes the challenge that Waymo and autonomous vehicles present and is “trying to protect their business,” Arthur D. Little Partner Frank McCleary told Smart Cities Dive. While Uber operates in many more cities, Waymo is the leader in robotaxi operations. Uber wouldn’t be investing in robotaxis “if they didn't see long-term that [Waymo] could affect their revenue,” he said. Building out AV fleets comes with a high capital cost, McCleary said. Driver-based services like Uber and Lyft shift vehicle costs onto the driver-owner and allow the number of vehicles available at any given time to rise and fall with demand. Drivers “know when they can make the most money, and they're going to work those hours,” McCleary said. They can also do food or package deliveries “through Uber Eats or DoorDash or something else.” Khosrowshahi said last year that robotaxis could generate higher revenue than human drivers, but he envisions “a hybrid future, seamlessly integrating human drivers and autonomous vehicles into a single marketplace,
Aug 10, 2026 · via smartcitiesdive.com
CBDC for Smart Cities: Payments, Identity, and Public Service Innovation CBDC for smart cities is not just a payments story. The real value shows up when state-backed digital money connects to digital identity, public data systems, transport networks, and municipal services. Done well, a central bank digital currency can make city payments faster, improve access for residents who are poorly served by banks, and give governments better tools for targeted public programs. Done badly, it becomes a surveillance-heavy payment layer that residents will not trust. That trade-off matters. Smart city infrastructure already touches daily life: buses, parking, utilities, permits, health services, subsidies, and local taxes. Adding CBDC to that stack means the design choices stop being abstract central bank policy. They affect the line at a metro gate and the way a low-income household receives an energy rebate. What Is a CBDC in a Smart City Context? A central bank digital currency is a digital form of national fiat currency issued or supervised by a central bank. It differs from Bitcoin, Ether, or private stablecoins because it is sovereign money, generally designed to carry the trust and legal status of cash while working inside digital systems. CBDCs usually fall into two groups: - Retail CBDCs: Used by people and businesses for everyday payments through wallets, mobile apps, cards, or connected devices. - Wholesale CBDCs: Used by financial institutions for interbank settlement, securities settlement, and specialized financial market use cases. For smart cities, retail CBDCs are the practical starting point. They can sit inside citizen wallets, public transport apps, merchant payment systems, and government service portals. Wholesale CBDCs still matter, especially for treasury and settlement efficiency, but they do not touch most city residents directly. Think of a CBDC as public money in electronic form, usually recorded on a ledger controlled
Aug 10, 2026 · via blockchain-council.org
How Budderfly & Schneider Are Revamping Civic Energy Systems According to the US Department of Energy, power cuts and blackouts cost the US economy an eye-watering US$150bn every single year, with the average customer experiencing around five and a half hours without power over the course of a year. Michigan is among the worst states when it comes to outages. From 2002 to 2022, Michigan experienced more power cuts than all but three US states, registering 620 major events over that time according to Payless Power. That data makes for fairly grim reading, especially considering Michigan is at less risk than many US states when it comes to natural disasters like hurricanes, earthquakes and tornadoes. To counteract these problems going forward, local governments are increasingly turning to Energy-as-a-Service (EaaS) providers from the private sector to completely overhaul their energy systems. Cadillac, a small city about 50 miles east of Lake Michigan, is one such example. The city, which is home to just over 10,000 people, has just partnered up with Budderfly and Schneider Electric to revamp the power infrastructure as seven of its most important municipal sites including City Hall and a wastewater treatment facility. The best thing for the residents? Budderfly is funding the US$4.4m project itself, meaning it won't cost the local taxpayers anything up front to bolster their grid. The energy financing model Under Budderfly's EaaS structure, the city repays the investment through the energy savings the new systems generate, rather than through direct capital spending. This approach allows Cadillac to budget with more certainty while keeping energy-dependent services such as water treatment and emergency response running through disruptions. "This project is about taking a smarter, more resilient approach to serving our community," says Marcus Peccia, City Manager, City of Cadillac. "We're able to modernise critical infrastructure,
Aug 10, 2026 · via energydigital.com
NEC transferred its overseas network equipment resale business to a consortium led by Italy's Assist Group. The NEC business operates in regions such as Latin America, the Asia-Pacific, and Europe, building systems for telecom operators and enterprises using network equipment from partner firms. The division also provides IT services for governments and local authorities such as system development for biometric authentication and smart cities. NEC said these services will be transferred alongside parts of its business in Latin America and Europe where operations are primarily centered on the resale venture. “Leveraging our deep technical expertise, NEC has contributed to the growth and problem-solving of customers in various countries through these businesses for many years," NEC CEO Takayuki Morita explained. Under the new ownership, which places long-term growth, investment, and human resource development at the center of its strategy, I am confident that these businesses will be able to provide even higher-value solutions to customers in the future." Assist Group was founded in 1987 and is headquartered in Emilia-Romagna, Italy, It provides technology-driven solutions, data intelligence capabilities, and strategic consulting services. The transfer, which is scheduled to finalize in fiscal year 2026, is NEC's biggest networking carve out since the sale of its wireless and transport business in 2023. The buyer in that deal was Aviat Networks, which claimed the NEC addition would make it the largest microwave backhaul specialist in the market. Comments
Aug 10, 2026 · via sdxcentral.com
Sometimes It Feels Somebody’s Watching Monday’s Headlines Automated traffic enforcement is one thing, but why would Flock want to put cameras on civilian vehicles? By Blake Aued 12:01 AM EDT on August 10, 2026 Blake Aued has been doing Streetsblog's daily national news digest for years. He's also an Atlanta Braves fan, which enrages his editor in New York. Read More: Streetsblog has migrated to a new comment system. New commenters can register directly in the comments section of any article. Returning commenters: your previous comments and display name have been preserved, but you'll need to reclaim your account by clicking "Forgot your password?" on the sign-in form, entering your email, and following the verification link to set a new password — this is required because passwords could not be carried over during the migration. For questions, contact tips@streetsblog.org. More from Streetsblog USA Tuesday’s Headlines Build It and They Will Come De we build infrastructure where people are already biking, or does the infrastructure encourage people to bike? August 11, 2026 Friday’s Headlines Go North, Young Man If you want to walk and bike safely, stay out of the South. August 7, 2026 Talking Headways Podcast: What Does It Cost to Build a Bus? Lisa Jerram of APTA and Philip Plotch of the Eno Center for Transportation explain the state of bus manufacturing and why buses cost so much. August 6, 2026 Report: Building More Homes Reduces Overall Driving Building more homes will get cars off the road, but where they’re built matters. August 6, 2026 Thursday’s Headlines Cut Away A U.S. Senate bill would result in the loss of $950 million in transit infrastructure funding. August 6, 2026
Aug 10, 2026 · via usa.streetsblog.org
KARACHI: The government should make serious efforts to make Karachi a better city through technology and artificial intelligence, said Pasban Democratic Party (PDP) Chairman Altaf Shakoor here on Sunday. He said the megacity was too large, too complex and too rapidly changing to be managed effectively through conventional methods alone. Modern technology and Artificial Intelligence (AI) offered the megacity an opportunity to improve three fundamental aspects of urban life: safety, mobility and civic services. He said the objective should not be technology for technology’s sake. The objective should be to use available technological tools to make Karachi a safer, better-connected, cleaner and more efficiently managed city. He said the major cities around the world had already demonstrated what was possible. London and New York had extensive networks of surveillance cameras used for public safety, traffic management and law enforcement. Major Chinese cities had gone even further in integrating cameras, sensors, digital platforms and AI into urban management. He said these cities differed greatly in their political systems, regulations and approaches to privacy, but they demonstrated a common principle: a large modern city could use technology to obtain a much better real-time understanding of what was happening in its public spaces. Karachi should learn from these experiences without attempting to copy any one city’s model, he said. It should select technologies that were appropriate to its own needs and circumstances, while ensuring that their use remained consistent with Pakistani law, citizens’ rights, privacy and appropriate oversight. Altaf Shakoor said the Safe City Project provided an important starting point. A modern network of cameras and associated technologies could substantially strengthen Karachi’s ability to combat crime, respond to emergencies and enforce traffic regulations. Real-time monitoring could help identify incidents more quickly, direct police and emergency resources to where they were needed, assist investigations
Aug 9, 2026 · via brecorder.com
Dubai Chambers continues to bolster partnerships with Chinese business community DUBAI, 9th August, 2026 (WAM) -- Dubai Chambers is overseeing elaborate preparations to host the Dubai Business Forum - China in Shenzhen on 14th October 2026 as part of its sustained efforts to deepen engagement with the Chinese business community and support companies seeking to establish and expand their operations in Dubai. Being held under the theme 'Momentum at Scale: Accelerating Shared Success,' the event will bring together senior government officials, business leaders, investors, and representatives of the public and private sectors to explore new opportunities for cooperation, trade, and investment between Dubai and China. The upcoming forum reflects the strong impetus on collaborative growth even as leading Chinese technology companies operating across myriad fields like advanced air mobility, aerial delivery, and cross-border payments leverage Dubai's advantages as a platform for scaling innovative solutions, accessing regional opportunities, and expanding into global markets. Dubai's advanced infrastructure, supportive regulatory environment, strong public-private sector collaboration, and connectivity across the Middle East, Africa, and Asia continue to offer a significant value proposition for international technology companies, as apparent from the growth strategies of ARIDGE, Keeta Drone, and PingPong. Dubai's integrated business ecosystem also gives companies access to customers, investors, strategic partners, and decision-makers, while creating an environment that supports the testing, deployment, and commercialisation of emerging technologies. ARIDGE (formerly XPENG AEROHT), the largest flying car company in Asia, has selected Dubai as a strategic base for its global expansion into the Advanced Air Mobility market. In October 2025, ARIDGE completed the first public manned flight demonstration of its Land Aircraft Carrier flying car outside China. The company also secured purchase agreements for 600 units from partners in the Middle East, representing its largest overseas order to date. The agreements span markets including the UAE,
Aug 9, 2026 · via bignewsnetwork.com
Artificial intelligence has become one of those terms that’s impossible to avoid. Most conversations focus on chatbots, image generators, or productivity tools. Those applications are impressive, but I don’t think they’re the most important development taking place. What interests me more is how AI is quietly becoming part of the systems we rely on for safety. Hospitals are using it to support clinical decisions. Cars use it to help drivers avoid collisions. Smart homes use it to recognize unusual activity. Factories monitor equipment before failures occur. These systems don’t exist to entertain us or save a few minutes at work. They’re designed to help people make better decisions when the stakes are much higher. Healthcare Shows What’s Required When Accuracy Matters Healthcare is probably the clearest example of why artificial intelligence needs to be developed differently when people’s wellbeing is involved. Modern software can assist clinicians by analyzing medical images, reviewing patient information, identifying unusual patterns, and helping prioritize cases that require immediate attention. That doesn’t mean AI replaces healthcare professionals. Instead, it gives them another source of information to consider alongside their own experience and clinical judgment. Because of that responsibility, medical AI is developed under much stricter expectations than most consumer software. Testing, validation, documentation, and long-term maintenance become just as important as the algorithms themselves. If you’d like to understand how AI fits into regulated healthcare software, this SaMD guide provides an excellent overview of the standards and development practices behind these systems. Vehicles Are Becoming Active Safety Partners The average modern vehicle contains far more computing power than most people realize. Artificial intelligence is already helping drivers every day. Lane-keeping assistance, pedestrian detection, adaptive cruise control, emergency braking, and driver monitoring all rely on systems capable of interpreting information from cameras, radar, and other sensors. These
Aug 9, 2026 · via aijourn.com
Will Agartala Ever Become a Truly Smart City? Footpaths and Urban Infrastructure Under Scrutiny By Our Correspondent Agartala, August 9, 2026 Agartala’s journey under the Smart City Mission began in 2015, but nearly 11 years later, questions continue to be raised over the city’s roads, drainage, footpaths, parking and traffic management. The issue has now gained fresh attention following observations by noted Tripura Aviator B Parthasarathi, who recently visited Agartala and raised several concerns through his X handle regarding the functioning of Agartala Smart City and overall urban safety. Parthasarathi questioned the slow progress of several road and drainage works and asked how long the authorities would continue inspecting potholes and unfinished drainage instead of completing the works. He also questioned the shortage of parking facilities, alleged encroachment by vendors and battery-operated rickshaws under flyovers, and raised concerns over traffic violations and road-safety arrangements at several locations. He specifically referred to the alleged encroachment along HGB Road from City Centre to Melarmath, traffic movement near the flyover exit opposite the Old Treasury Building, the Motor Stand Petrol pump, multi-storeyed parking project, the number and regulation of e-rickshaws, Katakhal STP and alleged wrong-side vehicle movement near certain service and refilling facilities. He also called for better regulation of roadside vending and battery-operated rickshaws and questioned whether the city has adequate dedicated parking zones. Another important concern raised by him was the absence of a comprehensive accident database identifying accident-prone locations and the reasons behind road accidents. Such data, if systematically collected and analysed, could help authorities introduce scientific traffic-management measures at vulnerable locations. The condition of Agartala’s footpaths is another major concern. In several areas, pedestrians reportedly face encroachment, illegal parking, construction materials and other obstructions, forcing them to walk on busy roads. The situation is particularly concerning for elderly citizens,
Aug 9, 2026 · via tripurainfo.com
AGRA: Samajwadi Party functionary Nitin Kohli climbed down into a nearly 20-foot-deep pit in Agraâs Karmayogi Enclave as part of a symbolic protest over the cityâs deteriorating roads during the monsoon. Kohli reached the spot with local residents and used a ladder to climb into the massive cavity that had opened up on the road. He broke a coconut and said he was searching for Agraâs âSmart City developmentâ even in âPatal Lokâ, but could not find it. âAgra should be called a pit city instead of a Smart City,â Kohli said, alleging corruption in road construction and demanding an inquiry. Roads have caved in at three locations in Agra during the monsoon, leaving pits as deep as 20 feet and around 15 feet wide. The incidents have raised concerns over the condition of underground sewer and water infrastructure. The cave-ins were reported from Karmayogi Enclave in Kamla Nagar, Moti Katra near SN Medical College and Gobar Chowki on Fatehabad Road. Residents and officials have pointed to possible leakage from sewer lines, manholes or water pipelines as causes. At Karmayogi Enclave, the road caved in around 7am on Friday, shortly after a school van passed the spot. Within minutes, the opening widened to around 15 feet and reached a depth of nearly 20 feet. The stretch is used by around 20 to 25 school vehicles every day. Residents placed bricks and stones around the pit and said it was the third road cave-in reported in the locality within a month. Agra was among 100 cities selected under the Centreâs Smart Cities Mission, launched by the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs in 2015-16. How concerned are you about the road conditions in Agra during the monsoon? 3k+ users shared opinion today 5k+ users already voted today 3k+ users shared opinion
Aug 9, 2026 · via timesofindia.indiatimes.com