NJIT to host Creating Smart Cities Conference

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New Jersey Institute of Technology’s Hub for Creative Placemaking is offering an event focused on innovatively designed and locally place-based new projects in the state, infrastructure challenges and creative planning, new technologies and tools, and funding mechanisms.   

Hosted in collaboration with the Martin Tuchman School of Management and the Leir Research Institute, the Creating Smart Cities Conference will take place from 9 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. April 12 in the NJIT Campus Center Atrium, located at 150 Bleeker St. in Newark.  

Conference organizers also announced that the keynote speaker will be Ben Stone, director of design and creative placemaking for the National Endowment for the Arts. 

The event will also feature two panel discussions with leaders and makers from across the state who will detail principles and new mechanisms and support for smart growth in New Jersey.  

Moderated by Judith Sheft, executive director of the New Jersey Commission on Science, Innovation and Technology, the Core Principles of Smart Cities panel will include: 

• Rayan Hassane Assaad, founding director of the Smart Construction and Intelligent Infrastructure Systems Lab at NJIT; 
• Zoe Baldwin, vice president, State Programs, Regional Plan Association; 
• Barbara Bickert, senior advisor, Arts and Culture, New Jersey Economic Development Authority; 
• Roger Smith, design director and principal, Gensler; co-chair of the Gensler Research Institute’s Center for Research on Equity and the Built Environment. 

Moderated by Sean Sonnemann, senior project officer, Clean Energy Office of Economic Transformation, NJEDA, the panel titled Use of Technology to Accomplish These Goals will feature: 

• Reggie Caudill, founder, Leir Research Institute; dean and professor emeritus, NJIT;
• Guiling Wang, associate dean of research, NJIT Ying Wu College of Computing and member of the New Jersey Supreme Court’s special committee on AI;
• Dan Jennings, executive vice president, Real Estate Development and Programs, NJEDA;
• Jef Buehler, assistant director, Business Enhancement Services, NJ Business Action Center;
• Anastasia Blasi, business development officer, Choose New Jersey.

Click here to register for the free event.