Curiosity Lab Hosts Smart City Industry Leaders for Dense Networks’ Connected Cities Tour

Brandon Branham speaking to a crowd

Curiosity Lab recently hosted Dense Networks’ Connected Cities Tour at the Innovation Center. It was a day full of smart city ecosystem development ideas and shared insights from Peachtree Corners’ leaders, Curiosity Lab partners and technology innovators from across the country.

Dense Networks is a social think tank and cross disciplinary forum for thought leaders to discuss and develop innovative business models, technology architectures and best practices action plans. Hosted by Peter Murray, executive director of Dense Networks, this event focused on network technology – especially 5G, IoT, broadband and cloud networks – and how it is essential to innovation.

Each speaker at the Connected Cities Tour event took the stage in the Innovation Center’s event space, which can host more than 100 people and is used for corporate innovation offsite events, entrepreneurial classes and technology community events – just like the Connected Cities Tour!

After Murray kicked off the event with welcoming remarks, Brandon Branham, CTO of Peachtree Corners, highlighted the smart city innovation taking place every day in the city and at Curiosity Lab.

Brandon Branham speaking to a crowd

Peachtree Corners CTO Brandon Branham speaks about the smart city innovation taking place at Curiosity Lab and around the city.

Next up was Andy Lipman, partner at Morgan, Lewis & Bockius LLP, who discussed the federal broadband funding available for public and private sector entities to use. Lipman touched on many of the federal broadband funding programs that already exist, including the Federal Communications Commission’s Rural Digital Opportunity Fund and Rural Health Care Program, the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Rural Utilities Service and ReConnect Loan and Grant Program, several programs at the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) and more. Additionally, Lipman focused on the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, which was signed into law in late 2021, and the $65 billion this law has dedicated to broadband enhancement.

Speaker addressing a crowd.

Andy Lipman walks attendees through federal broadband funding opportunities.

A panel on 5G, IoT and cloud innovations came next, featuring Tiana McNeil, Director, T-Mobile; Noelani McGadden, VP, Senet; Clayton Tino, CTO, Beep; and Jay Sinclair, EVP, Driven360. The panelists discussed use cases of devices connected to low-power, wide area networks (LoRaWAN). These use cases included tracking shopping carts in a store to learn consumer behavior; monitoring a room or building’s air quality for COVID-19 particles and HVAC efficiency; tracking the number of people in room; watching for water leaks in private and commercial buildings; and more.

Speaker addressing a crowd

From left to right: Clayton Tino, Noelani McGadden, Paul Murray, Tiana McNeil, and Jay Sinclair

Later, Josh Hildebrandt, Director of Broadband Initiatives at Georgia Technology Authority, took the stage to discuss the Georgia Broadband Program. Then Hildebrandt spoke on a panel moderated by Murray with Iris Troiano, VP, Advantage Engineers; Ty Harris, SBA Communications; and Bill Price, VP, Lightbox to discuss more broadband programs and solutions.

Speaker addressing a crowd

From left to right: Ty Harris, Josh Hildebrandt, Paul Murray, Iris Troiano, and Bill Price

The Connected Cities Tour event wrapped up with tours and demos of Curiosity Lab’s Innovation Center, Peachtree Corners’ autonomous shuttles powered by BEEP, and other intelligent transportation applications.

As demonstrated by Dense Networks’ well-attended Connected Cities Tour event, Curiosity Lab is a hub of smart city and intelligent mobility ideas and innovation, both for the companies testing at the Lab and for industry stakeholders who want to learn about next-generation technology.

Testing at Curiosity Lab is free and open to all technology companies, from early stage startups to Fortune 500. Learn more about Curiosity Lab’s testing infrastructure here.