S. Keshav, David R. Cheriton School of Computer Science
Technological advances over the last two decades have made it possible to cost-effectively embed sensing, communication, computation, and control into the living fabric of our cities, enabling unprecedented levels of understanding into flows of energy, materials, and people. By combining the data-gathering capabilities of the Internet of Things with the analytic capabilities enabled by Data Science, city managers and planners envision ‘Smart Cities’ that are efficient, low-carbon, and sustainable. What is left unsaid, however, is that residents of smart cities are under unprecedented levels of surveillance.
In this talk, I will outline how we can use insights from urban metabolism to model flows in cities and to solve real problems, and how blockchains might be used to balance the competing forces of data gathering for public good and data gathering for public surveillance.