The University of California, Berkeley and NTT announced a partnership to carry out a connected campus pilot project.
The initiative will leverage technology to transform the UC Berkeley Parking and Transportation Department by analyzing patterns, easing traffic congestion and increasing pedestrian safety in the Bancroft Way area of campus.
The pilot will incorporate NTT’s Accelerate Smart data platform and Dell Technologies’ modular data center infrastructure for edge deployments of high-definition optical sensors and IoT devices that monitor traffic-related issues.
NTT said that these smart technologies will provide data to facilitate enhanced traffic management and mobility. As a first step in their “Connected Campus” initiative, UC Berkeley will leverage vehicle counting and classification to make informed decisions and develop specific solutions.
“At Berkeley, we are always trying to stay on top of emerging trends in parking and transportation, and by incorporating smart technologies, our campus can serve as a test bed for new technologies that can be put into operation immediately,” said Seamus Wilmot, director of parking and transportation at UC Berkeley. “Our partnership with NTT and Dell Technologies makes us more digitally-enabled and provides a better understanding for alleviating the root causes of traffic issues. These technologies will help us solve how to manage the curb space at an area that has been challenging for our students, faculty, staff and partners.”
As part of the pilot, NTT and Dell Technologies will implement smart IoT, safety and security innovations that support UC Berkeley’s Parking and Transportation Department, such as real-time alerts and traffic statistics that improve predictions and outcomes. The quantifiable data, will allow UC Berkeley to curb congestion caused by events, ride share traffic, delivery vehicles and transit operations.
The pilot program is designed to provide automated deployment and operation of necessary information and communications technology (ICT) resources from devices and networks to the cloud, ensuring that UC Berkeley can focus on improving traffic conditions through analysis and process more efficiently.
“This traffic management pilot program begins UC Berkeley’s transformation to a connected campus,” said Akira Shimada, senior executive vice president at NTT. “Connected campuses of the future will offer endless possibilities—for safety, crowd control, traffic and facilities management. UC Berkeley is just getting started, but as a world renowned forward-thinking academic and research University, they see the potential to improve the campus experience and operations using data and smart technologies.”
NTT, along with its operating companies, will deploy its Accelerate Smart solution, which is a secure, distributed network as a platform solution built on NTT’s innovative Cognitive Foundation architecture. It enables remote creation, management and operation of information and communications technology resources, from devices and networks to the cloud. It also incorporates hyperconverged infrastructure and IoT gateways from Dell Technologies, as well as virtualization software hosting predictive analytics applications from VMware.
Following the initial pilot, UC Berkeley, NTT and Dell Technologies plan to evaluate viability to extend the pilot and potentially add additional locations and use cases on campus.
