IPaT Executive Director Participates in Congressional Briefing on Intelligent Infrastructure Research

On January 30, Elizabeth Mynatt, distinguished professor and executive director of the Institute for People and Technology at Georgia Tech, co-organized and presented at a U.S. congressional briefing on intelligent infrastructure in Washington, D.C. The Computing Research Association sponsored the briefing, along with honorary co-hosts Rep. Lamar Smith (R-TX), chair of the House Science, Space and Technology Committee, and Rep. Eddie Bernice Johnson (D-TX), ranking member of the House Science, Space and Technology Committee.

As the closing speaker, Mynatt described three key gaps that could prevent communities from reaping the economic rewards of infrastructure investments: productive access to broadband capabilities, innovative systems for effective training and job creation, and forward-looking data platforms and policies to spur open innovation. Dan Lopresti, professor and chair of the computer science and engineering department at Lehigh University, moderated the panel. Other panelists included:

Henning Schulzrinne, professor of computer science at Columbia University and former chief technology officer for the Federal Communications Commission, who discussed the need for resiliency and adaptability and the ability of the intelligent infrastructure to cope with extreme or unexpected circumstances.

Matthew Wansley, general counsel of nuTonomy, a startup focused on developing technologies for driverless vehicles. He talked about the need for robustness and interoperability and bringing together the data from large numbers of independent sensing systems to achieve shared common goals in realizing intelligent transportation systems.

Nadya Bliss, director of the Global Security Initiative at Arizona State University, who explained the need for security and trustworthiness. She said the transition to intelligent infrastructure allows us a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to build in security and reliability from the start.

Read more about the briefing on the Computing Research Association's website.