Art Exhibition: Nov 18, 2015@ 6:30 pm ...SUAGM South Florida Campus

The world's smartest cities: What IoT and smart governments will mean for you

Intelligent cities are at the forefront of the next wave of the Internet of Things. The goals are to streamline communication and improve the lives of citizens. And save a little money along the way.

One of the next big targets of the digital age is the city. The combination of technology paired with physical infrastructure and services can simplify the lives of residents. That's the promise of the "smart city."

The concept is the result of the ever-expanding Internet of Things (IoT), with transportation, utilities, and law enforcement among the many areas being impacted. This is the ideal time for such technology, since more than 60% of the world's population will live in cities by 2050, according to a report from Cisco Systems.

Early adopters of smart city technologies include the European cities of Barcelona and Amsterdam. The concept has quickly spread into other countries, with Copenhagen, Dubai, Singapore, Hamburg, and Nice, France following suit, and U.S. cities are also getting smarter with San Francisco, Chicago, New York, Miami and San Antonio among those adding capabilities.

Companies such as Cisco, IBM, Intel, Silver Spring Networks, Build.io, GE Lighting and Siemens are among those providing smart city solutions worldwide.

Austin Ashe, manager of Intelligent Environment for Cities at GE Lighting, said, "Everyone has their own definition of an intelligent city. To us, an intelligent city is a city that can collect data efficiently and bring it in a way that is meaningful to them. It can enhance revenue, or ultimately offer citizens new services that they never before had."

Anil Menon, Cisco's deputy chief globalization officer, said, "A smart city is a city that uses digital technologies or information and communication technologies—connected via an intelligent network—to address challenges within city communities and across vertical industries. These challenges may include parking, traffic, transportation, street lighting, water and waste management, safety and security, even the delivery of education and healthcare. A smart city relies on technological solutions that enhance its existing process to better support and optimize the delivery of urban services, to reduce resource consumption and contain costs, and to provide the means and the opportunities to engage actively and effectively with its citizens, with its visitors and with its businesses."

While the definitions may vary, one consistent reality is that the technology in smart cities varies immensely based on the needs of that particular city and the budget allocated for such technologies.

For instance, in San Antonio, streetlights are adjusted in stormy weather to improve visibility and reduce accidents. In Chicago, the city is controlling the rodent population by using predictive analytics to determine which trash dumpsters are most likely to be full and attract more rats. In San Francisco, an app allows smartphone users to find available parking spots in garages throughout the city. The city of Hamburg, Germany, has set a lofty goal of eliminating all cars within its city limits by 2034. Copenhagen has set a target of becoming the first carbon neutral major world capital by 2020.

Traffic, parking and streetlights

One of the most helpful aspects of a smart city is using technology to ease traffic and parking woes. Sensors in the street can be used to determine if a parking spot is empty, and anyone who accesses an app on a smartphone can find out in real time the location of the closest parking spot.

In San Francisco, this option is available within the city's parking garages, and the city is hoping to expand it to monitor open spots on the streets as well, said Nishant Patel, founder and CTO of Built.io, and a member of the board of advisors for the city of San Francisco's Connected City initiative. Patel advises the city as it explores IoT use cases defining the next generation of enabling technologies.

Helping drivers find a parking spot more quickly can have a significant impact on traffic patterns. In Barcelona, there are sensors embedded in the city's streets to alert users on where to find open parking spots and traffic has been reduced because there are fewer people circling the block. This naturally helps the environment, because with fewer cars circling the city's streets, there are lower carbon dioxide emissions and less fuel is wasted.

Data shows that 30% of all traffic congestion in cities is the result of drivers looking for a parking space, according to the Intelligent Transportation Society of America.

Cities can increase revenues by more closely monitoring parking, and there are several other conveniences stemming from HD cameras in smart streetlights and parking sensors, said Steve Durbin, managing director of the Information Security Forum in London.

Chicago is one of the leaders in implementing smart city technologies.

"There are sensors in the roads so that you don't need to worry about paying for your parking because the sensors will determine how long you're parking there. Cities will also be able to clear away accidents much more quickly since they won't need to wait for tape measurements. And they can link this information to insurance companies and claims so that they can be processed much more quickly. A lot of those things are seen and perceived as benefits in a smart city environment," Durbin said.

To ease parking troubles by alerting drivers to open parking spots, cities can either embed sensors in the pavement for each individual parking spot, or they can do it via sensors in smart LED streetlights.

Streetlights are a cost-effective way for cities to become smarter, because every city has them and it's inexpensive to add an HD camera to a smart LED streetlight. Data collected from the streetlight can be used for predictive analytics. "The city gets all the technology and sensors in one bundle," GE's Ashe said.

San Diego and Jacksonville, Florida, are two cities with smart LED streetlight pilot programs in place through GE Lighting. "Both pilots are in the downtown areas of the cities, so right in the heart. And there are approximately 50 intelligent LEDs installed in each city, which covers approximately 10 blocks," Ashe said.

"Streetlights sit at a unique elevation in the city at 20-30 feet so it's natural to install HD cameras. These pilots are testing the answer to the question of, 'Instead of installing an LED, why don't you install a smart LED that could do so much more?' A smart LED has sensors embedded into it and connectivity to the industrial internet. With this we can start collecting data that cities never before had and with this data we can start to build applications. Much like you download an app on your Android device or iPhone, they can download an app that helps solve a citizen problem such as parking," Ashe said.

Florida Power & Light—the energy utility in south Florida—is planning the world's largest streetlight deployment of 500,000 smart LED streetlights, with 75,000 already completed, according to Brandon Davito, vice president of smart cities for Silver Spring Networks.

"We've seen the advancement in streetlight control and being able to deliver new types of applications and services is a big change. It's a great launching point into a range of smart city applications," Davito said. "Even for managing the streetlight network, adding cameras and motion detectors is a big step forward."

"We're at the convergence of a number of great trends. The cost of connectivity is dropping dramatically. The ability to put intelligence at the edge is dramatically increasing and citizens are expecting more. They have a tremendous amount of power and access to data [using] the mobile devices at their fingertips," Davito said.

Silver Spring Networks works with San Antonio's utility on a broad smart grid and smart infrastructure project that connects not just the electric meters but streetlights and gas and water meters.

Traffic was a concern in San Antonio, so the city connected its traffic lights together to build efficiency in traffic management and that has already saved hundreds of millions of dollars a year in energy consumption and lost time, said Hugh Miller, chief information and technology officer for the city of San Antonio.

The smart city features can even help in the rain. The first rain in San Antonio, after a long dry spell, can result in an increase of auto accidents because the rain activates oil and other chemicals that have been settling on the roadway. So the city has included a communication module within its LED street lights so that additional lights can be remotely turned on when such a rainstorm occurs, to help with visibility in an attempt to minimize accidents by helping drivers see the road more clearly, Miller said.

Overall, the ability to turn lights up and down as needed, in crime-ridden areas or for other purposes, is one of the benefits of having a smart city grid, he said.

Utilities and services in a smart city

There is also money to be saved with smart city technology.

In Barcelona, the city has experienced a $58 million annual savings using smart water meter technology, according to Cisco.

The city of Songdo, in Incheon, South Korea, is a $35 billion, 1,500-acre private real estate development that has been built from the ground up by Gale International with Cisco as a technology partner. The city has cut energy and water use by 30% compared to what a similarly sized city would use without smart features, and has reduced what operating costs would normally be by regulating electricity and water usage in buildings.

"There are no wires, it's all underground. There are no garbage trucks. All garbage is sent underground through a pneumatic process. In homes, parents can connect to schools and talk to teachers through telepresence," Menon said.

Chicago uses predictive analytics to determine where to place bait for rats, by listing which dumpsters are most likely to be overflowing. The city is now 20% more efficient in controlling rats, said Tom Schenk, chief data officer for the city of Chicago.

Predictive analytics are also being used to dispatch food inspectors to the city's 15,000 restaurants by using variables to predict which businesses are most likely to have code violations. In an 8-week trial of the program, restaurants with code violations were found two weeks faster, on average, than they would have been without predictive analytics, Schenk said.

Chicago is also on the cusp of having 50 sensors in place to alert the proper departments when bridges freeze, and to report the water quality in Lake Michigan. Other city groups are focusing on noise pollution and traffic congestion, said Brenna Berman, Chicago Department of Innovation and Technology (DoIT) commissioner and CIO.

Security and public safety in a smart city

Security is also a component of Chicago's smart city initiative. The city partners closely with the police department in order to bring technology into the field via a mobile command unit to manage large groups of people at outdoor events and intervene if an area becomes too crowded and a riot seems imminent. The mobile command unit is packed with TV monitors that display scenes from multiple angles, with live feeds from HD cameras embedded in the city's LED streetlights. This is part of the city's WindyGrid hub which houses information on many operational data sects into a single operating picture for city response teams to use when responding to an incident.

The court system is eased in San Antonio with its smart city technology. The city encompasses 460 square miles, which makes court-related issues a problem since some citizens have to drive a long distance just to get to the courthouse. Through smart city technology, residents can now use video court monitors at court kiosks throughout the area instead of actually appearing in court in person, said Miller.

Warrants can also be applied for online, which "radically shrinks the duration of time to deal with a public safety issue," Miller said, acknowledging that that could be a plus or a minus depending on which side of the law a resident might be on.

Inside a Chicago Police Command Unit

Getting involved

Of course, the majority of cities around the world are not smart cities. Updating existing technologies to more advanced and more efficient ones will take time. But, in the meantime, individuals and organizations can do their part, by getting engaged and forming civic groups to focus on topics ranging from reviewing city data to gathering developers to create applications for the city.

Another one of Chicago's mobile units for managing IoT services.

Chicago wants to promote smart cities throughout the globe by giving them access to their code via open source. "Every city is facing tight budget times just like the city of Chicago and there's no reason another city couldn't take our restaurant code [for example] and implement it without making the investment that we did. We plan to adopt other open source codes from other cities. There's a collaborative nature between municipalities and governments so we're working on each other's behalf," Berman said.

"The entire code itself is online so other researchers can take a look at this code and take a look at this data," Schenk said. Researchers can then work on the code and improve it, or even use it for their own smart city projects at no additional cost. Schenk said Chicago is also hoping to use open source code from other municipalities.

Journalists and programmers are the most likely candidates to use the data to spur a city to action, as well as entrepreneurs creating hack-a-thons to spur interesting applications for the municipality. And if they create this data and information, the city will likely listen, Schenk said.

No matter how appealing it is to offer new services, keep in mind that what citizens want is key.

"Smart cities are evolving cities, and smartness is relative—part of the requirement to be a smart city is to understand that change will always be necessary—but the intelligence comes in choosing the best tools that support that city's people and keep its culture vibrant and sustainable," Menon said.

How to Find Your Wi-Fi Password

What’s the password to your Wi-Fi network, anyway? Whether you’ve changed the default password or not, it’s simple to find it. You can look up any Wi-Fi network password if you’ve previously connected to that network from a Windows PC or Mac.

This is essential for hooking up new devices to a network. Whether you’ve misplaced your home network’s password or you’re visiting someone and don’t want to ask them for the password a second time, here’s how you can find it.

Find the Default Password Printed on the Router

Modern Wi-Fi routers — and the combined router/modem units offered by many Internet service providers — come with a default Wi-Fi network name and passphrase. Each router has its own default passphrase, and they’re random.

To find the default passphrase, just find your Wi-Fi router and examine it. You should see a sticker somewhere on it that contains both the “SSID” — the wireless network name — and the passphrase. If you haven’t changed the default passphrase yet, you can connect use that passphrase to connect.

If you don’t see a default passphrase printed on the router itself, try looking at the documentation that came with the router for more information. You may be using an older model of router that used the same passphrase on all routers, or one that included an open Wi-Fi network. If you can’t find the router’s documentation, perform a web search for the model number online.

If the router is using an open Wi-Fi network or a default password that’s the same across every router with that model number, you should change it.

Find the Passphrase on Windows

If you’ve connected to the Wi-Fi network from a Windows laptop or desktop PC, Windows will remember that Wi-Fi network’s password. You can look up the Wi-Fi passphrase on any Windows computer that’s currently connected to — or has previously connected to — that Wi-Fi network.

To look up a Wi-Fi network password on Windows, open the Control Panel and click “View network status and tasks” under Network and Internet.

(On Windows 10 and 8.1, you can right-click the Start button and select “Control Panel” to quickly open the Control Panel.)

Click the name of the current Wi-Fi connection to the right of “Connections”. (If you need to look up a previous Wi-Fi network’s password, click the “Change adapter settings” link at the left side of the window instead. Right-click a network name and select “Status.”)

Click the “Wireless Properties”  button in the Wi-Fi Status window that appears.

Click the “Security” tab and activate the “Show characters” checkbox to view the hidden password.

Find the Password on a Mac

If you have a Mac that’s currently connected to the Wi-Fi network or previously connected to it, you can also look up the password on that Mac. Both Windows and Mac allow you to view this information — mobile devices like Android smartphones and Apple’s iPhone and iPads don’t allow you to view Wi-Fi network passwords, however.

To find the Wi-Fi password on your Mac, press Command+Space to open the Spotlight search dialog, type “Keychain Access” without the quotes, and press Enter to launch the Keychain Access app.

Locate the name of your Wi-Fi network in the list, click it, and then click the “info” button — it looks like an “i” — at the bottom of the window.

Click the “Show Password” checkbox in the window that appears. You’ll have to enter your username and password to gain access to the password. You’ll need an administrator account for this. Assuming your Mac account is an administrator account, just type your account’s username and password.

After you do, your Mac will show you the Wi-Fi network’s passphrase.

Find the Passphrase in the Router’s Web Interface

If you have access to the router’s web interface, you can also attempt to look it up there. This assumes that the router is either using its default username and password so you can log in, or that you know the current username and password for the router.

Accessing your router’s web interface and sign in with the current username and password your router requires. Look through the router’s interface for a “Wi-Fi” or similarly labelled section. You’ll see the current Wi-Fi passphrase displayed on this screen, and you can also choose to change it to anything you want from here.

Reset Your Router to Its Default Wi-Fi Password

Can’t find your Wi-Fi network’s password and don’t have access to your router’s web interface — or just don’t want to bother? Don’t worry. You can reset your router and force it to use the default Wi-Fi passphrase printed on the router once again.

Look for a small “reset” button on the router. It’s often a pinhole button you’ll have to press with a bent paperclip or a similarly small object. Press the button down for ten seconds or so and your router’s settings will be completely erased and reset to their defaults. The Wi-Fi network name and password will be restored to the default ones on the router.

Not sure what your router’s Wi-Fi network name — or SSID — is? Just look at the Wi-Fi settings on any device connected to the Wi-Fi network and you’ll see the network name. If no devices are connected yet, you should see this information printed on the router itself or in the router’s documentation.

Alerta de Fraude relacionadas con el Medicare

Estafas relacionadas con el período de "apertura de inscripción" de Medicare 5 de noviembre de 2015 por Colleen Tressler Especialista en Educación del Consumidor, FTC El período de inscripción anual en Medicare comienza el 15 de octubre y finaliza el 7 de diciembre. Es la época del año en la cual los beneficiarios de Medicare pueden comparar opciones y efectuar cambios en sus planes. Y también es la época del año en que los estafadores se aprovechan de los consumidores de edad avanzada poniendo en práctica artimañas como estas:  Te llama alguien que te dice que debes inscribirte en su plan de medicamentos recetados o que de lo contrario perderás tu cobertura de Medicare. No le creas. El plan de medicamentos recetados de Medicare (también conocido como Parte D de Medicare) es voluntario y no afecta tu cobertura de Medicare. Recibes llamadas o emails informándote que necesitan tu número de Medicare para actualizar tu cuenta, tramitarte una tarjeta nueva o que tienes que enviar tu información de beneficios de Medicare. Es una estafa. Si necesitas asistencia para los trámites de Medicare, llama al 1-800-MEDICARE o visita medicare.gov. Alguien que afirma ser un representante de un plan de Medicare dice que necesita “confirmar” tu información de facturación por teléfono o en línea. Pisa el freno. Es una estafa. Los representantes de los planes de Medicare no están autorizados a pedirte un pago por teléfono ni en línea. Hay compañías deshonestas que pueden ofrecerte exámenes o suministros médicos gratis. Ten cuidado. Podría ser un truco para conseguir tu información personal y usarla indebidamente. Si alguien te pide el número de tu cuenta bancaria o tu número de Medicare, pisa el freno. Suministra información personal o financiera únicamente después de verificar con quién estás hablando. Para asegurarte de que estás hablando con un representante legítimo, llama al 1-800-MEDICARE. Si crees que tú o algún conocido han caído en las redes de un fraude relacionado con Medicare, reporta el incidente al Departamento de Salud y Servicios Humanos de EE.UU. Llama al 1-800-447-8477 o visita stopmedicarefraud.gov. Si suministraste información personal, llama inmediatamente a tus bancos, proveedores de tarjetas de crédito, compañía de seguro de salud y agencias de informes crediticios. El sitio web de la FTC tiene más información sobre estafas de atención de la salud y robo de identidad médica. ¿Necesitas ayuda para decidirte por un plan? Para acceder a servicios de consejería personalizada, visita el sitio web de State Health Insurance Assistance Program,  shiptacenter.org, o llama al 877-839-2675 para establecer contacto con tu programa estatal.

Comcast expanding internet usage caps to more areas

Now that cord-cutting is taking off, thanks to web services like Sling TV and Hulu Plus, Comcast won't let that dictate how much money it's going to make going forward. The company, which runs cable and internet operations across the US (among other things), recently started testing bandwidth caps on Xfinity customers in Atlanta, Miami and Nashville. These internet users have a 300GB monthly limit and, if they go over it, there's an overage fee of $10 for every 50 gigabytes. Now, despite customer backlash,Comcast is expanding the plan to more places, including Tuscaloosa, Alabama; Little Rock, Arkansas; Houma, LaPlace and Shreveport, Louisiana; Chattanooga, Greenville, Johnson City/Gray, Tennessee; Charleston, South Carolina; and Galax, Virginia.

Subscribers in those areas will have to deal with the caps starting on December 1st, or pay the extra $35 fee per month for unlimited access, a "feature" Comcast started trying recently. As DSLReports points out, however, Comcast sent a notice letter to Xfinity Internet subscribers telling them that the average monthly usage is 40 GB of data, so they shouldn't be worried about the new add-ons. It's also worth noting the network has a cord-cutting service of its own, Stream, which it launched earlier this year. In other words, it's not personal -- it's strictly business.

Open House: December 3rd., @ 6 pm...in Hialeah

On behalf of Florida National University’s (FNU) President and CEO, Dr. Maria Cristina Regueiro, we would like to take this opportunity to invite you, your staff members, and their families to our Open House scheduled to take place on: Thursday, Dec. 3rd, at 6:00 p.m. 

Please see the attached flyer for details. The general consensus among upper Management, is that they want and need a more prepared and educated workforce to compete throughout our global domain. 

Thank you and have a blessed day,

Rachel

Rachel Tourgeman

Community Relations Director

Florida National University

4425 W. Jose Regueiro 20th Avenue

Hialeah, Florida 33012

305-821-3333 Ext: 1087 (Office)

786-281-1000 (Cell)

Paula Urresta 

Administrative Assistant to the Allied Health Division and Community Relations Director 

Florida National University 

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