RAPID: MIT in Nashik: Creating a Model for Smart Citizens

Massachusetts Institute Of Technology, Cambridge MA

Investigators

Abstract

This research examines the technology challenges with providing services to pop-up cities. Pop-up cities are locations where the population expands very rapidly by an order of magnitude or more in a very short time. One of these examples is provided by the Kumbh Mela in India. This event is expected to attract 30 million pilgrims to the city of Nashik, India in late summer and early fall 2015. This proposal is a RAPID and is designed to collect data on crowd and service needs for a pop-up city. The information will relate to crowd dynamics and infrastructure needs. The proposal offers the opportunity to collect huge amounts of data that can be used for analyzing infrastructure and services needs due to emergent pop-up cities. The data is time perishable and can only be collected when the event is in progress. The data can be mined to enable the understanding of requirements for smart and connected communities when a rapid community growth occurs over a short but extended period. The research will provide insights into how much infrastructure needs to be built-up well in advance (for example supporting Olympic Events or similar large gatherings) and how much can be created just in time. It will help identify service needs spanning many of the technologies needed by smart and connected communities.