Singapore : the future living lab for smart cities

Singapore is indeed the hub for green building developments. By investing heavily in R&D and building a technological innovative ecosystem through ICT, the city-state has generated enormous value in the global economy.

The thriving economy of technological innovation has made Singapore recognized as a global city and living laboratory, where companies can partner public agencies to develop, test and commercialize smart cities solution.

According to Mr. S Iswaran, Ministry for Trade and Industry, several leading international energy and public utility companies have established centers of excellence in Singapore, along with Housing Development Boarding which are developing a complex system modelling tool that uses 3D simulation to visualize and test the plan of the building in a virtual environment to help the designer achieve optimal living conditions by improving the eco-friendly environment for Singaporean citizens.

One of the important capability for the Singapore smart cities solution is data analytics. Singapore aims to nurture a pool of 2,500 multidisciplinary analytics professional by 2017 through the government’s partnering companies.

Several research programs to support the development of smart cities is the Singapore-MIT Alliance for Research and Technology (SMART) Center which undertakes research on Urban Mobility, Low Energy Electronics, Environmental Sensing and Modelling – all of which have been invested by Singapore.