March 27, 2025 • 22 mins
Interested in being a guest? Email us at admin@evankirstel.com
At the cutting edge of urban innovation sits Curiosity Lab, a groundbreaking "living laboratory" in Peachtree Corners, Georgia, just outside Atlanta. Brandon Branham, who serves as both Assistant City Manager/CTO for the city and Executive Director/CTO for Curiosity Lab, is pioneering a new model for how municipalities can accelerate technological advancement.
Unlike traditional testing facilities, Curiosity Lab offers something revolutionary: free access to actual city infrastructure – roads, sidewalks, traffic signals, and fiber networks – where companies can test and validate emerging technologies in authentic environments with real human interactions. Since opening in 2019, this nonprofit has attracted 175 companies ranging from startups to global corporations, all seeking to perfect their innovations in a genuine urban setting.
The diversity of projects is remarkable. Underground hyper-logistics delivery systems run beneath the streets. AI-powered streetlights gather usage data on playground equipment. Autonomous vehicles operate without drivers. Smart pedestrian crosswalks automatically detect people in crosswalks without requiring button activation and even provide audio warnings when unsafe vehicles approach. Each innovation addresses real-world challenges facing cities worldwide.
What truly distinguishes Curiosity Lab is its community integration. Rather than isolating experimental technologies, the lab embraces public engagement through school visits, demonstrations at community events, and transparent communication. This approach not only demystifies emerging technologies but also cultivates public trust and acceptance. When people experience an autonomous vehicle firsthand, initial skepticism often transforms into appreciation for its safety advantages.
Looking ahead, Curiosity Lab continues expanding with new facilities focused on public safety technology, AI in manufacturing, and sustainable transportation solutions. Through partnerships with Georgia Tech and other institutions, they're creating bridges between academic research and practical application, ensuring innovations benefit from both theoretical insight and real-world testing.
Want to test your technology in a living laboratory? Reach out through their website – they can typically get companies deployed within just nine days, an unprecedented timeline for public infrastructure access. Discover how Curiosity Lab is shaping the cities of tomorrow by embracing innovation today.
More at https://linktr.ee/EvanKirstel
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
Hey everyone, really curious today about Curiosity
Lab in Atlanta, a fascinatingplace known as a living lab.
I'm going to discover what thatmeans exactly with Brandon
Brandon.
How are you I'm doing great.
Evan.
How are you, I'm doing?
Well, thanks.
It's springtime down in Atlantaand we'll get there in Boston.
(00:23):
But in the meantime, reallyintrigued by the incredible work
you're doing at Curiosity Labtogether with the city, maybe
introduce yourself your personalrole and mission on the team
and what's the big idea behindCuriosity Lab?
Speaker 2 (00:40):
Awesome.
Thank you again for your timetoday, evan.
So I serve a unique positionhere, so I get to wear a little
bit of two hats.
I actually am the AssistantCity Manager and Chief
Technology Officer for the Cityof Peachtree Corners, but also
the Executive Director and CTOfor Curiosity Lab, which is its
own 501c3 nonprofit.
(01:01):
It was created by the city backin 2016.
As we looked at, really, howdoes public agency engage with
the startup community, thecorporate innovation arm and the
advantages that we as publicentities have, which is public
infrastructure, right Roads,sidewalks, streetlights, traffic
(01:22):
signals how do we takeadvantage of that to really
drive innovation andfuture-proof cities for years to
come with all of this newemerging tech that benefits us
in our day-to-day lives?
And that's what kind of led usdown that road to create
Curiosity Lab.
Speaker 1 (01:38):
Fantastic, well, very forward thinking.
And what are some of the moreinteresting or surprising
unexpected technologies you'retesting at Curiosity Lab?
Speaker 2 (01:47):
Yeah, so we've been open since September of 2019.
Great time to open a living lab, as you mentioned, right before
a global pandemic whereeverything is, you know, out in
the physical world.
But we've managed through that,just celebrated five years and
just onboarded our 175th companythat has used curiosity lab to
(02:08):
develop, deploy technology inour space.
Uh, some of our, you know,we'll start with kind of the
outside the box ones.
We actually worked with astartup out of texas called pipe
dream and they put 18 inch pipeunderground for about a mile
section of roadway into ourinnovation center to run
underground hyper logisticsdelivery.
(02:29):
So, just, you know, outside thebox creativity of how,
automation to robotics that tierebar for large construction
(02:49):
projects, and all those thingsyou traditionally don't think of
in the smart city space buthave a day to day impact on our
life.
And then, obviously, we're inmetro Atlanta, so traffic is
always the topic of discussion.
Speaker 1 (03:03):
So traffic is always the topic of discussion and it
deployed several companies thatare working in this space, using
both LiDAR technology to cameraradar technology to improve the
efficiency of traffic throughour cities, brilliant.
And how do you identify and,you know, nurture startups as
(03:24):
part of the lab?
How do you attract them andkind of collaborate within your
community?
Speaker 2 (03:28):
Yeah, probably the greatest asset that we give for
the startup community is accessto our infrastructure.
So that's our fiber network,our traffic signals, our streets
, our light poles, all free ofcharge, so they can deploy in
our facility at no cost, whichis a big huge improvement, you
know, for them to be able togain access to $4 to $5 million
(03:51):
worth of infrastructure at nocost to really validate their
technology.
So we'll go, obviously thetraditional scouting methods
going to the conferences,meeting them, connecting with
the other companies you know,and then working with our
corporate innovators likeT-Mobile and UPS and Bosch and
Cisco, and finding thosesupplementary startups that help
(04:16):
support their ecosystem as well.
So do a lot of you know yourtraditional trade show, your
marketing, anything we can do tospread the word.
We are a very global presence,so we have a soft landing pad
service for startups that areentering the North American
market.
So we actually partner withnine countries across the world
to help support their entry intoNorth America.
(04:39):
So, that's how we've been ableto get the word out there?
Speaker 1 (04:43):
You certainly have, and it's a very amazing and
unusual opportunity.
Tell us more.
What's in the pipeline?
I mean, there's so much on yourwebsite at Curity Labs, ptc,
you have autonomous vehicles andvehicle-to-vehicle
communication projects.
What are you excited about overthe next year or two?
Speaker 2 (05:03):
Yeah, one currently just launched.
Really excited about is we justlaunched Georgia's first
commercially availabledriver-out autonomous vehicle.
So you know, thank the Waymo ofthe world.
But we launched with a companycalled Maymobility out of
Michigan and really Georgia'sfirst step into the operation
(05:24):
without that driver inside thevehicle.
So where autonomy was in 2019to where autonomy is going to be
in 10 years is exciting to beon that journey.
And then we're underconstruction right now on a 2.6
acre site focused on handofffrom big transit to last mile,
whether that's, you know, anautonomous shuttle, whether it's
(05:47):
an e-bike, but then bringing inways for sustainable EV
charging.
How do we grow our EV networkbut not require such a demand on
the grid?
And then create a communitygathering spot for the
technology park where there's10,000 people who work, 4,000
people who live.
How do we create an environmentwith them, always keeping that
(06:10):
resident and visitor in mind aswe look at technology, so
excited to see what technologiescome into that space, opening
that up as kind of an additionalextension of our testing
facility.
And then we are expanding ourfacility.
We're 25,000 square feetcurrently, expanding another
25,000 square feet and going tobring in two new verticals
(06:32):
around public safety technology.
How are we helping our publicsafety teams use technology to
help them provide service tocities, and what is the future
of AI and manufacturing looklike from an operational
standpoint?
So we're bringing in somepretty serious compute power
that you'll see a release herein the next few weeks, which is
(06:54):
really excited.
When you can locally generateand have that compute power to
test new AI models.
And then we've got probably oneI'm really looking forward to is
an interesting use case is whenwe think of EV charging.
Right, you have to go to thespot, you have to plug in your
car.
Sometimes they're taken, thespots aren't available.
(07:14):
So we're working with a companyto launch later this year
called Battery, and they have amobile 50 kilowatt unit.
So you park wherever you wantin the parking deck in the
parking lot and they actuallybring the charger to your
vehicle and then you plug it in,go back and then when you get
back, you unplug and then itgoes off, recharges and goes to
(07:36):
the next one.
So really interesting use caseto see how that's going to
interact inside of your parkinglot.
Yeah, so looking forward toseeing what's coming.
Speaker 1 (07:47):
Brilliant.
And of all these emerging andnew technologies, how do you
think about deploying those inthe field?
You know in a day-to-day lifewhat's coming out of the lab and
into our daily lives down?
Speaker 2 (08:05):
in Atlanta.
Our facility from some of theother ones where you talk about
testing is because it is aliving lab they are getting real
exposure to how their productinteracts with us as humans on a
day-to-day basis because it'snot a closed facility.
You are in a parking lot in atraditional office park, you are
(08:26):
on a roadway that is feedingbusinesses and restaurants and
homes, so you really are at that.
You know, crawl, walk part ofthe run portion of your
technology development, so youget first-hand exposure, and
some of the ones we're startingto see come out are things like
really intelligent connectedlighting solutions.
(08:46):
So we we deployed um a littleover 50 lighting heads that have
AI built into them and we'reusing that to figure out how do
we know when to bringmaintenance into our playground
structures.
So we built a very niceplayground that's getting heavy,
heavy usage.
It's got nine differentstations.
(09:07):
How often is it being used?
How?
frequent is it being used.
Now we're putting data behindthat.
I also created a public Wi-Finetwork to blanket our downtown
using this lighting head, sogetting creative with that, I
think we'll see kind of thatexpansion on how we can use that
moving forward.
And obviously we've been talkingabout smart trash for a while.
It's a great use applicationbecause cities all over the us
(09:32):
send a truck around to lift thelid to see if the trash can is
full and go to the next one.
So putting sensors inside ofthat to really redefine how
those routes work and thenreally studying the interaction
between vehicle and pedestriansat the intersections right High
conflict points when you have aperson on a bicycle or you know
(09:54):
someone walking across a roadwaythat's 40, 50 mile an hour and
using LIDAR technology to detectthe pedestrian in the crosswalk
and sometimes we don't alwaysmake it through that light
that's flashing the hand at uson the side of the road.
So you'll see this technologybe able to detect that and hold
that phase for them to clear thecrosswalk before they give the
(10:16):
green light to the car, which isreally great.
And then we launched in thepublic a AI-based pedestrian
crosswalk.
So if you're out and about inyour city and you see those
rapid flashing beacons on theside, push the button and what
we found?
Usually only two out of 10people actually push the button.
(10:37):
So you have the infrastructurethere, but they're not using it.
So use the system to detectwhen that pedestrian is in the
crosswalk, automatically turnsthe lights on for them, gives
the awareness to the vehicle.
But then, now that you havethat device, what are the
vehicles around you doing If thevehicle's coming at a speed
that it shouldn't be?
(10:57):
It actually gives an audiblealert to the person in the
crosswalk that a vehicle isapproaching.
So those are the types oftechnologies that are improving
the safety of how we operate onour streets.
Speaker 1 (11:09):
Love it.
So, when it comes to autonomouscars, autonomous technologies
in general, lots ofmisconceptions.
First of all, I'd like to clearup one thing how will
autonomous cars travel aroundGeorgia when every street is
called Peachtree?
That will be a huge.
I kid, I kid.
I'm sure the tech will figureit out.
But what are some of themisconceptions about autonomous
(11:31):
robots, cars and other planesthat are coming, maybe?
Or mobility, and how do youaddress those misconceptions?
Speaker 2 (11:40):
Yeah, I think, right when we see public's reaction to
technology, it's usually from amisunderstanding of what the
technology does, how it's used,all of the things we think of
Terminator and it's in fact.
But one thing that's beenreally unique of us being able
to use Curiosity Lab is to getthe community input into it.
(12:03):
So the autonomous vehicles haveall been open to the public to
come and get on and experienceand interact with since we
deployed the first one back in2019.
And usually the misconceptionis there's no way that thing is
safe.
But when they get on it andthey experience it, they're like
oh wait, they're not distracted, they're not talking to the
(12:25):
person next to them.
They're not looking at theirphone when they're not supposed
to.
They don't interact with allthose things we as humans do
inside the vehicle, and it isactually a very safe ride for
them.
And they're like, most of thetime they get off and like, well
, that was pretty uneventful,which is exactly what we want.
But it is that first, you knowmisconception that there's no
(12:47):
way computers can be as safe ashumans, but in reality they're
not speeding right, they'reprobably more cautious than we
are as humans, and so it opensup a good conversation for that.
And then, obviously, there'sthe side that we all we all talk
about, right, our roboticsystems and AV systems replacing
jobs, and so we have good, openconversations about that.
(13:10):
It's like, no, because if youthink of an autonomous, let's
use an autonomous bus.
Right, the driver of the bus ismore than just a driver, right,
he's a fare collector, he's amediator, he's a communicator of
what's going on in thecommunity to the passenger.
So there's still a need forthat person.
And how we reskill those toolsinto a role that interacts with
(13:34):
the public in those scenarios,maybe they learn to do
tele-assist now, because theseautonomous vehicles need a
tele-assist system.
Maybe it's, you know, areskilling for them to learn how
to manually move the roboticsystems around facilities and so
it's really a discussion of howwe change the, the robotic
systems around facilities, andso it's really a discussion of
(13:57):
how we change the skill, notreplace it.
Speaker 1 (13:58):
Fantastic.
So Atlanta, great city, butkind of like a microcosm of the
US.
You got big downtown urbanareas and suburban and even
rural areas not too far outsideof the city.
I imagine that sort ofinfluences the projects and
programs that you focus on.
Why Atlanta, I guess is thequestion around some of the
(14:19):
projects?
Speaker 2 (14:21):
Yeah, no, absolutely, and just for kind of geographic
purposes.
So Peachtree Corners, we'reabout 20 minutes north of
Atlanta, we are right on thatcusp of being in the urban
environment, and so what we seeright is all of the jobs go
towards the central core, and sotraffic is always the number
(14:42):
one problem that we all face insuburban urban environments.
So huge driver of thattechnology being deployed here,
because one of our roadways iscarrying 60 to 70,000 cars of
commuter traffic.
That's right through the heartof our city.
Obviously that affects the eastand west movement of your
residents.
So how do you improve thattraffic flow, get people to work
(15:05):
on time, the efficiency you cansave by getting someone to work
on time, 10 minutes not wastedin traffic as a huge production
output on the other side, butalso just studying the safety of
it.
And then you think of you know,atlanta has become a major
sports hub.
All right, next year we'regoing to be hosting nine World
(15:27):
Cup games.
Yeah, it's got the most games.
So how do we use technology tomove people efficiently to the
transit stations?
on the roadways, how do weensure the safety of them?
And then what are all of yoursupplementary assets to your
hotels and your parks and all ofyour cities that are going to
be supporting this type of anevent and all of your cities
(15:57):
that are going to be supportingthis type of an event and the
technologies that can do crowdmanagement and flow of vehicle
and flow of person as they walkalong these roadways to
experience these events.
So we see a lot driven by that.
And then, because we sit on thecusp, we also see a lot of
technology come in from theagriculture space, agriculture
space.
So how are we testing waterconservation for farmers?
And how do cities manage theirwater systems when you know
water is a scarcity and it's avaluable asset, especially for
the farming community mostexpensive bill they pay.
(16:20):
So how do we integrate thosetechnologies to help support
that?
And we get those through thelab as well.
Speaker 1 (16:28):
Fantastic.
Well, what an amazingopportunity.
How do you think aboutcommunity engagement in this
process?
You know balancing all the cooltech and innovation
experimentation with.
You know public concern, safety, privacy, other you know public
feedback.
Speaker 2 (16:47):
Yeah, always a good question and we are.
I will say we are veryfortunate because of the way the
city was really created anddeveloped.
We were the first technologypark in the state of Georgia
ever created, back in the 60sand 70s and so a lot of our
community actually grew upworking in technology.
Their parents worked intechnology.
(17:08):
A lot of our community actuallygrew up working in technology.
Their parents worked intechnology, so they've been open
to the idea of the city beingused as a living lab.
But you can't just you can'tjust assume that our engagement
with these projects are engaging.
Taking the autonomous vehiclesand the robotic systems to the
schools Tomorrow morning I'll beat our elementary school with
(17:29):
our robots talking about careers, future of careers, which they
go home and tell mom and dad hey, look, how great this is.
And then bringing your AVs outto our public concerts and
letting people just you know,touch and feel and ask questions
about it.
And then we do a lot of socialcampaigns across our social
media for them to understandwhat's going on.
And then we go a step fartherwith the work that we do and we
(17:53):
became a NIST 171 compliantfacility, which is the highest
level of data security you canachieve for unclassified data
focused purely on PII, so makingsure that those standards are
in place for any of thetechnology that's being deployed
.
Speaker 1 (18:08):
You know those standards are in place for any
of the technology that's beingdeployed.
Amazing.
You have an incredible host ofpartners, sponsors, technology
providers from, you know,t-mobile to Siemens, to really
who's who.
I'm just looking at the listhere.
How do folks get involved?
On that end, if they want topartner or proof of concept,
different technologies?
What's the process?
Speaker 2 (18:35):
Yeah, we know we can't do this alone as a
government, so we are sothankful for our partners that
are with us and the investmentsthat they make to make Curiosity
Lab better and what it is today.
So we are always open topartners that are looking to
help the entire ecosystem,whether that's through
infrastructure that others canbuild upon, subject matter
expertise.
So just reach out to us on ourwebsite and then for any company
(18:58):
that wants to deploy and testand bring their technology to
Curiosity Lab, we have a simpleonboarding process that we go
through.
Just check your Ts and Cs andwe'll get you out.
Usually, we can get youdeployed in about nine days from
submitting that application Wowthat's wild.
Speaker 1 (19:14):
I've never heard of that before.
It's unprecedented, Wow,amazing.
And as far as you know, tech,education, academia, you have
some amazing institutions righton your doorstep, Of course,
Georgia Tech infamous.
How do you work with academia?
Speaker 2 (19:34):
Yeah, very important part of this because you need
the research side, you need thestudents thinking about what's
coming down the future.
Speaker 1 (19:38):
So we work closely with Georgia Tech in several
ways.
Speaker 2 (19:41):
We are a research site for their School of Civil
Engineering and Computer Scienceand then actually on April 21st
we will be launching a newprogram established by Georgia
Tech called the Atrium and it'sunder their College of Lifelong
Learning, the new college theyjust created to support
professional education,workforce development, online
(20:04):
learners, and will be theirfirst campus outside of our
innovation center to supportthat program.
And then obviously, we willsubmit on grants with
universities to do specificresearch in our facility.
And then we work with placeslike Kennesaw State and one of
their professors.
We actually give capstoneprojects to the classes to build
(20:25):
new applications.
So we just closed one onunderstanding movement around a
roundabout, because roundaboutsin the US build a challenge for
us as drivers.
So we let them have some dataaround it and build some safety
features.
And what are we learning?
How are people using that?
What's the safety features of aroundabout?
(20:47):
Because they do move trafficvery efficiently.
We just have to learn how touse them.
So really going out and justgetting the universities to
understand we are here, our datais available for them to use to
build future applications,because in the end we want this
to scale out of Curiosity Lab.
We want this to be able to helpcities across the US to better
(21:10):
provide services for ourresidents.
Speaker 1 (21:13):
Fantastic.
Well, you're certainly leadingthe charge.
What are you looking forward toover the next weeks and months?
What's in your pipeline?
Speaker 2 (21:22):
Yes, we have Smart City Expo coming up here next
week, so excited just tocontinue to learn from other
cities.
And then we are kicking off twonew partnerships one with a
company called BizTech, wherewe're actually going to create a
metaverse of our downtown anduse that from a training
(21:44):
perspective for incidentresponse.
So how do you train people whenyou've got 3000 people for a
public concert and there's anincident?
You know, just someone needsmedical care.
How do you navigate that?
So we're going to create thatin the virtual world.
And then kicking off apartnership with what we call
Jakarta and Enfold to build adigital twin that really gets
(22:08):
out of the GIS department andinto your planning services,
into your public works and usingthose 3D point clouds and
digital format of your city tohelp maintain and build
operations.
You have a new mixed usedevelopment that's approved.
What's the impact of thattraffic and change in your
environment?
Now you can build that in thedigital world.
Speaker 1 (22:30):
Amazing.
Well, you must feel like a kidin a candy store.
As a tech geek yes, nodisrespect there, but well done.
Thanks so much for joining us,brandon, and look forward to all
the news and updates.
Speaker 2 (22:43):
Thank you.
Speaker 1 (22:43):
Evan and thanks everyone listening and watching
and, of course, sharing.
Take care.
Hey everyone, really curious today about Curiosity
Lab in Atlanta, a fascinatingplace known as a living lab.
I'm going to discover what thatmeans exactly with Brandon
Brandon.
How are you I'm doing great.
Evan.
How are you, I'm doing?
Well, thanks.
It's springtime down in Atlantaand we'll get there in Boston.
(00:23):
But in the meantime, reallyintrigued by the incredible work
you're doing at Curiosity Labtogether with the city, maybe
introduce yourself your personalrole and mission on the team
and what's the big idea behindCuriosity Lab?
Speaker 2 (00:40):
Awesome.
Thank you again for your timetoday, evan.
So I serve a unique positionhere, so I get to wear a little
bit of two hats.
I actually am the AssistantCity Manager and Chief
Technology Officer for the Cityof Peachtree Corners, but also
the Executive Director and CTOfor Curiosity Lab, which is its
own 501c3 nonprofit.
(01:01):
It was created by the city backin 2016.
As we looked at, really, howdoes public agency engage with
the startup community, thecorporate innovation arm and the
advantages that we as publicentities have, which is public
infrastructure, right Roads,sidewalks, streetlights, traffic
(01:22):
signals how do we takeadvantage of that to really
drive innovation andfuture-proof cities for years to
come with all of this newemerging tech that benefits us
in our day-to-day lives?
And that's what kind of led usdown that road to create
Curiosity Lab.
Speaker 1 (01:38):
Fantastic, well, very forward thinking.
And what are some of the moreinteresting or surprising
unexpected technologies you'retesting at Curiosity Lab?
Speaker 2 (01:47):
Yeah, so we've been open since September of 2019.
Great time to open a living lab, as you mentioned, right before
a global pandemic whereeverything is, you know, out in
the physical world.
But we've managed through that,just celebrated five years and
just onboarded our 175th companythat has used curiosity lab to
(02:08):
develop, deploy technology inour space.
Uh, some of our, you know,we'll start with kind of the
outside the box ones.
We actually worked with astartup out of texas called pipe
dream and they put 18 inch pipeunderground for about a mile
section of roadway into ourinnovation center to run
underground hyper logisticsdelivery.
(02:29):
So, just, you know, outside thebox creativity of how,
automation to robotics that tierebar for large construction
(02:49):
projects, and all those thingsyou traditionally don't think of
in the smart city space buthave a day to day impact on our
life.
And then, obviously, we're inmetro Atlanta, so traffic is
always the topic of discussion.
Speaker 1 (03:03):
So traffic is always the topic of discussion and it
deployed several companies thatare working in this space, using
both LiDAR technology to cameraradar technology to improve the
efficiency of traffic throughour cities, brilliant.
And how do you identify and,you know, nurture startups as
(03:24):
part of the lab?
How do you attract them andkind of collaborate within your
community?
Speaker 2 (03:28):
Yeah, probably the greatest asset that we give for
the startup community is accessto our infrastructure.
So that's our fiber network,our traffic signals, our streets
, our light poles, all free ofcharge, so they can deploy in
our facility at no cost, whichis a big huge improvement, you
know, for them to be able togain access to $4 to $5 million
(03:51):
worth of infrastructure at nocost to really validate their
technology.
So we'll go, obviously thetraditional scouting methods
going to the conferences,meeting them, connecting with
the other companies you know,and then working with our
corporate innovators likeT-Mobile and UPS and Bosch and
Cisco, and finding thosesupplementary startups that help
(04:16):
support their ecosystem as well.
So do a lot of you know yourtraditional trade show, your
marketing, anything we can do tospread the word.
We are a very global presence,so we have a soft landing pad
service for startups that areentering the North American
market.
So we actually partner withnine countries across the world
to help support their entry intoNorth America.
(04:39):
So, that's how we've been ableto get the word out there?
Speaker 1 (04:43):
You certainly have, and it's a very amazing and
unusual opportunity.
Tell us more.
What's in the pipeline?
I mean, there's so much on yourwebsite at Curity Labs, ptc,
you have autonomous vehicles andvehicle-to-vehicle
communication projects.
What are you excited about overthe next year or two?
Speaker 2 (05:03):
Yeah, one currently just launched.
Really excited about is we justlaunched Georgia's first
commercially availabledriver-out autonomous vehicle.
So you know, thank the Waymo ofthe world.
But we launched with a companycalled Maymobility out of
Michigan and really Georgia'sfirst step into the operation
(05:24):
without that driver inside thevehicle.
So where autonomy was in 2019to where autonomy is going to be
in 10 years is exciting to beon that journey.
And then we're underconstruction right now on a 2.6
acre site focused on handofffrom big transit to last mile,
whether that's, you know, anautonomous shuttle, whether it's
(05:47):
an e-bike, but then bringing inways for sustainable EV
charging.
How do we grow our EV networkbut not require such a demand on
the grid?
And then create a communitygathering spot for the
technology park where there's10,000 people who work, 4,000
people who live.
How do we create an environmentwith them, always keeping that
(06:10):
resident and visitor in mind aswe look at technology, so
excited to see what technologiescome into that space, opening
that up as kind of an additionalextension of our testing
facility.
And then we are expanding ourfacility.
We're 25,000 square feetcurrently, expanding another
25,000 square feet and going tobring in two new verticals
(06:32):
around public safety technology.
How are we helping our publicsafety teams use technology to
help them provide service tocities, and what is the future
of AI and manufacturing looklike from an operational
standpoint?
So we're bringing in somepretty serious compute power
that you'll see a release herein the next few weeks, which is
(06:54):
really excited.
When you can locally generateand have that compute power to
test new AI models.
And then we've got probably oneI'm really looking forward to is
an interesting use case is whenwe think of EV charging.
Right, you have to go to thespot, you have to plug in your
car.
Sometimes they're taken, thespots aren't available.
(07:14):
So we're working with a companyto launch later this year
called Battery, and they have amobile 50 kilowatt unit.
So you park wherever you wantin the parking deck in the
parking lot and they actuallybring the charger to your
vehicle and then you plug it in,go back and then when you get
back, you unplug and then itgoes off, recharges and goes to
(07:36):
the next one.
So really interesting use caseto see how that's going to
interact inside of your parkinglot.
Yeah, so looking forward toseeing what's coming.
Speaker 1 (07:47):
Brilliant.
And of all these emerging andnew technologies, how do you
think about deploying those inthe field?
You know in a day-to-day lifewhat's coming out of the lab and
into our daily lives down?
Speaker 2 (08:05):
in Atlanta.
Our facility from some of theother ones where you talk about
testing is because it is aliving lab they are getting real
exposure to how their productinteracts with us as humans on a
day-to-day basis because it'snot a closed facility.
You are in a parking lot in atraditional office park, you are
(08:26):
on a roadway that is feedingbusinesses and restaurants and
homes, so you really are at that.
You know, crawl, walk part ofthe run portion of your
technology development, so youget first-hand exposure, and
some of the ones we're startingto see come out are things like
really intelligent connectedlighting solutions.
(08:46):
So we we deployed um a littleover 50 lighting heads that have
AI built into them and we'reusing that to figure out how do
we know when to bringmaintenance into our playground
structures.
So we built a very niceplayground that's getting heavy,
heavy usage.
It's got nine differentstations.
(09:07):
How often is it being used?
How?
frequent is it being used.
Now we're putting data behindthat.
I also created a public Wi-Finetwork to blanket our downtown
using this lighting head, sogetting creative with that, I
think we'll see kind of thatexpansion on how we can use that
moving forward.
And obviously we've been talkingabout smart trash for a while.
It's a great use applicationbecause cities all over the us
(09:32):
send a truck around to lift thelid to see if the trash can is
full and go to the next one.
So putting sensors inside ofthat to really redefine how
those routes work and thenreally studying the interaction
between vehicle and pedestriansat the intersections right High
conflict points when you have aperson on a bicycle or you know
(09:54):
someone walking across a roadwaythat's 40, 50 mile an hour and
using LIDAR technology to detectthe pedestrian in the crosswalk
and sometimes we don't alwaysmake it through that light
that's flashing the hand at uson the side of the road.
So you'll see this technologybe able to detect that and hold
that phase for them to clear thecrosswalk before they give the
(10:16):
green light to the car, which isreally great.
And then we launched in thepublic a AI-based pedestrian
crosswalk.
So if you're out and about inyour city and you see those
rapid flashing beacons on theside, push the button and what
we found?
Usually only two out of 10people actually push the button.
(10:37):
So you have the infrastructurethere, but they're not using it.
So use the system to detectwhen that pedestrian is in the
crosswalk, automatically turnsthe lights on for them, gives
the awareness to the vehicle.
But then, now that you havethat device, what are the
vehicles around you doing If thevehicle's coming at a speed
that it shouldn't be?
(10:57):
It actually gives an audiblealert to the person in the
crosswalk that a vehicle isapproaching.
So those are the types oftechnologies that are improving
the safety of how we operate onour streets.
Speaker 1 (11:09):
Love it.
So, when it comes to autonomouscars, autonomous technologies
in general, lots ofmisconceptions.
First of all, I'd like to clearup one thing how will
autonomous cars travel aroundGeorgia when every street is
called Peachtree?
That will be a huge.
I kid, I kid.
I'm sure the tech will figureit out.
But what are some of themisconceptions about autonomous
(11:31):
robots, cars and other planesthat are coming, maybe?
Or mobility, and how do youaddress those misconceptions?
Speaker 2 (11:40):
Yeah, I think, right when we see public's reaction to
technology, it's usually from amisunderstanding of what the
technology does, how it's used,all of the things we think of
Terminator and it's in fact.
But one thing that's beenreally unique of us being able
to use Curiosity Lab is to getthe community input into it.
(12:03):
So the autonomous vehicles haveall been open to the public to
come and get on and experienceand interact with since we
deployed the first one back in2019.
And usually the misconceptionis there's no way that thing is
safe.
But when they get on it andthey experience it, they're like
oh wait, they're not distracted, they're not talking to the
(12:25):
person next to them.
They're not looking at theirphone when they're not supposed
to.
They don't interact with allthose things we as humans do
inside the vehicle, and it isactually a very safe ride for
them.
And they're like, most of thetime they get off and like, well
, that was pretty uneventful,which is exactly what we want.
But it is that first, you knowmisconception that there's no
(12:47):
way computers can be as safe ashumans, but in reality they're
not speeding right, they'reprobably more cautious than we
are as humans, and so it opensup a good conversation for that.
And then, obviously, there'sthe side that we all we all talk
about, right, our roboticsystems and AV systems replacing
jobs, and so we have good, openconversations about that.
(13:10):
It's like, no, because if youthink of an autonomous, let's
use an autonomous bus.
Right, the driver of the bus ismore than just a driver, right,
he's a fare collector, he's amediator, he's a communicator of
what's going on in thecommunity to the passenger.
So there's still a need forthat person.
And how we reskill those toolsinto a role that interacts with
(13:34):
the public in those scenarios,maybe they learn to do
tele-assist now, because theseautonomous vehicles need a
tele-assist system.
Maybe it's, you know, areskilling for them to learn how
to manually move the roboticsystems around facilities and so
it's really a discussion of howwe change the, the robotic
systems around facilities, andso it's really a discussion of
(13:57):
how we change the skill, notreplace it.
Speaker 1 (13:58):
Fantastic.
So Atlanta, great city, butkind of like a microcosm of the
US.
You got big downtown urbanareas and suburban and even
rural areas not too far outsideof the city.
I imagine that sort ofinfluences the projects and
programs that you focus on.
Why Atlanta, I guess is thequestion around some of the
(14:19):
projects?
Speaker 2 (14:21):
Yeah, no, absolutely, and just for kind of geographic
purposes.
So Peachtree Corners, we'reabout 20 minutes north of
Atlanta, we are right on thatcusp of being in the urban
environment, and so what we seeright is all of the jobs go
towards the central core, and sotraffic is always the number
(14:42):
one problem that we all face insuburban urban environments.
So huge driver of thattechnology being deployed here,
because one of our roadways iscarrying 60 to 70,000 cars of
commuter traffic.
That's right through the heartof our city.
Obviously that affects the eastand west movement of your
residents.
So how do you improve thattraffic flow, get people to work
(15:05):
on time, the efficiency you cansave by getting someone to work
on time, 10 minutes not wastedin traffic as a huge production
output on the other side, butalso just studying the safety of
it.
And then you think of you know,atlanta has become a major
sports hub.
All right, next year we'regoing to be hosting nine World
(15:27):
Cup games.
Yeah, it's got the most games.
So how do we use technology tomove people efficiently to the
transit stations?
on the roadways, how do weensure the safety of them?
And then what are all of yoursupplementary assets to your
hotels and your parks and all ofyour cities that are going to
be supporting this type of anevent and all of your cities
(15:57):
that are going to be supportingthis type of an event and the
technologies that can do crowdmanagement and flow of vehicle
and flow of person as they walkalong these roadways to
experience these events.
So we see a lot driven by that.
And then, because we sit on thecusp, we also see a lot of
technology come in from theagriculture space, agriculture
space.
So how are we testing waterconservation for farmers?
And how do cities manage theirwater systems when you know
water is a scarcity and it's avaluable asset, especially for
the farming community mostexpensive bill they pay.
(16:20):
So how do we integrate thosetechnologies to help support
that?
And we get those through thelab as well.
Speaker 1 (16:28):
Fantastic.
Well, what an amazingopportunity.
How do you think aboutcommunity engagement in this
process?
You know balancing all the cooltech and innovation
experimentation with.
You know public concern, safety, privacy, other you know public
feedback.
Speaker 2 (16:47):
Yeah, always a good question and we are.
I will say we are veryfortunate because of the way the
city was really created anddeveloped.
We were the first technologypark in the state of Georgia
ever created, back in the 60sand 70s and so a lot of our
community actually grew upworking in technology.
Their parents worked intechnology.
(17:08):
A lot of our community actuallygrew up working in technology.
Their parents worked intechnology, so they've been open
to the idea of the city beingused as a living lab.
But you can't just you can'tjust assume that our engagement
with these projects are engaging.
Taking the autonomous vehiclesand the robotic systems to the
schools Tomorrow morning I'll beat our elementary school with
(17:29):
our robots talking about careers, future of careers, which they
go home and tell mom and dad hey, look, how great this is.
And then bringing your AVs outto our public concerts and
letting people just you know,touch and feel and ask questions
about it.
And then we do a lot of socialcampaigns across our social
media for them to understandwhat's going on.
And then we go a step fartherwith the work that we do and we
(17:53):
became a NIST 171 compliantfacility, which is the highest
level of data security you canachieve for unclassified data
focused purely on PII, so makingsure that those standards are
in place for any of thetechnology that's being deployed
.
Speaker 1 (18:08):
You know those standards are in place for any
of the technology that's beingdeployed.
Amazing.
You have an incredible host ofpartners, sponsors, technology
providers from, you know,t-mobile to Siemens, to really
who's who.
I'm just looking at the listhere.
How do folks get involved?
On that end, if they want topartner or proof of concept,
different technologies?
What's the process?
Speaker 2 (18:35):
Yeah, we know we can't do this alone as a
government, so we are sothankful for our partners that
are with us and the investmentsthat they make to make Curiosity
Lab better and what it is today.
So we are always open topartners that are looking to
help the entire ecosystem,whether that's through
infrastructure that others canbuild upon, subject matter
expertise.
So just reach out to us on ourwebsite and then for any company
(18:58):
that wants to deploy and testand bring their technology to
Curiosity Lab, we have a simpleonboarding process that we go
through.
Just check your Ts and Cs andwe'll get you out.
Usually, we can get youdeployed in about nine days from
submitting that application Wowthat's wild.
Speaker 1 (19:14):
I've never heard of that before.
It's unprecedented, Wow,amazing.
And as far as you know, tech,education, academia, you have
some amazing institutions righton your doorstep, Of course,
Georgia Tech infamous.
How do you work with academia?
Speaker 2 (19:34):
Yeah, very important part of this because you need
the research side, you need thestudents thinking about what's
coming down the future.
Speaker 1 (19:38):
So we work closely with Georgia Tech in several
ways.
Speaker 2 (19:41):
We are a research site for their School of Civil
Engineering and Computer Scienceand then actually on April 21st
we will be launching a newprogram established by Georgia
Tech called the Atrium and it'sunder their College of Lifelong
Learning, the new college theyjust created to support
professional education,workforce development, online
(20:04):
learners, and will be theirfirst campus outside of our
innovation center to supportthat program.
And then obviously, we willsubmit on grants with
universities to do specificresearch in our facility.
And then we work with placeslike Kennesaw State and one of
their professors.
We actually give capstoneprojects to the classes to build
(20:25):
new applications.
So we just closed one onunderstanding movement around a
roundabout, because roundaboutsin the US build a challenge for
us as drivers.
So we let them have some dataaround it and build some safety
features.
And what are we learning?
How are people using that?
What's the safety features of aroundabout?
(20:47):
Because they do move trafficvery efficiently.
We just have to learn how touse them.
So really going out and justgetting the universities to
understand we are here, our datais available for them to use to
build future applications,because in the end we want this
to scale out of Curiosity Lab.
We want this to be able to helpcities across the US to better
(21:10):
provide services for ourresidents.
Speaker 1 (21:13):
Fantastic.
Well, you're certainly leadingthe charge.
What are you looking forward toover the next weeks and months?
What's in your pipeline?
Speaker 2 (21:22):
Yes, we have Smart City Expo coming up here next
week, so excited just tocontinue to learn from other
cities.
And then we are kicking off twonew partnerships one with a
company called BizTech, wherewe're actually going to create a
metaverse of our downtown anduse that from a training
(21:44):
perspective for incidentresponse.
So how do you train people whenyou've got 3000 people for a
public concert and there's anincident?
You know, just someone needsmedical care.
How do you navigate that?
So we're going to create thatin the virtual world.
And then kicking off apartnership with what we call
Jakarta and Enfold to build adigital twin that really gets
(22:08):
out of the GIS department andinto your planning services,
into your public works and usingthose 3D point clouds and
digital format of your city tohelp maintain and build
operations.
You have a new mixed usedevelopment that's approved.
What's the impact of thattraffic and change in your
environment?
Now you can build that in thedigital world.
Speaker 1 (22:30):
Amazing.
Well, you must feel like a kidin a candy store.
As a tech geek yes, nodisrespect there, but well done.
Thanks so much for joining us,brandon, and look forward to all
the news and updates.
Speaker 2 (22:43):
Thank you.
Speaker 1 (22:43):
Evan and thanks everyone listening and watching
and, of course, sharing.
Take care.
Popular Podcasts
Boysober
Have you ever wondered what life might be like if you stopped worrying about being wanted, and focused on understanding what you actually want? That was the question Hope Woodard asked herself after a string of situationships inspired her to take a break from sex and dating. She went "boysober," a personal concept that sparked a global movement among women looking to prioritize themselves over men. Now, Hope is looking to expand the ways we explore our relationship to relationships. Taking a bold, unfiltered look into modern love, romance, and self-discovery, Boysober will dive into messy stories about dating, sex, love, friendship, and breaking generational patterns—all with humor, vulnerability, and a fresh perspective.
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
I’m Jay Shetty host of On Purpose the worlds #1 Mental Health podcast and I’m so grateful you found us. I started this podcast 5 years ago to invite you into conversations and workshops that are designed to help make you happier, healthier and more healed. I believe that when you (yes you) feel seen, heard and understood you’re able to deal with relationship struggles, work challenges and life’s ups and downs with more ease and grace. I interview experts, celebrities, thought leaders and athletes so that we can grow our mindset, build better habits and uncover a side of them we’ve never seen before. New episodes every Monday and Friday. Your support means the world to me and I don’t take it for granted — click the follow button and leave a review to help us spread the love with On Purpose. I can’t wait for you to listen to your first or 500th episode!
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com