Flying cars weaving between skyscrapers, artificial intelligence designing buildings in days, and drones delivering medicine to the sick are no longer just the stuff of science fiction. At the University of Miami, leading experts and researchers gathered to showcase how these burgeoning technologies are actively shaping the future of urban living.
The 10th annual Smart Cities MIAMI conference, held on March 26 at the university's Coral Gables campus, provided a platform for industry pioneers and academics to explore the next generation of urban development. Hundreds of attendees heard talks on everything from quantum computing to high-tech environmental sensors, all aimed at making metropolitan areas more efficient, resilient, and livable.
Joel H. Samuels, the university’s executive vice president and provost, opened the conference by emphasizing the spirit of inquiry that drives such advancements. “Today’s conversation is really a conversation about curiosity,” Samuels said, drawing parallels between today's innovators and historical figures like Leonardo da Vinci and Steve Jobs.
A decade of urban innovation
For ten years, the conference has served as a crucial link between academic theory and real-world application. It is a signature collaboration between the University of Miami's School of Architecture, College of Engineering, and the Frost Institute for Data Science and Computing. This interdisciplinary approach is key to tackling complex urban challenges from multiple angles.
Over the past decade, [Smart Cities] has emerged as an important platform for both exploring how new technology is shaping cities and speculating about the future of our cities. The goal has never been technology for technology’s sake, but rather understanding how new tools can help us address the major challenges of the 21st century in thoughtful, ethical, and responsible ways.
The day’s discussions were organized around three core themes: the built environment, focusing on smart construction and infrastructure; health and well-being, exploring technology's role in public health; and community and resilience, which examined how innovation can help cities brace for and recover from natural disasters.
From flying cars to AI architects
A major focus was the future of transportation and construction. Sivakumar Ramanathan, an assistant professor of practice in mechanical and aerospace engineering, presented the Miami Engineering Autonomous Mobility Initiative (MEAMI). The consortium is developing pilotless, electric vertical takeoff and landing (eVTOL) aircraft, commonly known as flying cars.
“We want to take off from and land on top of skyscrapers. We want to have short takeoff and landing vehicles that will help us take short hops very quickly and personalize our trips,” Ramanathan explained. He noted that Miami is an ideal environment for this research, pointing to the existing operation of Waymo’s self-driving taxis across a 100-square-mile area that includes Brickell, Coral Gables, and Miami Beach. “We want to transform autonomous mobility, and that’s especially important in the context of Miami, primarily because Miami has become one of the test beds for autonomous vehicles,” he said.
Beyond transit, artificial intelligence is also set to revolutionize how cities are built. Minghui Cheng, an assistant professor and the Smart Cities conference chair, introduced Civilbot, an AI agent for structural modeling. He explained that this technology could drastically cut the structural design process from months down to a matter of days, accelerating development and reducing costs.
Technology for a resilient coastline
With South Florida on the front lines of climate change, a significant portion of the conference was dedicated to environmental resilience. A project named Kanopi, developed by a team of engineering graduate students, drew particular attention for its innovative approach to protecting the region’s vital coral reefs.
The region’s reefs, which contribute to a global marine economy valued at trillions, suffered a devastating mass bleaching event in the summer of 2023 due to an unprecedented marine heatwave. According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, such events threaten not only marine life but also coastal protection and local economies. In response, Kanopi was created as a floating, expandable shading device to shield corals from intense sunlight and reduce thermal stress.
Kylee Rux, a civil engineering Ph.D. student, presented data from recent tests. A prototype deployed at Flamingo Reef near Key Biscayne reduced light levels by 64% and water temperatures by about half a degree Celsius at a depth of 10 feet. “The shade fabric is actually elevated just above the water surface, allowing marine mammals to surface as well as for the gaseous exchange between the ocean and the atmosphere to occur,” Rux noted, highlighting the design’s ecological considerations. Similar environmental challenges are being addressed through policy elsewhere, as seen when the Trump administration sued California to block vehicle emission standards.
Smarter cities for healthier lives
The conference also explored how smart city technology can directly improve public health outcomes. Panelists discussed how lessons from the COVID-19 pandemic have spurred new methods for tracking and preventing the spread of disease. Helena Solo-Gabriele, a professor of chemical, environmental, and materials engineering, highlighted the rise of wastewater epidemiology.
“Through COVID-19, we learned of a new discipline where we now can track disease in communities through the sewer system,” she said. “Now we know where outbreaks of not only COVID-19 are happening, but we can look at all diseases through our wastewater.” This allows public health officials to identify and respond to potential outbreaks before they become widespread, a topic with local resonance following recent federal health initiatives in Miami. Read more about the US health secretary's visit to announce a hospital food overhaul in Miami.
The conversation extended to the design of health care facilities and the allocation of critical resources. Xu Sun, an assistant professor at the Miami Herbert Business School, argued that technology alone isn't enough. He develops algorithms for real-time decision-making to optimize the routing of emergency resources and the pre-positioning of staff. “How to allocate or route resources, especially in the presence of emergency events. those are some of the challenges cities face,” Sun said. “I’m a firm believer that a smart city is only as smart as the decisions that it makes.”
The work continues for the researchers who presented. “We’re also planning for extended resite testing at a nursery site to continue validating Kanopi’s performance,” Rux said of her team's next steps in the fight to save local corals.
