Early evidence suggests that the COVID-19 crisis is accelerating the rate of adoption of e-commerce with more people ordering online and using delivery services to meet their needs. The embrace of e-commerce and delivery during the crisis and recovery are likely uneven, as opportunities and barriers to accessing transportation, local retailers, online technologies, and delivery services vary across the population.

Situated on opposite sides of the Pacific Ocean, the US Pacific Northwest Region and Japan face significant earthquake risks from similar geophysical conditions. The Pacific Northwest is considered overdue for a Cascadia Subduction Zone 8.0–9.2 magnitude megaquake. When it happens, the estimated direct fatalities for Oregon and Washington states are up to 10,000, with economic losses of more than $80 billion. For the comparably sized region of Japan facing a Nankai megathrust earthquake, estimated fatalities are 80,000–323,000 lives and about $900 billion in economic loss.

This activity is in response to NSF Dear Colleague Letter Supporting Transition of Research into Cities through the US ASEAN ((Association of Southeast Asian Nations Cities) Smart Cities Partnership in collaboration with NSF and the US State Department. Prairie View A&M University (PVAMU) will be partnering with University Tenaga Nasional (UNITEN) at Kuala Lumpur (KL), Malaysia, to develop renewable energy sources for bike lanes in KL. Kuala Lumpur is the largest city in Malaysia, and it is home to approximately 1.808 million people.

Food deserts, generally defined as areas in which it is difficult to buy an affordable, high-quality fresh food, are not exclusive to urban or rural areas, but more indicative of under-served communities, low-income households, and minority neighborhoods. Food deserts are not only a health issue but also a community development and equity issue. Access to safe and nutritious food is a fundamental individual right.

Seniors (i.e., adults aged 65+) are the most rapidly growing segment of the U.S. population and have an increased risk of social isolation due to changes in lifestyle and physical health. Social connectedness, which involves establishing, sustaining, and increasing the quality of social relationships, is key to preventing or mitigating social isolation. Technology can foster social connectedness through online services and mobile applications.

High concentrations of energy use from fossil fuels can lead to poor air quality, resulting in adverse health effects as well as economic consequences. A prime example is found where large numbers of idling vehicles congregate (e.g., schools and hospital drop-off/pick-up zones), leading to microclimates of unhealthy air. Workers, such as valet parking attendants, can spend their entire workday in these microenvironments, and children passing through these zones can experience up to 60% higher levels of pollution than adults, because of their height.

This project is a Smart and Connected Communities award. The community is part of Evanston, Illinois and is composed of the lead partners described below:

- EvanSTEM which is a in-school/out of school time (OST) program to improve access and engagement for students in Evanston who have underperformed or been underrepresented in STEM.

- McGaw YMCA which consists of 12,000 families serving 20,000 individuals and supporting technology and makerspace activities (MetaMedia) in a safe community atmosphere.

This Smart and Connected Community (SCC) project will partner with two rural communities to develop STEMports, an innovative Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) learning game for workforce development. The game's activities will take players on localized Augmented Reality (AR) missions to both engage in STEM learning challenges and discover emerging STEM careers in their community, specifically highlighting innovations in the fields of sustainable agriculture and aquaculture, forest products, and renewable energy.

Smart services are deeply embedded in modern cities aiming to enhance various aspects of citizens' lives, including safety, wellness, and quality of life. Examples include intelligent traffic control and air quality control. Given these services, monitoring a city's safety and performance collectively is crucial, yet also challenging due to many potential conflicts among the number increasing of services deployed. Researchers have accumulated abundant knowledge on how to design these services independently.

The goal of this project is to further the ability of cities and communities to deploy technology that saves lives through safer transportation systems. The approach is to create open source analytics solutions to enable novel transportation applications that utilize data from low-cost video sensors. Video data are processed using edge computing (inexpensive computing hardware that performs analysis without storing significant amounts of data) in order to reduce the amount of data stored.