Array of Things

February 6, 2019
6:00 pm – 7:30 pm

Chicago Public Library, Harold Washington Center
Harold Washington Library Center, Chicago Public Library, South State Street, Chicago, IL, USA

Program Series:
Technology and Engineering

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Chicago is growing smarter every day. Want to know how? “The Array of Things is a collaborative effort among leading scientists, universities, local government, and communities to collect real-time data on urban environment, infrastructure, and activity for research and public use.” Over one hundred nodes are installed throughout Chicago and more are being added all the time. Join the Array of Things project leader, Charlie Catlett, and Chicago’s Chief Information Officer, Danielle DuMerer, as they talk about the founding of the project and what they hope to achieve in the future. Learn what the Array of Things is, what information it collects, and how it will inform the future of our city.

 

Event Details

Chicago Public Library, Harold Washington Library Center, Cindy Pritzker Auditorium (lower level), 400 South State Street, Chicago, IL 60605.

This program is FREE to attend, and seating will be first come, first served (no tickets necessary).

Parking and Transportation:

The Harold Washington Center is easily accessible by most CTA trains and multiple bus lines. For detailed travel information visit www.transitchicago.com or call the Travel Information Center at 1-888-YOUR-CTA or 1-888-CTA-TTY1 (TTY).

Notice: As a guest of Chicago Council on Science and Technology (C2ST), you agree to be photographed, videotaped, or filmed and grant C2ST permission to put the finished footage/photography to any uses that it may deem proper including marketing, advertising (print, radio, and television) and PR-related activities.

Featured Guests

Charlie Catlett

Charlie Catlett is director of the Urban Center for Computation and Data, a research center at the University of Chicago.  He is also a Senior Computer Scientist at Argonne National Laboratory. Charlie has been involved in the Internet and supercomputing for 35 years.  He was Chief Technology Officer at the National Center for Supercomputing Applications prior to joining Argonne and the University of Chicago in 2000. From 2007 to 2010 he was Chief Information Officer for Argonne National Laboratory, where he led initiatives in cybersecurity and privacy operations and research.

Since 2010 he has been working to apply computer engineering and computational sciences to challenges of understanding, designing, and improving cities.  One of the several focus areas is the “Array of Things” project, funded by the National Science Foundation to install hundreds of programmable sensing devices in Chicago and in a growing number of other cities worldwide.  Array of Things has been dubbed a “fitness tracker for the city” in that it provides neighborhood-resolution data on factors ranging from air quality to traffic flow. Charlie also leads an effort funded by the Department of Energy’s Exascale Computing Program to apply HPC architectures to high-fidelity, coupled urban models.

Government Technology magazine named Charlie one of 25 “Doers, Dreamers & Drivers” of 2016 and in 2014 Crain’s Chicago Business recognized him as one of Chicago’s “Tech 50” technology leaders.

Charlie is a Computer Engineering graduate of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

Danielle DuMerer

Danielle is CIO and Commissioner of the City of Chicago’s Department of Innovation and Technology, where she is working to improve how residents interact with government by creating more responsive and accessible digital services. Danielle brings over ten years experience in government tech, having served as the City’s CTO and leading data, digital inclusion, and other strategic initiatives. In 2016, Danielle and her team were recognized by the Chicago chapters of SIM and AITP as the Most Effective IT Team in a large company. Prior to joining government, Danielle developed educational technology products at the McGraw-Hill Companies. She also worked in the Library and Archives field—serving educational and non-profit organizations to promote equitable access to and preservation of information resources. Danielle holds a Master of Library and Information Science degree from the University of Maryland, College Park and a Bachelor of Arts from the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign.