South Bend and Notre Dame participating in MetroLab Network

South Bend Mayor Pete Buttigieg and Pittsburgh Mayor Bill Peduto joined officials from the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy to introduce the MetroLab Network at a White House event Monday.

The MetroLab Network brings together local governments and university researchers to address urban needs.

The City of South Bend, in partnership with the University of Notre Dame, is one of about two dozen participants.

Other partnerships include

• The City of Pittsburgh with Carnegie Mellon University
• The City of Chicago with the University of Chicago and Argonne National Laboratory
• The City of New York with New York University

The MetroLab Network is a collaboration focused on smart solutions to challenges.

Participation in the MetroLab Network will require the partners to develop a memorandum of understanding between home metro partners, designate representatives responsible for maintaining the collaboration with the MetroLab Network, and host an active set of research, development, and deployment projects.

The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation provided $1 million in support of the launch of the MetroLab Network.

South Bend and Notre Dame have committed to work together on the following projects:

• Bowman Creek Project: In collaboration with Notre Dame’s College of Engineering, work will continue toward revitalizing this impaired tributary to the St. Joseph River, developing sensors, systems, and analyses that contribute to cleaner water and green infrastructure.
• Neighborhood Report Card: Building on the City’s Vacant and Abandoned initiative, the Office of Innovation will work with the Notre Dame Department of Applied and Computational Mathematics and Statistics to develop a methodology to classify neighborhoods based on 200 indicators to understand where they stand relative to city, state, and national benchmarks. The resulting “report card” will be used by the City to inform policy decisions, including the allocation of revitalization funds.
• Community-Based Research Course: Along with Notre Dame’s Center for Social Concerns, the City’s Innovation Office is hosting a seminar to introduce students to community-based research. The focus is on vacant land and property conditions to help identify, prioritize, plan, and measure the impact of neighborhood improvement projects.
• Wireless Institute: Notre Dame’s Electrical Engineering faculty, in conjunction with the City’s Office of Innovation, are developing a wireless network to be tested in downtown South Bend.