Chair(s): Mauro Salazar Eindhoven University of Technology Email Website Welcome to the IEEE Smart Cities Technical Committee of the IEEE Control Systems Society The UN expects almost 70% of the world population to live in urban areas by 2050. Many urban areas are currently struggling with challenges such as grid congestion, (sustainable) energy and water procurement and distribution, environmental pollution, road traffic, cybersecurity, lack of accessibility and entrenched multi-dimensional social injustices. At the same time, we are witnessing significant advancements in new technologies such as the Internet of Things, AI and Big Data, autonomous driving, smart grid, smart water networks, and renewable energy technologies. These new technological trends continue to contribute to creating narratives around the concept of Smart Cities, where technologies are deployed to improve the wellbeing of citizens and the environment in a fair and sustainable manner. In line with Langdon Winner’s argument that (technological) “artifacts have politics”, now more than ever (control) engineers have the double responsibility of not only devising effective technological solutions but also ensuring that they are catering to the needs of society and the planet in terms of wellbeing, justice and sustainability in the first place. A Smart City (Fig. 1) is a multi-scale socio-technical ecosystem encompassing three dimensions: first, the societal dimension that includes of the population and the institutions governing it; second, the technological dimension that includes technologies serving the needs of the population; third, the environment consisting of the infrastructure as well as urban and natural spaces. These three dimensions are strongly interconnected and cannot be considered in isolation when technologies or infrastructures are to be designed, deployed and/or operated. Figure 1 The focus of the IEEE Technical Committee (TC) on Smart Cities (TC-SC) is to promote transdisciplinary research and education on system-based approaches aimed at addressing challenges of smart cities at the interface of technological, societal, and environmental dimensions. The activities of TC-SC head towards promoting new knowledge and applying it through collaborative praxis with stakeholders to educate and build civic capacity toward smart cities. The applications span several areas including: (1) Infrastructure: The water, energy, and mobility infrastructure are the backbone of a smart city. Considering current and projected urbanization trends, it is important to expand, re-purpose and better control the existing infrastructure to make the best out of it, leveraging the ability to be both proactive/preventive as well as reactive in real-time. (2) Data collection: The unprecedented availability of data enables the deployment of data-driven approaches for resource allocation at all levels of the infrastructure in a smart city, which can be developed in the form of data-driven allocation mechanisms. (3) Mobility systems: Emerging mobility systems (Figure 2), e.g., connected and automated vehicles (CAVs), shared mobility, (intermodal) mobility-on-demand systems, are typical cyber-physical systems (CPS) where the cyber component (e.g., data and shared information through vehicle-to-vehicle and vehicle-to-infrastructure communication) can be leveraged to nudge or even control the physical entities (e.g., CAVs, non-CAVs, bikes and public transit) to make better operating decisions in terms of sustainability, equity, and safety. In line with similar goals, optimization models can be devised for co-design frameworks that re-think the existing infrastructure, accounting for emerging (CAVs, etc.) as well as established (bicycles, etc.) modes. Figure 2 (4) Energy systems: Rising urban populations—alongside their ‘energy-hunger’—and the deployment of distributed intermittent sustainable energy sources such as photovoltaics and wind turbines, call for resilient infrastructure (re-)design as well as algorithms and mechanisms to guarantee energy provision and grid stability, whilst accounting for its interaction with other cyber-physical systems. (5) Water systems: As cities grow and climate conditions become less predictable, managing urban water networks is becoming increasingly complex. Key challenges include reducing losses, maintaining water quality, improving energy efficiency, and ensuring resilience. Advances in sensing, communication, and data processing are helping to modernize these systems, enabling smarter, more responsive approaches to how water is monitored, distributed, and protected. (6) Human in the loop: At the core of any smart city are its people. While data, infrastructure, and automation play vital roles, these systems ultimately rely on how people interact with and respond to them. Current research explores emotional and behavioral responses to technology, with the goal of designing systems that can learn from and adapt to human input in real time. This includes behavioral modeling, feedback loops, and interfaces that keep people actively involved in decision-making. In this context, economic mechanisms such as incentive schemes and token-based systems can be developed to nudge behaviors in ways that support sustainability, equity, and safety. (7) Sustainability: As urbanization accelerates, the sustainability of existing infrastructure is increasingly under pressure. Growing electricity demand—also driven by the rise of electric vehicles—and the widespread integration of distributed energy resources, combined with polluting mobility modes and declining water availability, require new approaches. Current research focuses on enhancing the sustainability of mobility, energy, and water systems through science-driven, cyber-physical systems research and urban-scale implementation. (8) Social justice: Most current research across the aforementioned domains focuses on optimizing system performance, often without considering whether some users benefit at the expense of others—or whether existing injustices are being reinforced. In doing so, we risk falling into an engineering trap: offering technology-for-technology’s-sake answers to the wrong questions. Rather than beginning with what technology can offer, we should start by asking what people and the environment need in the first place. To this end, we can mobilize social justice arguments to shape how smart city technologies are designed and deployed—ensuring they actively promote fairness, inclusion, and wellbeing. Overall, the TC-SC is dedicated to providing informational forums, meetings for technical discussions, and information to researchers interested in smart cities. Over the years, several technical activities have been put forward during the TC meetings, such as the organization of workshops, invited sessions, summer schools, and special issues. The TC has been actively seeking opportunities to provide educational programs for early career researchers and engineers. Joining the IEEE Technical Committee on Smart Cities TC-SC welcomes new members, especially, early career researchers and engineers. If you are interested in joining the TC, please send an e-mail to the chair. 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