Chattanooga Smart Community Collaborative

The Enterprise Center convenes the Chattanooga Smart Community Collaborative, a growing group of our region’s major institutions, who work together to identify challenges in our community and create innovative solutions.

The institutions — which represent education, research, medical, government, and nonprofit organizations — meet on a regular basis to identify the community’s biggest challenges and find innovative solutions together. Strong partnerships have been formed within the collaborative, resulting in unique projects — for instance, the university and hospital system work together to analyze data to improve outcomes for stroke patients, and The Enterprise Center works with EPB, the City, and the County to deploy no-cost internet to more than a third of Hamilton County Schools students.

The collaborative has three major areas of focus: health, energy, and mobility. Within those areas, the group is working to develop medical technologies that improve outcomes or extend life; make energy more resilient, reliable, secure, affordable, flexible, and sustainable; and improve traffic safety and flow while minimizing environmental impact.

Projects developed by members of the collaborative include:

• A model for predicting hotspots for traffic accidents based on time of day and conditions
• Using AI to improve traffic flow and pedestrian safety
• A model for determining air quality across different neighborhoods and analyzing any adverse impacts on health and quality of life
• Initiatives to advance broadly accessible public transit options
• A corridor outfitted with environmental sensors along MLK Blvd.