CivX Smart Cities: Data to Decision Challenge

Introduction

As cities become more complex, decision-makers must navigate vast amounts of data to address urban challenges in transportation, sustainability, infrastructure, and public services. Traditional data management approaches often result in silos, inefficiencies, and delayed responses, hindering a city’s ability to operate efficiently and adapt to changing conditions.

Digital Twins—virtual replicas of physical systems—have emerged as a powerful tool to bridge this gap, enabling real-time simulation, analysis, and forecasting. However, the effectiveness of a Digital Twin depends not just on the quantity of data it ingests, but on how well that data is structured, interpreted, and applied. City leaders, planners, and policymakers need smarter, more intuitive ways to manage and act on this information.

This challenge seeks innovative solutions that empower decision-makers to better handle, visualize, and utilize data within Digital Twin environments. We aim to break down data silos, improve real-time decision support, and make these tools more accessible to non-technical stakeholders, by implementing your novel solutions.

Key Questions to Explore:

1. How can we ensure seamless integration of real-time and historical data from multiple urban systems.

2. What AI-driven analytics or decision-support tools can enhance real-time urban management and improve real-time decision making?

3. How can visualization techniques make complex data more useful, accessible and actionable for city officials?

4. What innovative methods can protect data privacy and security while ensuring transparency?

This challenge invites researchers, technologists, and urban innovators to develop practical, scalable, and user-friendly solutions that enhance the way decision-makers interact with Digital Twin data, paving the way for more responsive, resilient, and intelligent smart cities.

Problem Statement

As cities increasingly adopt Digital Twin technologies to enhance planning, operations, and sustainability, decision-makers face challenges in managing, interpreting, and acting on vast amounts of real-time and historical data. The effectiveness of a Digital Twin depends not just on data collection but on how well it is structured, analyzed, and visualized to drive actionable insights.

1. Data Integration & Interoperability – How can data from multiple disparate sources (IoT sensors, GIS, transportation systems, utilities, etc.) in a Digital Twin environment be harmonized and presented efficiently for human consumption?

2. Real-Time Decision Support – What tools or models can enhance real-time data to provide actionable analytics to help city leaders make informed, proactive and time-sensitive decisions?

3. User-Friendly Interfaces – How can AI, machine learning, or visualization techniques improve accessibility and usability for non-technical decision-makers?

4. Data Privacy & Security – How can Digital Twins ensure secure data handling while maintaining transparency and trust?

Challenge Goals

Participants will develop novel methods, models, or technologies that enable decision-makers to process, visualize, and utilize disparate data more effectively in Digital Twin ecosystems. Solutions should demonstrate scalability, usability, and tangible benefits for urban governance and real-time decision making.

By addressing these priorities, your solution should empower urban operators to coordinate resources, optimize preventative maintenance scheduling, facilitate decision making in response scenarios, pre-plan for emergency situations, and ensure sustainable and equitable outcomes in any scenario.

Aligning with the principles established in the first two CivX challenges in this series is encouraged but not required.

HOW TO ENTER

1. Registration

• The first step is to register for the competition; registering early is the easiest way to stay informed.
• All participants must agree to the eligibility rules and participant agreement for the challenge.
• For this competition, the "Sponsor" refers to the Griffiss Institute.

2. Submission: Prepare a 5-Page White Paper

• Include a Cover Page: The white paper should not exceed 5 pages, including the cover page.
• Content Guidelines: The paper should include an introduction to your proposed solution, details about the solution, potential impact, team experience and capabilities, expected outcomes, and a conclusion.
• Formatting Requirements: Adhere to the provided formatting guidelines, including font size, margins, and document organization. See formatting instructions under the submission guidelines on the website.

3. Create 2 to 3 Minute Video

• Overview of Solution: The video should briefly describe the proposed solution and its potential impact.
• Incorporate Visual Aids: Use graphics, charts, photos, or demonstrations to explain your proposal.
• Team Introduction: Introduce your team members and their qualifications.
• Submission Deadline: Ensure all materials are submitted by the specified deadline
• See video instructions under the submission guidelines on the website.

Background

Smart cities represent a transformative approach to urban development by leveraging advanced technologies such as AI, IoT, and big data to enhance the quality of life, improve infrastructure, and optimize urban services. They present vast opportunities, including improved resource efficiency, real-time problem-solving through digital twins, and enhanced sustainability via innovations like energy micro-grids and AI-driven waste management. However, they also raise significant ethical issues. Key concerns include data privacy, potential biases in AI algorithms, digital equity, and the transparency of data usage. Citizen participation and trust are critical; strategies must emphasize inclusivity and robust governance to ensure technologies serve as tools for societal benefit rather than sources of inequity or exploitation

Griffiss Institute
The Griffiss Institute aims to develop the next generation of STEM talent and defense technologies that will strengthen U.S. national security and create economic opportunity for their region, state and nation. As a Partnership Intermediary, the Griffiss Institute performs services for the Air Force Research Laboratory Information Directorate that increases the likelihood of success in the conduct of cooperative or joint activities with small business firms, institutions of higher education, and industry.

Challenge Administration: The challenge registration and submission portal are administered by a contractor, Blue Clarity LLC, in support of the Griffiss Institute and the United States Space Force.

PRIZES

Griffiss Institute may award
Five semi-finalists will be invited to participate in a virtual pitch event on April 23, 2025. The finalist winner will receive $20,000!

SCHEDULE (6 Week Duration)

April 15, 2025 - Competition Launch at Smart Cities Connect Conference in San Antonio, TX
May 7, 2025 - Informational Webinar 1 - Time/Topic (TBD)
May 21, 2025 - Informational Webinar 2 - Time/Topic (TBD)
*Dates are subject to change. Please check our Slack channel for webinar links and the latest updates.
May 27, 2025 - Submissions Due By May 27, 2025 at 8 PM EST

• 5-page white paper
• 2-3 minute video
  June 2, 2025 - Semi-finalists notified
  June 18, 2025 - Pitch Event
  *Details about virtual and in-person events will be provided to registered participants.
  June 20, 2025 - Winner Award

JUDGING CRITERIA

• Desirability
• Feasibility
• Scalability
• Security
• Relevance to the Challenge

Each criterion is evaluated based on five possible responses:
Strongly Disagree (1 pt), Disagree (2 pts), Neither Agree Nor Disagree (3 pts), Agree (4 pts), and Strongly Agree (5 pts). Please refer to the judging criteria section on our website.

POINT OF CONTACT

If you have any inquiries about participating in this competition, please don’t hesitate to reach out to us at expeditionhacks@blueclarity.io.