CITY OF MESA
“ These initiatives , that touch almost every department , have helped launch Mesa forward as a smart city ”
TRAVIS CUTRIGHT CHIEF INFORMATION OFFICER ,
CITY OF MESA
from home because of the pandemic they ' re able to completely do the job that they need to without having to rely on a centralised system .”
Cloud and Artificial Intelligence The City of Mesa has a number of digital tools that involve the cloud and Artificial Intelligence ( AI ) which is being used internally at the government and to help citizens .
“ We have just launched our Mesa app which works with Alexa . Citizens can ask about their utility bill or hear about events using this technology ,” said Cutright .
“ We also use a number of third-party systems to do our own content creation such as Canva , Sprout Social and Adobe creative cloud . There are a number of creative assets that we ' ve deployed across the city where individual departments are trained on this . So instead of having a centralised marketing department where all the creatives are under one roof , we ' ve essentially drawn up the box .
“ These enabling tools can be deployed across the city . If someone is working
A smarter environment As Mesa drives its digital transformation , a major focus is on improving the environment and their carbon footprint .
“ Technology comes at you fast and you have to be ready to roll with it , and you have to be conscious of the environmental aspects of technology . We ' re conscious of our digital footprint and the role we need to play supporting our literal ecosystem .
“ One of the areas we ' re focused on is our environmental sustainability programs which includes recycling . It ' s a huge initiative for the city , we have done various experiments with recycling biomass fuel ,” said Cutright .
“ We also have smart irrigation controllers in parks . In monsoon season park employees no longer need to travel to every facility to stop the sprinklers . The city saves more than 80 trips every time it rains by managing the watering centrally . The controllers also alarm if a sprinkler head breaks or a leak is detected , saving water and time .” technologymagazine . com 195