Some of my favorite work with cities and companies is around the Internet of Things. There are many modern day challenges that are best solved with technology. However, the question that we face is how best to solve those challenges.
For example, some cities, are exploring adding sensors to parking spaces to help inform motorists about where parking spots are available. This type of endeavor will be expensive in so many different ways. Any city looking to do this, will likely need to architect some type of system that looks like the following:

On the other hand, Google, is leveraging its maps data too help predict where you are most likely to find parking. This is an impressive use of machine learning instead of on-the-ground sensors for smart parking.

Also published on Medium.