Xie Receives Smart 50 Award for Crime Big Data Analytics Project

Each year the Smart 50 Awards, in partnership with Smart Cities Connect, Smart Cities Connect Foundation, and US Ignite, recognize global smart cities projects, honoring the most innovative and influential work. This year the awards recognized Yao Xie, assistant professor in the School of Industrial and Systems Engineering, for her work in developing an algorithm that finds connections between crime incidents.

According to the Smart Cities Connect website, “Strong applicants submitted innovative projects with current or future municipal-scale impact and application.” Xie’s project was recognized in the governance category; other categories include mobility, energy, citizen life, and networks.

Xie is collaborating with the Atlanta Police Department to test the algorithm, which analyzes tens of thousands of police reports within a matter of hours to find patterns between cases, and could help solve serial crimes.

Smart Cities Connect will honor all 50 award recipients at an awards gala on March 26 in Kansas City, Missouri.

Read more about Xie’s algorithm as part of the IPaT In-Depth series.