Municipalities from Dubai to Coral Gables are deploying smartphone data, sensors, and deep learning to manage traffic, waste, and lighting. Yet many smart-city projects have stumbled over privacy leaks, unclear standards, and weak coordination between governments and technology developers. The IEEE argues that successful transitions depend on fully engaging citizens and putting engineers at the center of planning, but a missing global forum has made it hard to share lessons across borders.
To fill that gap, the IEEE Smart Cities Technical Community—launched in 2013 and managed by the IEEE Power & Energy Society since 2021—was reorganized in November 2025 as a full technical community under the IEEE Technical Activities Board. The new structure includes a board of governors and a formal policies and procedures manual, addressing earlier limits that prevented long-term projects. More than 7,000 volunteers now work on tracks such as smart grid, smart water management, AI for cities, and security for smart cities.
The community is expanding its offerings with new events, including the IEEE European Technology and Engineering Management Summit (held in May 2025 in Belgium, with the next planned for 2027) and the IEEE Sustainable Smart Lighting World Conference, scheduled for December 2025 in Athens. Volunteers are also developing journals and standards in collaboration with the IEEE Standards Association, and the program has partnered with networks like the Open and Agile Smart Cities and Communities group. These efforts aim to give city leaders credible, unbiased information and a way to exchange experiences—something the IEEE says has been missing from the smart-city movement.