From safer drinking water in Brunswick to on-demand transit in Savannah, communities across Georgia are solving real-world problems through bold, tech-powered partnerships. At the heart of these efforts is the Community Research Grant program — a model for how local governments and university researchers can team up to turn ideas into action. Backed by the Partnership for Inclusive Innovation (PIN), these collaborations are making life tangibly better for residents while piloting scalable solutions for the future.
“Community research recognizes that local communities are the ones directly impacted by global challenges — everything from public health to the environment — yet they often lack the tools they need to increase their resiliency,” Katie O’Connor, PIN’s community research manager, said. “On the other hand, higher education institutions often lack applied research opportunities. By offering funding and matching research activities with community needs, our grant program is empowering localities to redefine the future of their communities while advancing cutting edge innovation.”
The Community Research program is a competitive grant process that supports teams of university researchers and local governments with funding, expert advice, project management, access to the Partnership’s Summer Internship Program, and a network of peers, on year-long pilot campaigns. Alumni cities and counties have won national and international awards, and garnered additional funding and technical assistance to continue serving residents.
This year’s Community Research projects, which are at the halfway point, have the potential to redefine the future for people in Charleston County, South Carolina; Forsyth County, Georgia; Marion, Alabama; and Millen, Georgia. Project leaders recently presented information on progress, challenges, and lessons learned to date.
Artificial Intelligence and Digital Twin for Coastal Flood Resilience, Charleston, South Carolina
South Carolina’s coast faces significant and growing challenges from hurricanes, tropical storms, and flooding that threaten infrastructure, particularly roads and emergency services, which in turn threatens lives. Georgia Tech’s award-winning digital twin team is leading a project to enhance flood resilience through a digital twin-reinforced emergency infrastructure system. Using artificial intelligence (AI) and GIS analytics, the system will predict flooding on roads and allow for repositioning of emergency service vehicles, including EMS, fire, and police, during flooding. The approach is designed to save lives, reduce economic strain from recovery efforts, and serve as a model for other coastal communities.
The local government partner in the project is Charleston County EMS, which will contribute expertise and data.
Charleston faces a triple risk, said project lead John Taylor, the Frederick Law Olmstead professor and associate chair for graduate programs and research innovation in Georgia Tech’s School of Civil and Environmental Engineering.
“They have the heavy rains; they also have coastal and river flooding; and they have a greater hurricane risk being along the coast. When the city floods, it impacts the response times for emergency vehicles,” Taylor said. “Our project is about predicting and monitoring the potential increase of emergency service response times to improve those response times by identifying in real time the quickest routing algorithms.”
To date, the project has involved pre-flooding simulations to understand what may happen on the roads during floods. In addition, the team has installed sensors that capture information during flooding to determine whether a road is impassible and then develop the quickest route for emergency vehicles.
Enhancing Road Safety with AI in Forsyth County
Road curves account for only 5% of the driving miles in the United States but are the sites of 25% of fatal accidents. To help make the curves safer, the Enhancing Road Safety with AI project uses smartphone sensors and AI to create roadway asset databases and safety improvement plans in Forsyth County, Georgia.
The project partners include Georgia Tech, Forsyth County’s Department of Engineering, and Kennesaw State University. The initiative prioritizes cost-effective and timely safety interventions in high-risk areas with the goal of reducing crashes and saving lives.
Currently, assessments are done on each individual road, which is a costly and time-consuming process.
“Engineers go out to the field in person and take [curve] measurements manually and then go back to the office and analyze those measurements,” said Tony Tan, a master’s student in transportation engineering at Georgia Tech, “It can be months or years before safety interventions can get implemented. We’re working on developing new methods to streamline these efforts using emerging technology.”
The project uses a smartphone app that allows users to perform detailed assessments, including determining speed rates on curves and taking a signage inventory of current sign placement along a 10-mile corridor. The pilot project is part of Forsyth County’s safety improvement plan.
To date, the project team has gathered data on the routes and intersections the county has identified as part of the 10-mile corridor. Some preliminary results are in and will be provided to the county. In addition, the team is planning its community engagement piece, which will involve hosting an engineering workshop at a local high school. It’s an opportunity to present emerging technologies, including AI, and ways the next generation of engineers will use them.
Developing Pathways for Next Generation Water Stewards in Marion, Alabama
Safe water is essential. Ensuring its safety requires people trained in water management. In Marion, Alabama, the city’s aging water infrastructure needs work, and there is no one to do it. The city has had one water operator for several years for a system that requires two operators plus a backup. Marion is not alone in this. Across Alabama, there are 367 available jobs in water management, said Marion Mayor Dexter Hinton.
PIN’s project in Marion is designed to help grow the next generation of water stewards in order to ensure safe water for generations of residents to come.
“The project objectives are two-tiered,” said Asli Aslan, the director of the Institute for Water and Health at Georgia Southern University. “When you look nationally, you see that 50% of the current water utility operators are going to be retired within the next 10 years, and the estimations are only 10% of these jobs are going to be replaced. The second part of the project objective is to work with another city that has gone through these issues and been successful.”
That city is Eastman, Georgia. The project has created a peer-to-peer mentoring program so that leaders in the cities can learn from each other, she said.
Project partners Georgia Southern University, the University of Alabama, Alabama Power, the city government of Eastman, Georgia, and residents and schools in Marion, are training the next generation of water operators, to fill the positions in Marion. The project also aims to involve the community in decision-making, by improving communication between citizens and local authorities, which will contribute to long-term environmental health and greater access to safe drinking water.
To date, the project team has met with stakeholders in Eastman and Marion to learn more about the regions. They have also begun to recruit people to become water operators. Following an application process, they have five people who will go through the training program that the University of Alabama is putting together. In addition, they have developed topics for the peer-to-peer mentoring sessions, including water infrastructure challenges, funding challenges and opportunities, workforce, community engagement, communications, and more. The sessions will be recorded and turned into white papers.
In addition to the challenge of not having the workforce for the water system, they project team surveyed applicants and found that 71% didn’t know the source of their drinking water in Marion and 50% thought the drinking water was not safe. That information reinforced the imperative to bring community engagement and communication about what the water utility does to the forefront of the project.
Exploring AI to Reduce Pesticide Exposure in Communities Around Cotton Farms and Promote Sustainable and Safe Pesticide Practices in Millen and Jenkins County, Georgia
Jenkins County, Georgia, is a significant cotton producer, where the reliance on pesticides to combat insect infestations has led to environmental and health concerns for locals. This project aims to use AI to provide real-time pest data to farmers, allowing for more precise and reduced pesticide application, which will protect the environment and health of Jenkins County residents while promoting sustainable agricultural practices and lowering crop input costs for farmers.
The project is a collaboration among the city of Millen, Georgia Southern University, University of Georgia Cooperative Extension Southeast District Area, Jenkins County High School, Statesboro High School, and California-based company FarmSense.
“The project uses a device called FarmSense FlightSensor, which uses insect signals and environmental data that is then uploaded to the cloud where AI uses an algorithm to identify and count the number of insects that went through the sensor during the day. It sends all this data to an account dashboard that is easily accessible via your phone or a computer,” said project lead Atin Adhikari, professor of biostatistics, epidemiology, and environmental health sciences at Georgia Southern University. “It’s also optimized for low bandwidth areas, which is particularly important in rural areas.”
The project team has begun preliminary work, but because seasonal cotton farming has not yet started, they haven’t been able to fully test the AI technology. In the interim, the team has been conducting mock trials with the sensors to ensure data accuracy and efficiency and identify potential issues that may limit the study, said Adhikari. They have also been meeting with farmers and community members to discuss insects and pesticide use and to demonstrate the sensors.