IBM and Carnegie Mellon University announce a partnership to create a Smarter Infrastructure Lab at Carnegie Mellon

It would’ve been nice if municipal officials had advance warning that water mains on 25th Street in the South Side and Bower Hill Road in Mt. Lebanon were going to rupture on Wednesday.

It would’ve been nice if workers in Downtown office buildings didn’t swelter or shiver because air conditioning was malfunctioning or improperly set.

Officials of IBM and Carnegie Mellon University today will announce a partnership aimed at making those and other visions a reality, through technology that uses sophisticated sensors on vital infrastructure, allowing managers to make better and more effective decisions.

The two are creating a Smarter Infrastructure Lab at Carnegie Mellon that will bring together academic, industry and government sectors for advanced research into better monitoring of pipelines and building systems through use of digital sensors.