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Congratulations to the Innovation and Technology Department recipient of the 2026 Smart 20 Award for "Transformative Work in Smart Cities" and their "Smart City Research Lab and Gables TechTank Incubator" initiatives.
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City of Coral Gables received the 2026 Smart 20 Award for the CGIT Smart City Research Laboratory and Gables TechTank STEM Incubator initiatives: <https://www.coralgables.com/ITResearchLab> (CGIT R&D Lab) - <https://www.coralgables.com/TechTank> (TechTank - in collaboration with Economic Development).
From the award organization site <https://spring.smartcitiesconnect.org/Smart20Awards/> : "The Smart 20 Awards annually recognize global smart cities projects, honoring the most innovative and influential work."
This year, the award recipients included 16 organizations from the U.S., one from Canada, one from Brazil, and two from Taiwan. Full list in the above site link.
This is the city’s fourth Smart Cities Connect award: our team also received the 2024 Smart 20 Awards for our Smart City AI-Powered Modular Poles project, the 2023 Smart 50 Awards for our Digital Twin Smart City Horizontal Integration Platform (which was also named one of the Top-3 Global Winners), and the 2020 Smart 50 Awards for our Smart Districts Expansion project.
This is also the third award received by the CGIT Research Lab: our team also received the 2025 Tech Talent Pipeline Workforce Development Award and the 2025 GeoGov Innovation in Education, Workforce Development, and Capacity Building Award: <https://www.coralgables.com/department/innovation-and-technology/it-awards> .
CGIT Research Laboratory:
The CGIT Research Lab team and our student interns work at the Lab on impactful R&D technology projects for our community, in quality-of-life areas like public safety, emergency response, citizen services, mobility/transportation, and citywide operational efficiencies; leveraging advanced technologies like artificial intelligence and machine learning, 3D-printing, microelectronics, internet of things sensors, virtual and augmented reality, digital twins and building information models, GIS, drones and robotics, and other technologies.
Many of the Lab projects are featured in the innovation & technology bulletin <https://www.coralgables.com/techstories> and CGIT published papers <https://issuu.com/cgit/docs/cgit_publishedoriginalpapers> , and are accessible to the public in the Smart City Hub www.coralgables.AI <http://www.coralgables.AI> .
Student interns come from universities and colleges (UM, FIU, MDC, NSU, Barry, Carnegie Mellon, Elon, Syracuse…) and high schools (Coral Gables High School, Ransom Academy, STEM academies…).
Almost 200 student interns have gone through the CGIT Lab and internship program over the past 10 years, receiving hands-on training, work experience and mentorship from CGIT staff, and earning a micro-credential at the end of the program. The student profiles and Lab project portfolio are published on the CGIT Interns Portal <https://cggisw.coralgables.com/cgInternship> , and are sent to Coral Gables businesses who are looking for tech talent in areas like AI, data science, cybersecurity, and full-stack development. Many of our former interns are now employed in high-tech roles at organizations nationwide, and some of them have joined the city's IT department to continue advancing innovation for our community.
Through our Gables TechTank STEM incubator and talent pipeline initiative, we connect the Lab’s student interns with job and career opportunities in Coral Gables businesses and organizations in our region.
The Innovation and Technology department thanks our partners in all city departments, academia, industry, government and research institutions (universities/colleges/schools, Coral Gables businesses, tech talent and workforce development organizations, scientific institutions, NGOs...), and our wonderful interns for the continued collaboration and community impact over the years.
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