In September, the city, in partnership with Carnegie Mellon University, joined the White House’s MetroLab Network, a program of 20 cities and more than 25 universities across the country committed to research, develop and deploy technology-enabled solutions to help address common challenges facing cities. “The White House initiative has bloomed into something significant in urban decision making” that helps cities share information with other members of the network, Lam said. “For example, all cities have issues with storm water drainage and urban infrastructure. With [the MetroLab Network] there’s some really good green infrastructure research and applications that can be piloted in one city and, if successful, can be utilized in other cities in the network.”