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John B.
Carnett
Sensors at Minneapolis intersections
measure traffic density and automatically adjust
traffic-light timing to
compensate.
Technopolis Found
We weighed dozens of variables, from the
number of homes with wireless internet to the number of
robotic surgeries performed at local hospitals, to rank U.S.
cities by tech quotient. And the winners are
...
What makes a place high-tech? When
Popular Science set out to determine America’s top
cities for technology, that was naturally the first question
we had to answer. We surveyed experts—academics, scientists,
government officials, think-tank intelligentsia, market
researchers—to determine the key indicators of a
tech-embracing metropolis. We polled our own staff, pondering
what we value most about the ways in which technology and
innovation affect our daily lives. Then we gathered
information from such sources as the Census Bureau, the
National Science Foundation, the Department of Transportation,
private foundations and medical institutes, collecting
thousands of data points in six broad categories.
In
our first category, we looked at the way city residents
experience technology, considering such markers as use of
cellphones, HDTVs, computers and satellite cable. We called
this category “connected citizenry” and weighted it as the
single most important one. We also considered transportation
innovation (including the efficient use of mass transit and
the prevalence of alternative fueling stations); the number of
high-tech job opportunities per capita; and the use of
technology in education (including R&D spending by local
universities and the number of students using computers in
school). We looked at the smart use of energy and, finally, at
hospitals and in emergency response, including the number of
clinical trials and the use of GPS by emergency-medical
personnel. Then we crunched the numbers.
The results
were at times obvious (Boston ranked highest in education), at
times surprising (San Diego was the medical champ). But all
the cities that rose to the top of our list share a
broad-based embrace of technology. The winner: unassuming yet
consistently innovative Minneapolis. Read on for a high-tech
tour.
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