Intel is working with Imperial College London and University College London to launch the ‘Intel Collaborative Research Institute for Sustainable Connected Cities’.

The big idea is to make London intelligent by creating huge networks of sensors providing data on pollution, water supply, traffic and populations. By analysing the information could enable cities and planners to adapt quicker, but will also require large, cloud-based servers which Intel wants contracts to provide.

Edward Astle, Pro Rector Enterprise at Imperial College said that the research could show where there is a major leak from a water supply, flooding the roads. There would be a network of sensors that would detect the leak, divert the flow of water to prevent more damage and wirelessly transmit information to transport authorities so that traffic could be diverted, preventing congestion and general city-wide disruption.