The City of Lewes could be teaming up with the University of Delaware for a first-of-its-kind partnership in the First State.
Lewes Deputy Mayor Khalil Saliba explained the proposal at a meeting of the city’s Economic, Environment and Resiliency Commission, saying that UD’s First State AI Institute had approached the city about a “digital twinning” project, where AI would be used to create a virtual model of the city. That model could be used to help the city solve problems and develop strategies in a variety of areas.
Of particular interest to Saliba and other EERC members is how the partnership could be used to bolster the city’s resiliency to weather events like hurricanes and wildfires.
“We can mitigate a lot and we can bounce back quicker,” he said. “So I think that resiliency - we think of critical infrastructure. We're talking about our roads, bridges, even our historic district.”
Representatives from the First State AI Institute are set to meet with city officials next month. In advance of that, Saliba says he is reaching out to stakeholders from city government, Beebe Healthcare, the Delaware River and Bay Authority, and the Cape Henlopen School District to gather ideas for things to explore with the AI model.
Digital twinning creates a virtual copy of an area and can be connected to real-time data like weather information and traffic sensors, giving users a way to test scenarios in a low-stakes setting. Saliba told EERC members that the University of Florida has undertaken a similar partnership with the city of Jacksonville. But he said, this has the potential to be more productive because UD wants to bring the city into the process early and emphasize a collaborative approach.
“What they want from us, which didn't happen with Florida and Jacksonville, they would like us to come to the table with like two or three ideas of what are our goals? What do we want to do?” Kaliba said.
The First State AI Institute is seeking a multi-million dollar federal grant to help fund the process. Saliba said that means the city might not have to pay into the process.
“It's unclear whether we would have to provide any funding, but I don't really think so,” he said. “I think they want to use Lewes as kind of a pilot.”
As promising as the potential partnership might be, however, Kaliba seemed careful about managing expectations. Digital twinning wouldn’t solve all of the city’s problems, he said.
“I don't want to overpromise to the community that we have the solution here,” he said. “That's not going to solve all our problems. But I think it's fair to say there's a decent chance that it's going to save us a lot of time and money.”
Saliba is collecting input from stakeholders and plans to submit a list of priorities to the AI Institute next week in advance of a September meeting.
