Smart Cities MIAMI 2026: 10 Years of Smart Cities: Lessons, Leaps, and the Road Ahead

Keynote Speakers

Reid Ewing is a Distinguished Professor of City and Metropolitan Planning at the University of Utah and Distinguished Chair for Resilient Places. He is the first Distinguished Professor in the College of Architecture and Planning’s history.

Earlier in his career, he was director of the Voorhees Transportation Center at Rutgers University, associate professor at the National Center for Smart Growth, state representative from northwest Tucson, and analyst at the Congressional Budget Office.  His areas of specialization are land use, transportation, and urban design. A recent citation analysis found that Ewing’s work has been cited more than 47,000 times, making him the 3rd most highly cited among about 1,050 planning faculty in the U.S. and Canada.

Former Congressman Patrick Erin Murphy is the CEO and Founder of Togal.AI, where he leads the company’s day-to-day operations. He also serves as Executive Vice President of Coastal Construction, the largest general contractor in Florida. Patrick comes from a multi-generational construction family and grew up working across the business—from laborer to project engineer, estimating assistant, and accounting manager. After graduating from the University of Miami, he joined Deloitte, earning his CPA license, which he maintains today.

From 2013 to 2017, Patrick represented Palm Beach and the Treasure Coast in the U.S. House of Representatives and was the Democratic nominee for U.S. Senate in 2016. After leaving office, he chaired the Future Forum Foundation, a nonprofit researching issues affecting millennials, including automation, artificial intelligence, and the evolving economy. In 2023, he was appointed to the President’s Export Council under President Joe Biden, advising on strategies to strengthen American exports and support job creation through trade.

Patrick founded Togal.AI to modernize preconstruction by bringing AI-powered efficiency to takeoffs—helping contractors save thousands of hours and win more bids. Today, he blends real-world construction experience with cutting-edge technology to transform how projects get built. Under his leadership, Togal.AI has earned major industry recognition, including first place at the 2022 eMerge Americas Global Startup Showcase, The Big 5’s 2022 Startup City Global Pitch Competition, recognition from BuiltWorlds, and Most Innovative Contractor of the Year at the 2024 RED Awards. Beyond business, Patrick serves on the board of Miami Bridge Youth & Family Services, supporting vital community programs.

Dr. Dan Frangopol is the inaugural Fazlur R. Khan Endowed Chair of Structural Engineering and Architecture Emeritus at Lehigh University. Before joining Lehigh University in 2006, he was Professor of Civil Engineering at the University of Colorado Boulder, where he is now Professor Emeritus. He is recognized as a leader in the field of life-cycle engineering of civil and marine structures. Dr. Frangopol is the Founding President of both the International Association for Bridge Maintenance and Safety (IABMAS) and the International Association for Life-Cycle Civil Engineering (IALCCE).

Frangopol is a member of the National Academy of Engineering and the National Academy of Construction, and a foreign member of the Canadian Academy of Engineering, Mexican Academy of Engineering, Academy of Europe (London), Engineering Academy of Japan, Royal Academy of Belgium for Science and the Arts, Romanian Academy, and Romanian Academy of Technical Sciences. He is a distinguished member of ASCE, founder and editor-in-chief of Structure and Infrastructure Engineering, and holds 5 honorary doctorates and 14 honorary professorships from major universities. He has authored/co-authored 5 books, more than 70 book chapters, and over 500 articles in refereed journals including 15 award-winning papers.

In 2023, ASCE established the Dan M. Frangopol Medal for Life-Cycle Engineering of Civil Structures.

Read Dr. Frangopol’s full profile here.

Speakers

Brian Freed, a Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA), has a career path that reflects a unique blend of experience in business analysis as well as successful operational execution in the establishment and growth of new businesses focused on data-centric applications.

As the CEO of Illuminex AI, Brian is committed to democratizing the implementation of Computer Vision and AI with a focus on bespoke applications where challenges such as data scarcity and technical integration hinder the development of precise and cost-effective solutions. He has a proven track record of driving growth in both startup and globally established environments. His extensive financial background and broad technical knowledge make him a proven leader in solution development, strategic alliances, go-to-market strategies, and sales.

Before joining Illuminex AI, Brian held the position of Chief Operating Officer at Eagle Aerospace, a company specializing in Airfield Technology solutions. He also served as the COO for Phizzle, a developer of IoT software that facilitated remote monitoring and control of quality and compliance solutions used in pharmaceutical manufacturing. Prior to these roles, Brian was the General Manager of the High-Performance Data Analytics (HPDA) business unit at SGI. He established this unit from scratch and successfully grew it to a $50M annual run rate.

In addition to his experience in the tech industry, Brian spent 13 years on Wall Street as a Chartered Financial Analyst. During this time, he focused exclusively on research, financial modeling, and stock recommendations for companies specializing in High-Performance Computing (HPC) and Data Lifecycle technologies.

With more than thirty years of experience committed to achieving strategic growth and technology objectives for MIA, Maurice Jenkins has been a keen adopter to self-service technologies and has encouraged airlines serving the airport to embrace innovation also. Prior to his role as a CIO, Mr. Jenkins was responsible for defining and managing IT capital assets and IT management processes to ensure their successful implementation and project integration. In addition, he served as the Aviation Department’s Chief Information Officer/Director of Information Systems, responsible for the development and implementation of standards‐based policies and procedures that support business operations which improved the overall quality of service of enterprise IT systems. His strategic vision has successfully culminated in the integration of new technology in the opening of the new South and North Terminals at Miami International Airport. In addition, the success of these new system implementations such as Biometrics, Virtual Queuing and new innovating technologies show his technical acumen and dedication to serve the residents of Miami‐Dade County.

Mr. Jenkins has implemented an area wide marketing information service to both hotels and conventions centers using current flight information data from Miami International Airport. AAAE and ACI best in practice initiatives are strictly adhered to that display his commitment to providing the highest level of service governed by industry standards. He graduated from the University of Miami with a Bachelor’s degree in Business and Computer Information Systems. He also earned certifications in Strategic Management from Florida International University and Human Resources Management from Nova Southeastern University. He served as the Chairman of the Business Information Technology Committee (BIT), which was established by Airports Council International (ACI) to set strategic objectives future technology direction for airports. He was also served as Chairman of the Florida Airports Council’s Information Technology Committee from February 2019 until December 2021. Mr. Jenkins has given presentations on implementation solutions to key IT leaders and airport IT conferences in the U.S. and internationally sharing his proven successful practices with his peer group.

Dr. Helena Solo-Gabriele is a Professor at the University of Miami Department of Environmental Engineering where she teaches courses in environmental measurements, environmental engineering microbiology, and in water treatment systems.  Her research focuses on problems that relate the environment to human health.  She conducts studies to identify sources of microbial contamination, uses wastewater to understand the spread of disease in communities, and evaluates sources and movement of arsenic in the environment.  Her current active projects focus on evaluating the use of ultraviolet light for disinfecting street and sidewalk surfaces, using wastewater to track dengue virus spread, and evaluating the fate of arsenic at beaches from the seaweed called sargassum.