Phoenix Office of Innovation highlights hackathons, chilled-water pilot, sensors and AR tools

Michael Hammett, director of the City of Phoenix Office of Innovation, told the Economic Development and Housing Subcommittee on June 12, 2025, that the office has focused its work on piloting technologies, strategic use of data and performance management since launching in 2021.

Hammett described the Innovate Phoenix challenge as a cornerstone program that has produced pilot projects on city priorities, including a smart-cities hackathon on accessibility, public spaces and transportation. “This is a cornerstone program of the office we launched in 2023,” Hammett said, noting the city has run five challenges and engaged a broad set of community participants.

Hammett highlighted several pilots brought forward or accelerated through the challenge model. The city has installed six chilled-water refill stations at strategic downtown locations — including City Hall, the area outside Council Chambers and Roosevelt Park — as part of a pilot to reduce single-use plastic bottles. Hammett said monitoring sensors (the NAUI smart sensors) are being used to gather usage data that helps guide placement; the Office of Innovation reports the unit outside Council Chambers is currently the busiest.

He also described an augmented-reality public-engagement tool the office is piloting to show residents proposed project designs via smartphone, and an exterior coating called Encoat that the office tested for heat mitigation on infrastructure. Hammett credited community input for shaping model designs — larger bottle openings for refill stations were a user-driven change — and said the office has connected pilots to outside funding and programs, including Bloomberg Philanthropies.

Council members praised the approach and asked about public outreach and data cadence. Councilwoman Lisette Stark, referencing her participation in the office’s accessibility work group, said the Innovate Phoenix effort has produced “some creative ideas” and asked to join a future think tank. Councilwoman Betty Hodge Washington requested greater opportunity for council input on future chilled-water station locations and shared an anecdote from a public event about water access for unsheltered residents; Hammett said the office uses a data-driven site-selection tool supplemented by multilingual surveying through Qualtrics and that council input is welcome.

Hammett also said the office’s work has linked to other city priorities, including the Park Phoenix app and AI-enabled stormwater monitoring developed by Water Services. He noted Phoenix is one of three cities worldwide to achieve platinum-level What Works Cities certification, a data-driven municipal management standard.

The subcommittee did not take action on the informational presentation. Members asked staff to continue engaging community stakeholders and to document data-cadence differences across dashboards so residents can see when datasets were last updated.