Chicago IL
- Members
Chicago officially the City of Chicago, is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Illinois, and the third-most populous city in the United States, following New York City and Los Angeles. With a population of 2,746,388 in the 2020 census, it is also the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the fifth most populous city in North America. Chicago is the county seat of Cook County, the second most populous county in the U.S., while a small portion of the city's O'Hare International Airport also extends into DuPage County. Chicago is the principal city of the Chicago metropolitan area, defined as either the U.S. Census Bureau's metropolitan statistical area (9.6 million people) or the combined statistical area (almost 10 million residents), often called Chicagoland. It is one of the 40 largest urban areas in the world.
Activities
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Equity in Cybersecurity Training - A New Collaborative Pilot in Chicago | |
| AnitaB.org and ISACA (the Information Systems Audit and Control Association), under the support of the Connect Chicago program, aim to create an accessible cybersecurity training program that can help close the skills gap. Out team will offer training and workforce opportunities for women in underrepresented communities in Chicago. Our program will take them through skills training in a cohort environment with mentorship, role models, and career advancement available. This pilot program is supported by the Connect Chicago Innovation Program, a fund managed by the City Tech Collaborative in partnership with philanthropy, industry, and the City of Chicago. | ||
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First Responders on the Grid | |
| Leverage a platform that allows for alerting drivers when first responders are in route nearby. The platform will use existing mobile networks within the city to send the alerts to drivers on their phones and in-dash through our partnerships with automotive companies. The project will assist in moving drivers out of the way of first responders which will ultimately reduce response times, reduce the number of vehicles driving towards an active scene, and look at learnings from analytics and metrics for how long first responders were in lights and sirens mode. | ||
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OpenGrid | |
| OpenGrid is an interactive, map-based platform for exploring open data sets in an easy-to-use, map-based interface. OpenGrid enables municipalities to offer residents, businesses, and communities a better way to interact with public data. Users can perform advanced queries to filter data as well as search within custom boundaries or based on the user's location. | ||
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Rural rising: Economic development strategies for America’s heartland | |
| There is no one-size-fits-all economic development strategy for rural communities. How can local leaders—including governments, businesses, and individuals—put rural regions on track to thrive? | ||
Details
Located on the shores of freshwater Lake Michigan, Chicago was incorporated as a city in 1837 near a portage between the Great Lakes and the Mississippi River watershed. It grew rapidly in the mid-19th century; by 1860, Chicago was the youngest U.S. city to exceed a population of 100,000. Even after the Great Chicago Fire of 1871 destroyed several square miles and left more than 100,000 homeless, Chicago's population grew to 503,000 by 1880 — and then doubled to more than a million within the decade. The construction boom accelerated population growth throughout the following decades, and by 1900, less than 30 years after the great fire, Chicago was the fifth-largest city in the world. Chicago made noted contributions to urban planning and zoning standards, including new construction styles (including the Chicago School of architecture), the development of the City Beautiful Movement, and the steel-framed skyscraper.
Chicago is an international hub for finance, culture, commerce, industry, education, technology, telecommunications, and transportation. It is the site of the creation of the first standardized futures contracts, issued by the Chicago Board of Trade, which today is part of the largest and most diverse derivatives market in the world, generating 20% of all volume in commodities and financial futures alone. O'Hare International Airport is routinely ranked among the world's top six busiest airports according to tracked data by the Airports Council International. The region also has the largest number of federal highways and is the nation's railroad hub. The Chicago area has one of the highest gross domestic products (GDP) in the world, generating $689 billion in 2018. The economy of Chicago is diverse, with no single industry employing more than 14% of the workforce. It is home to several Fortune 500 companies, including Abbott Laboratories, AbbVie, Allstate, Archer Daniels Midland, Boeing, Caterpillar, Conagra Brands, Exelon, JLL, Kraft Heinz, McDonald's, Mondelez International, Motorola Solutions, Sears, United Airlines Holdings, US Foods, and Walgreens.
Chicago's 58 million tourist visitors in 2018 set a new record, and Chicago has been voted the best large city in the U.S. for five years in a row by Condé Nast Traveler. The city was ranked first in the 2018 Time Out City Life Index, a global urban quality of life survey of 15,000 people in 32 cities, and was rated second-most beautiful city in the world (after Prague) in 2021. Landmarks in the city include Millennium Park, Navy Pier, the Magnificent Mile, the Art Institute of Chicago, Museum Campus, the Willis (Sears) Tower, Grant Park, the Museum of Science and Industry, and Lincoln Park Zoo. Chicago is also home to the Barack Obama Presidential Center being built in Hyde Park on the city's South Side. Chicago's culture includes the visual arts, literature, film, theatre, comedy (especially improvisational comedy), food, and music, particularly jazz, blues, soul, hip-hop, gospel, and electronic dance music including house music. Of the area's many colleges and universities, the University of Chicago, Northwestern University, and the University of Illinois at Chicago are classified as "highest research" doctoral universities. Chicago has professional sports teams in each of the major professional leagues, including two Major League Baseball teams.