A COVID-19 era public transit management system has been crowned IoT deployment of the year at IoT World’s ongoing event in Silicon Valley.

Chicago Transit Authority’s (CTA’s) implementation, deployed in partnership with IoT technology company Digi International and nonprofit urban digital transformation accelerator City Tech, is set to pilot IoT-driven monitoring on the 79^th street bus line to gauge passenger crowding, improve bus availability and deliver a social distanced experience.

Microsoft and Intel are both also supporting the initiative.

The smart monitoring pilot is to consider multiple passenger-counting technologies for live implementation. A single dashboard interface is to be prepared to collate ticketing/tap data, alongside lidar and video feeds and a count of passenger devices connected to CTA’s Wi-Fi networks.

Elsewhere at the IoT World awards, Siddharta Kulkarnni was awarded enterprise leader of the year in his position as Maersk’s head of equipment IoT.

Kulkarnni is credited with the development of a connected system for Maersk’s transformation into a digitized logistics juggernaut, with sensor feeds arriving from its shipping containers, port terminals and other assets.

Finally, the IoT World Solutions Leader of the Year went to Rob Tiffany, vice president of IoT strategy at communications technology supplier Ericsson.

Tiffany is helming Ericsson’s Thunderstruck security project in a bid to prevent the IoT ecosystem from succumbing to cyber threats and unmanageable complexity.