Austin, Indianapolis, Miami, Orlando, and Philadelphia are the five winners of the Smart Cities Council Readiness Challenge Grant program. Each city will receive a tailored readiness workshop to help them develop a roadmap for applying smart technologies to further innovation, inclusion, and investment within their cities.

The cities will also win supporting products and services from members of the council, including Ameresco, AT&T, CH2M, CompTIA, Dow Building and Construction, IDC, Qualcomm, Sensus, Telit, TM Forum, and Transdev.

"Breaking down the departmental silos is a key challenge in developing a smarter city. Each of the winning cities has demonstrated the ability to work across departments to solve problems," said Smart Cities Council Chairman Jesse Berst. "Our coalition of world-class experts looks forward to working with each of these enterprising cities to help them make smart use of technology to become more livable, workable, sustainable, and resilient."

Here are more details about each winning city's plans to become smarter.

Austin wants to develop strategies for underserved populations to participate in designing solutions for mobility needs, affordable housing, and economic development. "This will help Austin use new technologies to meet old challenges of mobility and affordability," said Austin Mayor Steve Adler. "Winning the Smart Cities Council Challenge Grant puts us that much closer to creating a comprehensive and inclusive strategy to use technology in a way that benefits communities that are usually left behind."