COEUR d'ALENE - Smarter cities embrace technology to manage the infrastructure, operations and people that drive sustainable economic growth.

That was a key message delivered by Sharon Nunes, a retired IBM executive, on Tuesday night during a public lecture called "Smarter Cities: Are they smart enough to beat Watson at Jeopardy?"at The Coeur d'Alene Resort.

Since more people now live in cities than in the country, there's more pressure than ever on community leaders to deal with growth and prevent catastrophes with services such as water and electricity, Nunes said.

Nunes said "smart" cities use technology to transform data into intelligence, which can lead to wise, timely decisions.

IBM's Watson, which Nunes used in the title of her talk, is a question answering machine that wowed the tech industry with its win against two of Jeopardy's greatest trivia champions in 2011.

"City leaders have to juggle and manage resources with decreasing financial resources," said Nunes, adding that technology is a tool to achieve it. "The spending is expected to be even more scrutinized."

Nunes spoke to about 60 people during the annual meeting of the Idaho Experimental Program to Stimulate Competitive Research (EPSCoR), a federally-funded statewide program housed at the University of Idaho. Partner institutions are Boise State University and Idaho State University.

Nunes, a member of the EPSCoR project advisory board, said old-fashioned human common sense can't get lost in the technology shuffle.

"All of this technology is great, but don't forget about the human component," she said, referring to California's disaster several years ago involving installing energy meters at homes.

With the California situation, no pilot project was launched and the program was an operational nightmare at the start.

"If you don't involve citizens with programs, you're setting yourself up for failure," Nunes said.

Peter Goodwin, a scientist and director of Idaho's EPSCoR, said communities can use technology to address widespread matters.

Examples range from developing a tattoo database to narrow the list of suspects to using statistics to reduce crime by sending officers to hot spots to using real-time water sensors to detect leaks and sewer overflows.

"Many cities would deal with the problem with huge sewer pipes," Nunes said. "If you can get away from doing that, it can save a city money."

Nunes said integrating data creates a bigger picture for decisionmakers.

"It's taking information available on paper and converting it to digital so that leaders can make decisions much faster and proactively," Nunes said.