Changing populations – what next for local gov?
January 2024
White Rose Park Hackathon, aql Hackathon
Hosted by aql, Ingenuity Leeds, Fyma and Nexus, the White Rose Park Hackathon showcased aql’s Core IoT platform and its capabilities, as well as providing the next generation with a chance to learn about how our technology enables businesses.
As one of the UK’s most innovative telecoms operators and a ‘hidden enabler’ of smart cities, banking, healthcare, finance, logistics, education, and innovation, the past few years have seen us launch several 5G and IoT testbeds including the Eden Project, Connected Cowes, Factory of the Future, and Mobile Access North Yorkshire.
Our partners joined the event to provide industry insights, sensor data, and IoT hardware, as well as delivering insightful talks on the practical application of IoT and real-world insights of its adoption across a mix of industries. All are powered by our global mobile network and complete Core IoT platform.
The goal of the hackathon was to allow our amazing partners to discuss real-world emerging IoT and 5G connectivity innovation across a wealth of amazing regional and national initiatives, as well as providing local partners, businesses, and students with a series of hackathon challenges leveraging our Core IoT platform.
“The Ingenuity team is proud to have partnered with aql, Fyma and Nexus on this dynamic one-day hackathon that delved into the realms of IoT and 5G. Witnessing the enthusiasm of the college students diving into challenges, collaborating, and ingeniously solving problems exemplifies the boundless potential of the next generation.
The synergy between the team members from the business world and the students underscored the importance of nurturing talent, and fostering an environment where diverse minds converge to tackle real-world problems.
The success of this event reinforces our commitment to cultivating the next generation of innovators and entrepreneurs, who, armed with creativity and knowledge, are poised to shape the future of the world we live in.”
Mark Midlren, Co-founder, Ingenuity Leeds
“The Ingenuity team is proud to have partnered with aql, Fyma and Nexus on this dynamic one-day hackathon that delved into the realms of IoT and 5G. Witnessing the enthusiasm of the college students diving into challenges, collaborating, and ingeniously solving problems exemplifies the boundless potential of the next generation.
The synergy between the team members from the business world and the students underscored the importance of nurturing talent, and fostering an environment where diverse minds converge to tackle real-world problems.
The success of this event reinforces our commitment to cultivating the next generation of innovators and entrepreneurs, who, armed with creativity and knowledge, are poised to shape the future of the world we live in.”
Mark Midlren, Co-founder, Ingenuity Leeds
We have been implementing AllIoT’s LoRaWAN sensors across all our 5G and IoT Testbeds, so it was our pleasure as our new IoT Hardware Partner for Rob to present his vision for IoT hardware and provide insights to the students regarding the use of LoRaWAN sensors and there deployment across differing industry segments.
“We were thrilled to be invited to be a part of the aql hackathon. IoT for many people is still a new concept; events like this play a key role in driving the technology forward and educating others about what is actually possible with the Internet of Things and LoRaWAN. Thank you to the aql team for putting on such a thought provoking, interactive event.”
Rob Ferriday, Business Development Manager, AllIoT
With their enormous wealth of data, Dales Land Net explained how their soil moisture monitoring technology informs decisions that protect and help agriculture, livestock, and residents in the Yorkshire Dales. Dalesland Net provided a wealth of sensor readings for the students from across all their rural test locations.
Visualisation of Dales Land Net soil sensors, these visualisations were built using api.core.al.com
All the visualisations are available to download from https://github.com/aql-com/iot_event
“A really interesting event hosted by aql. Lots of networking opportunities and good discussions all around. Above all it’s great to see students getting to grips with aql’s technology and working on real world data. Good luck to them all.”
Neale Hall, Founder, Dales Land Net
Leeds City Council walked the partners and students through how the council are deploying LoRaWAN sensors and technology across the city to aid the utilisation and reporting of Street Lighting, flood alerts and air quality. Leeds City Council provided a selection of indoor and outdoor sensor readings to the students to learn about their local environment and what factors can influence air quality.
“The Hackathon was a great opportunity to share the work that Leeds City Council is doing, and to meet new and existing contacts from the local area.
It’s refreshing to get together in person and share ideas as so much work is done remotely these days.
We were very impressed with the enthusiasm and skills of the young people that attended, and hope that they’re inspired to pursue a career in technology.”
James Glenton, IT Service Transition, Leeds City Council
Visualisation within core.aql.com of one of the Leeds City Council sensors illustrating air quality and temperature
Fyma is a strategic partner of Ingenuity and provides White Rose Park with AI-powered cameras which empower businesses to understand human activity in the physical world, providing occupancy, placemaking space utilisation data, and insights. Fyma provided a month’s set of AI camera readings from across the White Rose Park to aid students and partners in understanding occupancy, as well as people and vehicle flow across that period.
“It was a pleasure to be a partner for the hackathon event. I really loved the participants’ enthusiasm and insight working with the data provided to them. Alongside us, a range of companies delivered insightful talks on their experiences with IoT technology and data visualisation, providing attendees with a deeper understanding of how this technology can be used.”
Karen Burns, CEO, Fyma
Digital Leaders, a trusted partner of ours for many years, were at the event as attendees to learn about aql’s Core IoT technology and how it was used to enable businesses.
“The hackathon at White Rose Park was a fantastic event. Companies using IoT for a whole spectrum of use cases presented on their experiences with aql’s Core IoT technology, giving me a great insight into the potential of the platform.” Louise Westcott, Head of Online at Digital Leaders
Following our partner talks, the hackathon half of the event got underway. For this section of the event, over 20 bright and enthusiastic students and their tutors were sent from Leeds City College to take part. The students were split into teams, paired up with our business partners, and given the chance to understand and interact with our mobile network and IoT technology through a wealth of IoT sensor readings from across all our 5G/IoT testbeds. They took part in a variety of challenges from reprogramming our IoT Edge gateways, adding sensors to our LoRaWAN network, and programming widgets to creating custom web parts.
The work the students completed was an inspiration. We were so pleased to be a part of the exploration of IoT that was undertaken by the students and gave the winning students access to our Core IoT platform and IoT data SIMs allowing access to our mobile network, hopefully inspiring and empowering their further exploration of IoT.
“The presentations gave the students background information on the different sensors. The group activities were well throughout and all students seemed to get involved not only with the task at hand but also with the developers, asking questions throughout the day. The event was very hands on and this is what the students seemed to enjoy the most. It was wonderful to see how all the students engaged as not all students had much knowledge of software development or any programming languages but yet still tried to have a go.”
Cheryl Macfarlane, Deputy of Apprenticeships and Commercial, Leeds City College
Originally posted here
