Tag: Internet of Things

Posted on

Exciting progress on SmartSIP+ in Bangladesh

People were literally queuing out of the door (see photo above) to see the new technology at three of our SmartSIP+ demo sites which officially opened across Bangladesh last week!

What a whirlwind it was – workshops with Bangladesh and UK government representatives, UN organisations and NGOs, mixed in with site visits and further workshops with farmers and their families.

The challenge

The Bangladesh government wants to replace the 1.2m diesel irrigation pumps that cause around 5% of the country’s pollution. Fuel is a significant cost to the farmers, and around 100 million people in Bangladesh rely on farming for their income. Solar power is clean sustainable energy, and Bangladesh has an abundance of sunlight, whereas it imports all its fule. However, solar powered systems need way more capital outlay than the vast majority of farmers can manage, so government subsidy is necessary. But is it a wise investment?

Continue reading “Exciting progress on SmartSIP+ in Bangladesh”
Posted on

Smart manufacturing

Thingitude is thrilled to join the Made Smarter Innovation Sustainability Accelerator.

We will be working with Digital Catapult on developing a challenge focused proof-of-concept addressing some of the most pressing sustainability challenges in manufacturing.

With technical support, funding and expert guidance from Digital Catapult, we’ll drive innovation and transform the UK manufacturing industry.

You can learn more about the programme here: https://digicat.org.uk/4cAFgrQ

Kareem and Mark (middle row, far right) at Digital Catapult

We are delighted to have won the opportunity and look forward to deploying a LoRaWAN network in a rather harsh environment where there is no mobile network, and a challenging business problem to tackle.

More on this later…

Posted on

Purple Flag award for Reading, and honorable mention for MyWay

Purple Flag logo and banner that says "Painting the town purple: excellence in managing the evening and night-time economy"

Every reasonable sized town wants a thriving Evening and Night Time Economy. But wanting one and having one are not the same thing. There are lots of factors to consider.

One vital factor is how safe the town feels to the paying public.

Purple Flag is an international accreditation to reward those towns that achieve vibrant and thriving night time economies, and it strives to help create safe and thriving locations at night for all users.

Reading has recently achieved Purple Flag status and I’m delighted that our MyWay personal safety app played a part:

💜 “The work on safety is a fantastic highlight in this submission, in particular the My Way Reading app. The features showing which areas are better lit and how busy streets are can really assist people travelling in the ENTE [Evening and Night Time Economy), allowing them to choose a route they feel most comfortable with. Great work here!” 💜

This is great news for Reading, and real evidence that co-designing IoT solutions with the community can deliver real, tangible benefits for the town and the people who live and work there.

We’d love to see MyWay helping people across the UK feel safer in their town and city centres, especially after dark. If your local authority / BID wants that too, then we’d love to chat.

Posted on

MyWay in the media!

It has been a very exciting time for MyWay, our personal safety app. Yesterday it was featured twice on BBC Radio Berkshire. Many thanks to Bridgitte Tetteh for some great questions, and to Ish Aa – RUSU Welfare Officer at the University of Reading for sharing her concerns as a young woman – skip to 46m30 secs on BBC Sounds:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/p0gqzw69

Today, Traecy and I are on BBC News – talking about how we turned Traecy’s idea into reality using an app and Internet of Things sensors:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-berkshire-67545358

I am delighted that MyWay is getting some attention in the media. Our involvement in Reading’s Safer Streets Partnership has helped raise its profile, and hopefully the extra publicity will help more people use it to feel safer when they are out and about, especially now it is getting dark so early.

If you live in Reading then you can use MyWay for free with this link. Just remember to tap your browser menu and add it to your home page.

Posted on

Woodbridge Tide Mill

The opportunity to mix *really* old technology with the latest IoT is the kind of project we love doing, not least because you get to hang spend time with other passionate geeks and often in beautiful locations.

Over the past few months we’ve been quietly working on just such a project, and this week Mike and I headed off to do the installation at Woodbridge Tide Mill, a working mill and museum located by the River Deben on the coastal fringe of Suffolk.

I was introduced to Ian at the mill by the Suffolk County Council team back in March. Suffolk has been deploying a LoRaWAN network across the county for the past few years. They use it themselves for things like monitoring meeting room occupancy and smart streetlights, and they also make it available to local businesses, community groups and other organisations in the region.

Woodbridge Tide Mill
Continue reading “Woodbridge Tide Mill”