Improving student safety – an open discussion

We want to get students involved in the conversation around improving student safety. They are the experts in when they feel unsafe and what might help students feel safer when they are out at night with friends or on their own.

Crowd-sourcing ideas feels like a good approach, so we are hosting a conversation for students to vote on statements other people have made about student safety, and share their own point of view. We will run this conversation throughout April, and then share our findings in a report in May. Please join in – the more the merrier. You can take part right here:

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Did I Lock Up?

Around the time the 2020 COVID lockdown started we had a spate of burglaries in our neighbourhood. Not super smart or successful as nearly everyone was at home, so the chap found himself getting chased down the street on more than one occasion – but it was unsettling nevertheless.

When lockdown happened, all of our local government work evaporated – it was humbling to realise how little the promise of smart cities mattered at that point in time, and I think a great number of talented teccies had to cope with a collapsing ego and recognise what the really important work was. Suddenly nurses, carers, corner shops and postal workers were in the headlines and the rest of us could only applaud their efforts at keeping us going.

With most of our work disappearing I had to decide what to do with my developers, Traecy and Vil. Rather than furlough them I thought that maybe we could do something to help our neighbourhood.

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Our two big projects of 2020

This post looks back at our work to create a county-wide LoRaWAN network and our two biggest smart city / smart community projects of 2020 – Falls prevention system for older people, and MyWay student safety.

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#50GameChangers

Thames valley #50GameChangers – Thingitude’s Mike, Mark, Traecy and Vil

Thingitude selected as Thames Valley tech and digital future maker in ConnectTVT’s 50 Game Changers 2020 cohort

02 March 2020: Thingitude has been selected in ConnectTVT’s 50 Game Changers 2020 cohort. It joins the Thames Valley’s breakthrough tech and digital startups and scaleups, making global impact in their industries through market-changing technologies, innovation and world-class talent.

Thingitude delivers community-focused “Internet of Things” projects, and over the last year it has been working to prevent falls among older people in West Berkshire and to help women students feel safer walking home at night in Reading.

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Game Changers!

Mike and I were absolutely delighted to pick up a 50 Game Changers award last week for our work with IoT in the Thames Valley region!
Here’s our grinning faces:

This is as cool and good looking as we get!

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