aql Runs Smart City Hackathon at the University of Huddersfield
All About aql
We held our most recent hackathon at Huddersfield University on Wednesday 29th October 2024, supported by our longstanding friends at Ingenuity, an initiative that has evolved from the Smart Cities projects at White Rose Park.
Our roots are in the North, with our historic HQ in the heart of Leeds. We hosted the launch of the Northern Powerhouse, as well as co-founded the UK’s first independent internet exchange outside of London, creating a significant contribution to the resilience and security of the UK’s internet.
We’re proud to be a northern tech company and we make it our mission to make our city and the North a great place to do digital business.
We’ve been working for decades with local stakeholders to stimulate skills and growth, overlapping strongly with other private sector initiatives and our universities and colleges.
Our hackathons are part of our efforts to stimulate the growth of partnerships in the technology sector in the North of England.
Through these efforts, we are giving the next generation of technologists at universities and schools in the North the platform and skills they need to grow and gain real-world skills and employability.
As a leading innovator, we were chosen to develop 5G mobile communication and Internet-of-Things living labs for the UK government’s Department of Science Innovation and Technology (DSIT) projects. Through these projects, we enabled innovative partners with our Core(™) IoT platform and 5G mobile network.
We worked with the Eden Project to help promote the significance of climate change urgency through the use of 5G to sense and convey environmental data.
We enabled AMRC’s 5G Factory of the Future with industrial grade mobile connectivity.
We were the engine behind Mobile Access North Yorkshire (MANY) where we provided rural connectivity for remote agricultural sensing, bringing science and technology into farming through real time data and facilitating estate management.
We also 5G-enabled the world’s largest sporting event: the Cowes Week yacht regatta. We brought high quality virtual reality footage and real-time telemetry to this regatta. We also used our connected marine technology to provide STEM workshops alongside the 1851 Trust, an initiative which promotes science and technology through sailing.
We created the world’s first starlink-enabled 5G mobile network to support real-time filming in remote and extreme environments through the Live + Wild project.
The wealth of readings connected through the Core IoT platform have created living laboratories, enabling a massive amount of data that can be analysed and utilised to enact change and inform decisions across a broad range of industries.
Ben Cartledge, CEO 1851Trust and aql Chairman, Prof. Adam Beaumont talk to budding sailors, scientists and engineers at Cowes Week 2021.
Understanding The Tech
Utilising our IoT (Internet of Things) platform, aql Core, as well as our real data from living laboratories we’ve built with partners around the country, attendees of the event were given the opportunity to interact with both the technology and the data that is being used to make key decisions in fields such as manufacturing, agriculture, smart cities, and building management.
The event was opened by Professor Richard Hill, Head of Computer Science at the University of Huddersfield. Professor Hill, an experienced researcher with over 200 publications on topics such as IoT, big data, predictive analytics and Industry 4.0, welcomed the attendees and set the stage for the day’s events. Ingenuity co-founder David Smith followed their talk with an oversight of their tech start-up incubator and IoT living laboratory at the White Rose Centre.
Professor Richard Hill, School of Computing Head of Department at Huddersfield University delivering his opening speech
aql’s VP Product & Development, Andrew Morris then introduced the attendees to our IoT technology, its capabilities and use cases, as well as giving them a broad view of the day’s challenges and the learning outcomes of the event.
aql VP Product & Development Andrew Morris explaining the hackathon challenges to attendees
Getting Down To Business
Hackathon attendees working on the day’s challenges
As the attendees began to work on the challenges in the University’s purpose-built EnABLE (Engineering in an Activity Based Learning Environment) Lab, they were able to make use of Marvin, aql’s tailor made AI service. As a custom-built large language model AI, Marvin has been programmed with information around the hackathon’s challenges and code that can be used at the event.
Marvin was able to help attendees with varying degrees of technical ability. Its comprehensive understanding of the challenges and the Core IoT platform allowed it to provide thorough assistance and help write simple code. Having deployed our AI across multiple hackathons is a demonstration of our commitment to drive a smarter and more efficient future.
By incorporating AI into our workflow, we will be better able to manage our infrastructure, deliver superior service, and reduce operational costs, helping to shape a brighter future for the telecommunications industry.
The challenges were split into three distinct phases to educate attendees and demonstrate the capabilities of the aql Core IoT platform:
– In the first phase, attendees had to develop their own virtual sensor. This was meant to simulate the flow of a real sensor, from capturing a reading to visualising and reporting this data on social media.
– The second phase of the challenges was focused on demonstrating the developer and third-party support that aql Core is capable of. It required attendees to build real-world dashboards that used aql Core APIs (Link).
– This then progressed into showcasing aql Core’s integration capabilities, with attendees needing to integrate readings into different platforms such as InfluxDB and Grafana.
– The final challenges saw attendees use Python to upload real-time environmental readings to increase available data before building a data model that helped them to understand and model Biome readings across the Eden Project. The hackathon challenges allowed attendees to experience and develop with every element of the aql Core IoT platform.
Although we had aql developers on hand at the event to help attendees, the intuitive aql Core platform as well as comprehensive AI input from Marvin meant that attendees quickly got a handle on the necessary skills to successfully complete the hackathon. At the end of the event, many of the teams were close to finishing all of the set challenges, despite using software and coding languages that were largely new to them.
The winning team were awarded certificates by aql’s VP Product & Development, Andrew Morris
Following certificates being given to the top three teams, a draw was held to determine who would win an aql branded teapot.
The winner of the highly coveted aql branded teapot holding his prize. Our teapots are a quirky reference to our northern heritage and a reminder of aql’s deep involvement with the Northern Powerhouse and desire to strengthen the economy of the North.
“It was inspiring to observe the passion and dynamism of the students at Huddersfield University as they confronted the day’s challenges. It was exciting to see them utilise AI to deepen their learning journey and impressive to see how successful they were at completing the challenges.” – Andrew Morris, VP Product & Development, aql
“The University of Huddersfield has a strong track record of producing sought after computing graduates. We give students access to the methods and technologies that have real impact on industry and society, developing the economy and shaping the world. Our partnership with aql, a long-time supporter of young people, enables our students to experience the very same applications and technologies that aql provide to their customers as technology market leaders.” – Professor Richard Hill, School of Computing Head of Department, University of Huddersfield
