What is aql doing to support the community?
What is aql Doing to Support the Community?
At aql, we believe that our enabling technology can help to create a more efficient, smarter and more resilient society. As a ‘hidden enabler’, we make it our mission to power a connected society and to empower the community, playing our part in making a better future for all. To achieve these goals we proactively engage in community projects, using our expertise and technology to empower the community.
Making Leeds Child Friendly
First organised in 2012 by the late Queen Elizabeth II, Child Friendly Leeds (CFL) has been on a mission to provide better outcomes for children and young people in Leeds by creating a series of initiatives that promote the best start in life for them. By organising activities, promoting awareness through social media and events, and listening to the feedback of children and their families, CFL has helped give young people a voice and enrich their lives in the Leeds community.
aql has been sponsoring CFL since 2018. We believe that, through supporting initiatives like CFL, we can help Leeds to transform into a world class city that achieves growth whilst maintaining its values of compassion and inclusivity.
“The CFL awards are a celebration and reminder of the great work that underpins our future. On behalf of aql, we’re proud to be the main sponsors for now and the foreseeable future. Moreover, personally, I’m proud to be an ambassador of Child Friendly Leeds and urge the private sector to get involved – their support is vital.” – Professor Adam Beaumont, Founder and Chairman, aql/Child Friendly Leeds Ambassador
aql VP Product & Development Andrew Morris presenting an award to winners at the 2024 CFL award ceremony.
Engaging Young Minds
As a part of our mission to empower the community, we have been using the aql Core IoT platform and our own custom-built AI to host hackathons throughout Leeds. Through these hackathons, we have engaged young people and provided them with the chance to learn about and interact with real-life data and technology from our domestic and international testbeds. Our hackathons have brought together students, educational institutions and industry partners to showcase and tackle real-world challenges through our IoT technology.
With attendees ranging from high school students to university students and beyond, staff at our hackathons have used age appropriate methods to show the power and use cases of IoT technology, inspiring the next generation of decision makers to use technology for good.
A montage of the hackathon aql has held in and around Leeds
Recognising and Celebrating Young Talent
The Beaumont Awards celebrate excellence in undergraduate research done by students at the University of Leeds. Winners are selected for research projects that show true potential to benefit society. As well as receiving engraved solid silver medals, winners get £500 in cash and a place on the prestigious Spark Enterprise Boot Camp at Leeds University.
Now in its 7th year, the Beaumont Awards were first founded by Professor Adam Beaumont as a way to recognise and celebrate undergraduate research that looked to affect real change, giving students vital confidence and validation to help encourage them along their early career paths.
aql Founder and Chairman, Professor Adam Beaumont, presenting a Beaumont Awards medal to a winner at the 2024 Beaumont Awards.
Supporting Digital Change
Digital Leaders is an organisation dedicated to promoting effective digital transformation across multiple sectors. Their annual award ceremony, the DL100, provides a platform to celebrate the teams and individuals who work hard behind the scenes to affect digital transformation. They also host the Net Zero 50, an event that recognises and celebrates the ongoing efforts of 50 inspiring individuals from various sectors across the UK who are leading the charge towards decarbonisation. aql has been supporting Digital Leaders since 2015. We are proud to be a part of recognising those who make a positive change to digital transformation and, through our sponsorship of Digital Leaders. We hope that, through our partnership, Digital Leaders are better able to encourage up and coming domestic talent and digital initiatives, as well as supporting those who advocate bringing industry ever closer to carbon net zero.
Professor Adam Beaumont with DL100 winner George Kassab and BBC presenter Nina Warhurst.
Empowering Fitness
Since 2011, aql has supported parkrun by providing them with free SMS services.
As well as providing participants with their times and placement, our SMS services are used to congratulate participants on new personal bests and thank volunteers for their time. This partnership aligns with aql’s mission to create scalable innovations that benefit society. With over 50 million messages sent by parkrun through our platform, we have been with them on their journey to demonstrate the positive impact of technology on community health and well-being every step of the way.
Parkrunners in action.
Change Through Technology
The Department for Digital Culture Media & Sport (DCMS) 5G Create initiative was created to explore and develop new use-cases and 5G technical capabilities. Having been selected by the UK government as a vendor for the initiative, aql developed 5G and IoT ‘living labs’ in collaboration with partners such as the Eden Project, University of Sheffield AMRC, and Mobile Access North Yorkshire through use of the aql Core IoT platform and our 5G capabilities. These living labs provide a space to evaluate real-world applications of smart city sensor technologies, capturing a wealth of environmental data across various industries. Following the end of the DCMS 5G Create initiative, aql has continued to support these projects, helping them to keep carrying on important work that affects environmental change.
An aql 5G mast that overlooks the Eden Project[/caption
Environmental Initiatives
aql adopts Cradle2Cradle philosophies, striving to create a positive environmental impact. We have designed all of our data centres to not only be highly efficient, but also to be capable of heat capture and offload to future smart city schemes, such as district heating. We re-use existing buildings which would not find a secondary use, including schools, chapels and military sites. We build low impact mast sites and rewild and replant.
For every rack footprint utilised in our data centres, we purchase and protect an acre of ancient woodland. As a result of this initiative, hundreds of acres of unspoilt forest have been protected to date. Our Sensing Change pilot scheme uses low-impact IoT technology to provide data for monitoring environmental impact, supporting charities, action groups, and educational institutions.
Although we are first and foremost a telecoms operator, at aql we believe that by supporting the community and enabling a connected society, everybody benefits. Our technology and expertise have allowed us to bring about real-world change to projects and initiatives that support young people, digital transformation, and the environment. As we look ahead to the future, we aim to continue supporting the individuals and organisations around us that work hard to better society, providing time, expertise, and effort into making the world around us a better place.
