aql Organise and Host Hackathon as Part of Leeds Digital Festival
Bringing IoT into the Public Eye
Our most recent hackathon was held with IoT security experts qomodo, tech incubator Ingenuity, and Leeds City College as a part of the 2024 Leeds Digital Festival. Through the use of our IoT (Internet of Things) platform, aql Core, and real data from our living laboratories around the country, attendees got the chance to interact with the kind of technology that is revolutionising industries such as manufacturing, agriculture, building management, and smart cities.
The hackathon, which was held at the Barclays Eagle Lab in Leeds, was attended by members of the public, as well as students from higher and further education institutes. The main goal of the hack was to give anyone interested in IoT the chance to interact with and use aql Core, learning about the value IoT holds and the potential this technology has to inform and affect change.
Providing Some Much Needed Context
Before letting attendees interact with the technology, we provided context to the event through a series of talks. In our presentation, we provided a frame of reference and real-world narrative to the IoT sensor data, allowing attendees to better visualise the use cases of this technology.
This was supported by tech incubator, Ingenuity, who talked about the IoT living laboratory delivered by aql technology on-site at White Rose Business Park.
IoT security experts qomodo followed up, discussing the emerging importance of security across IoT devices and platforms.
The British Computer Society’s CEO, Rashik Parmar MBE, concluded with a talk on the criticality of robust IT education and how ensuring professionalism in the IT sector helped ensure solid cyber security.
Leeds City College provided Pepper, a programmable semi-humanoid robot, to the event, as well as bringing 3D printers, adding an element of visual interest and contributing to the hackathon challenges. aql worked together with the college to program Pepper to welcome attendees as well as congratulate the winners at the end of the day.
aql’s Product Manager, Spencer Maclean, delivering a talk at the start of the hackathon
The Hack
Once the hack got underway, attendees were able to make use of our in-house AI service, Marvin. Marvin is our bespoke Large Language Model AI and in preparation for the event, “he” had been prepared with a wealth of knowledge about the hackathon challenges and the guest speakers. Marvin assisted attendees with; enabling different types of sensors, developing decoders and visualisations through the aql Core IoT platform, and creating virtual sensors using aql Core’s API. We have incorporated Marvin into several hackathons previously and “he” has always been a great addition, allowing us to significantly increase both audience attendance and engagement
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.
We had aql developers on hand at the event to help and educate attendees if they had any trouble understanding the challenges. As the day went on, it was great to see the teams making serious progress, understanding and successfully using aql Core to read and visualise data. By the day’s end, they had made incredible progress with the challenges we set. It was great to see their confidence in using IoT, and their understanding of its uses, grow throughout the day.
Top left: Toby Wilmington, qomodo CEO, delivering a speech. Top left, bottom left, bottom right: hackathon attendees enjoying the day
Recognising and Celebrating Young Talent
As well as enabling partners and customers alike with our IoT technology, we are immensely proud of the work we’ve undertaken in promoting IoT to both the public and to educational institutes in and around Leeds over the past few years.
Through a series of hackathons we have held across the region, we have taken our years of 5G and IoT experience and transformed it into a practical learning opportunity for those curious about the real-world applications of this technology. We don’t just stop there. We are an active supporter and advocate of the work Leeds City College is doing through its apprenticeship schemes. Our support of the college goes back many years, when aql chairman and founder Professor Adam Beaumont served as a long-term member of the college board. Through our partnership with the college we have sponsored, and subsequently employed, many apprentices over the years. It is through positive actions like these that we are fulfilling our mission of doing good in the community and educating more people about the important role smart technology plays in the world.
“Through this hackathon, we’ve given a lot of young people the confidence and context they needed to pursue technology as a career. Seeing their confidence grow and their skills improve through the day was deeply rewarding, especially knowing it’s our technology and vision that has enabled it.” Spencer Maclean, Product Manager, aql
“It was fantastic for qomodo to be part of this event and witness innovation thriving across participants of all ages. As we look to the future, the need for strong digital security, particularly in IoT, will only grow. We are proud to have played a part in nurturing the next generation of cyber defenders in the North!” Toby Wilmington, CEO, qomodo
“It was exciting to see attendees mastering the IoT tech at the event. We felt privileged to play a role in cultivating the next generation of technical innovators and entrepreneurs.” Mark Mildren, Co-founder, Ingenuity Leeds
Our students and staff become excited when they hear about a hackathon with AQL. Our students learn so much from the events and are keen to learn more. Our T-level students are eager to experiment with sensors and data in college as part of a new project, using knowledge gained from the hackathons they have attended.” Cheryl MacFarlane, Deputy Head in Digital and IT, Leeds City College
aql’s Product Manager Spencer Maclean and qomodo’s Partnerships Specialist Jack Watson with the hackathon winners
As a ‘hidden enabler’ of smart cities, banking, healthcare, finance, logistics, education, and innovation, aql has deployed 5G networks and developed the aql Core IoT platform. aql Core has been utilised for a variety of projects including for five Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport (DCMS) 5G Create projects. If you’d like to know more about aql Core, click here.
