Smart city transport insight for Oxford using IoT sensor and data-platform technology

The Challenge

City transport authorities need live, trustworthy data — traffic flows, air quality, road usage — to plan and operate networks, but that data is scattered across sensors, legacy systems and third parties. Demonstrator deployments were needed to show how IoT and data platforms could give cities this operational insight.

The Solution

This project was a smart-city IoT deployment in Oxford, applying NquiringMinds’ IoT and data-platform technology (the Open City Data Platform / TDX lineage) to a city/transport context. NquiringMinds’ work with the University of Oxford on aspects of its smart-city platform is corroborated by a 2016 GOV.UK case study, which notes the company was working with the universities of Southampton and Oxford; Oxfordshire County Council also appears among the organisations NQM lists as “working with” on its smart-cities case-study page.

Outcomes

TODO: confirm the precise scope of the Oxford IoT deployment. No dedicated public NquiringMinds, GOV.UK or GtR/UKRI source for this specific project was located during enrichment.

In Detail

The foundations of a smart city: secure sensor integration and intelligent city data management.

NquiringMinds’ smart-city solutions are based on two core products: a cloud data platform that manages, combines, analyses and contextualises city data, and secure data-hub technology that handles sensors and devices. Together they provide the foundations of a smart city, addressing the two ends of the smart-city problem — how to securely and flexibly integrate with sensors and IoT devices, and how to provide management tools to combine, analyse and contextualise the resulting data.

“The main goal of a smart city is to optimise city functions and promote economic growth while also improving the quality of life for citizens by using smart technologies and data analysis. The value lies in how this technology is used rather than simply how much technology is available.” — TWI

Award highlights

• IoT Boost — one of five prize winners in the IoT start-ups programme for the South of England.
• Cabinet Office Open Data Champion Award.

Smart-city partners include Oxfordshire County Council, Southampton City Council, Hampshire County Council, Portsmouth City Council, Durham County Council, Sunderland City Council, Ealing Council, BCP Council, Blaenau Gwent Council, Buckinghamshire Council, Torfaen County Borough Council, Cisco and the Northern Ireland Audit Office.