Smart Cities Hackathon

aql is one of the UK’s most innovative telecoms operators and a ‘hidden enabler’ of smart cities, enabling banking, healthcare, finance, logistics, education, and innovation. The past few years have seen aql launch several 5G and IoT testbeds including the Eden Project, Connected Cowes, Mobile Access North Yorkshire and, most recently, White Rose Park* in Leeds.

Following the success of our last IoT smart cities hackathon event held at White Rose Park, we plan to hold another event at Nexus, University of Leeds, in conjunction with Igenuity.

Anyone and everyone is welcome to join in and learn about the real-world deployment and applications of 5G and IoT, leveraging aql’s mobile network and Core IoT platform.

The hackathon will provide challenge activities for multiple experience levels. Whether you have just learned about IoT or have experience working with API integration and Python, there will be things for you to learn.

Tier 1:

Learn about smart city sensors, how these work and how they provide real-time readings to our smart cities. 

Learn how to use aql’s Core IoT platform to enable smart city development, including how to write custom sensor decoders, build rich dashboards and create live social media postings.

Experiment with your own sensors at the event through the local LoRaWAN network powered by aql 

Tier 2:

Learn how our 4G/5G sensor boards work and learn how to flash and update low level C++ firmware to aql’s IoT sensor boards.

Learn how to build custom web elements using aql’s live aqi.core.aql.com, including JavaScript and CSS. 

Create your own web elements with thousands of sensors across multiple real-world locations 

Create advanced data dashboards using Grafana and the thousands of live sensors available through aql’s Core IoT platform. 

Tier 3:

Learn how to use Python to create smart cities data models, leveraging aql’s Python IoT Docker container. 

Build smart city data models using the thousands of sensors available through aql’s Iot testbeds. 

All tiers will have access to aql’s smart city AI, which will allow all participants to learn how AI is now a living part of the working day. The AI can be used to help write code, build data models  and learn about IoT and how to use aql’s Core IoT platform. 

The event is an ideal opportunity to learn about how aql enables smart city tech through the use of industrial IoT connected through aql’s mobile network via their public API***. You will have access to IoT device readings from over 1,000 live sensors that are deployed across a wealth of aql’s IoT testbeds, allowing you to learn all about LoRaWAN**** networking, API web development, reporting and data visualisation. 

Laptops will be provided, but you can bring your own. Docker images will be made available as will all the support and web materials. An information pack will be sent to attendees ahead of the event. If you’re bringing your own laptop, please make sure to have this downloaded in preparation for the day.

An aql LoRaWAN network will also be available at the event so you can bring devices and experiment with these at the hackathon. 

* aql’s 5G connected testbeds, more information can be found at https://aql.com/uk-5g-showcase/ 

**IoT (Internet of Things) is a network of physical devices and appliances that are embedded with hardware and software that allows them to connect to and communicate over the internet. IoT-enabled devices can communicate and interact with each other, as well as providing data remotely for human interaction. This technology is used by a variety of sectors to gather vast quantities of data, automate processes, and improve efficiency.

*** APIs, or Application Programming Interfaces, are tools that allow different software applications to communicate and interact. This allows developers to access functionality from external software without having to understand its internal coding. APIs enable the use of third party software and the integration of differing systems.

**** LoRaWAN (Long Range Wide Area Network) is a kind of low power wide area network protocol that allows long range communication with minimal power usage. It has been designed for IoT devices that require long range/low power connectivity and is often used in fields such as agriculture, environmental monitoring, and smart cities.