Hull is set to become the UK’s first city to implement its own smart city operating system, connecting and centralising municipal services and information.
The CityOS platform, to be delivered by sustainable smart city innovation firm Connexin, will enable Hull to become a ‘programmable’ city; with data drawn from existing and planned Internet of Things (IoT) smart city solutions – including smart lighting, parking and waste management technologies – aggregated into a single intelligent dashboard. Hull City Council will then be able to use the dashboard to view and manage information; add new sustainable technology connections; and respond promptly and efficiently to issues across the spectrum of council services.
Councillor Daren Hale, Deputy Leader of Hull City Council, said: “Developing Hull as a Smart City will give us the opportunity to work with public and private sector partners to deliver real benefits to communities, businesses and visitors to Hull. The project will involve innovative technological solutions to enhance data sharing and decision making, which will help us to deliver more effective services, including everything from traffic management to health and social care. The system pulls together information that currently sits within separate council computer systems to enable city wide management of the city’s public assets in real time using state-of-the-art technology. Residents will receive better information to make choices about transport, traffic and parking. But this will be just the beginning of what is possible. As the project develops, it will create a demand for new digitally skilled workforce in the city, so we will need to invest in skills and training for younger generations so they are prepared for the new types of jobs that will be created in the digital sector.”
Hull City Council has partnered with Connexin on a range of smart city innovations since becoming the UK’s City of Culture in 2017; and aims to become a world leading smart city by delivering connected services and a centralised smart data platform, operating on an Internet of Things foundation.
Connexin founder and CEO Furqan Alamgir said: “We’re thrilled to be partnering up with our home city and are committed to making Hull a world leading Smart City to foster economic development and enhance many aspects of liveability, workability and sustainability. Our platform will enable Hull to become a ‘programmable city’ and move from outdated siloed service driven technologies to a central platform to improve service delivery, reduce costs and to make the most of new technologies such as IoT, AI and machine learning algorithms.
“Connexin’s Smart City Operating System is built around the Cisco Kinetic for Cities platform which normalises and aggregates data from a range of IoT sensor types into a certified set of urban service domains such as waste, lighting and parking. Cisco Kinetic has been deployed in projects worldwide and brings over 70 out-of-the-box Cisco certified integrations which Cisco actively maintain and update. The Connexin and Cisco partnership gives Hull the ability to manage sensors from multiple vendors in one place removing the reliance on legacy systems and their associated costs.”
Scot Gardner, Chief Executive for Cisco UK & Ireland, said: “When you start to think of a city as programmable, there is opportunity to not only improve individual services with technology, but use combined data insight from those services to create a holistic, actionable view for local authorities. Hull City Council are investing in the future of their city to help it become one of the smartest in the world, and we’re delighted to be a part of that with Connexin.”
