By Lauren Shale

The latest South Yorkshire Internet of Things Meetup took place on Tuesday 25th April at Sheffield Hallam i-Lab, and it was great to welcome back members of the regional IoT community for a night filled with great speakers, plenty of networking opportunities, and delicious Greek food!

As always, our event was open to all of those interested in learning more about using sensors and data, and we welcome any IoT enthusiasts to join our growing community in the future. We are excited to announce that our next event will take place at the AMRC on Tuesday 27th June and we look forward to seeing lots of you there!

Our first speaker of the evening was Robin Hartley-Willows from FourJaw Manufacturing Analytics, and AMRC spinout on a mission to deliver accessible technology that empowers manufacturers to achieve their productivity potential. Robin spoke about the benefits of seeing technology as the main enabler of business models, using FourJaw’s IoT hardware solution ‘MachineLink’ as a perfect example. FourJaw’s competitors have to plug into the machines they monitor, charging large upfront costs to cover the project delivery with weeks of onsite work and expensive equipment required to deliver a solution that only works on 10% of machines.

Instead, MachineLink uses electrical current clamps to collect data from the machine , showing the utilisation rates and assisting manufacturers to make their machine more productive. This tech enables a new business model with no upfront costs, and a risk-free subscription fee, with profits funding ongoing R+D. Moreover, FourJaw can use this product on any machine regardless of age or size, and get working results in just 15 minutes. Robin’s final ask for the audience was for any technical improvement advice to help remove the product’s reliance on WiFi and plug sockets, as well as sharing that the company are hiring! 

They informed the audience about the Product Security and Telecommunications Infrastructure Act that recently passed, setting out 13 provisions for any device manufactured or sold in the UK to comply with (all of which are addressed as part of the IASME IoT Cyber Scheme).

One of these provisions is default passwords, which are the most common way that people and companies are compromised. Jen and Jason took us through an exercise thinking about password use within organisations and personal password strength – remembering to keep it unique to each service. Most people are now aware to use passwords with 12+ characters, not to mention names, dates or places, and to include capitalisation, numbers and special characters. But they stressed the importance of varying this, as it human nature to use a capital at the beginning and a special character (most likely an exclamation mark!) at the end, meaning hackers can continue to guess these easily.

Finally, Mark Davies extended his hosting duties this evening to speak about what his company, Ioetec, have been working on in the IoT space. Beginning with the joke: ‘What is the connection between a sausage and IoT data?…You need to know what’s inside before you consume it,’ Mark went on to explain how Ioetec have a simple, zero-touch, cost effective and secure cyber security solution designed for large scale infrastructure, industrial 4.0, smart manufacturing and utilities companies. However, they were not only here to talk about cyber security, and instead spoke about their latest project working with IoT in the water industry!

The project is important to Ioetec in light of research which found that only 14% of UK rivers and lakes receive a ‘good’ ecological status, with 75% of those tested breaching the proposed safety levels for ‘forever chemicals’. Moreover, this monitoring is controlled by the water companies themselves, so Ioetec are trying to remove this lack of transparency with good quality data and real-time monitoring to preserve and improve river water. They are currently doing this through dissolved oxygen sensors which connect to a gateway to bring monitoring to remote areas. They are currently undertaking a proof of concept in the Upper Derwent Valley of the Peak District and so far, this has proved that using real-time data does enable better informed decisions, but they must be on trusted data – linking nicely back to the importance of cyber security!

Our next South Yorkshire Internet of Things Meetup is taking place on Tuesday 27th June from 3:30-6:30pm at Factory 2050, AMRC. As always, there will be talks from local businesses working with IoT, as well as the chance to share your relevant activity/interests over pizza and drinks! Experts from the AMRC will also be on hand to chat about how they can assist you and your business, with tours of the factory running from 3:30 where you will be able to speak to the engineers too. For more information and to get your tickets, click here!

Resources and Staying in Touch: To join the regional community please sign up to the South Yorkshire IoT Meetup Newsletter, which will keep you up-to-date on IoT news and activity.

You can also join our Meetup Page: South Yorkshire Internet of Things Meetup (SY IoT) (Sheffield, United Kingdom) | Meetup

Acknowledgements: Thanks to the team at Sheffield Hallam i-Lab for hosting the event, Barnsley DMC and TEAM SY for sponsoring, and the brilliant You & Us Events for managing all the logistics.

South Yorkshire Internet of Things Meetup: Wednesday 22nd February 2023

By Lauren Shale

Last week, we hosted the latest South Yorkshire Internet of Things (IoT) Meetup at Arup in Sheffield, where members of the IoT community came together to hear from some great speakers, share their own relevant activities and interests, and network over pizzas and beers. As always, the event was open to all of those interested in learning more about the use of sensors and data, as well as the  enthusiasts who make up the ever growing IoT ecosystem.

The evening began with a welcome from our host, Mark Davies of Ioetec, who stressed the importance of meetups like these for enabling cross-industry collaborations and creating moments of serendipity for new connections to blossom. Attendees were also welcomed by Derek Roberts, Director and Office Leader for Arup, who further highlighted how great it is to bring likeminded individuals together, before handing over to his colleague, Neil Hooton, our first speaker of the night

Neil is the Digital Services Lead at Arup for the North West and Yorkshire, and gave an overview of what Arup are currently doing in IoT and the building space, in particular their new digital solution for property management – Property Insights.  The product, as the name suggests, uses a whole host of sensors to enable clients to better understand their building conditions with floor-by-floor metrics on the indoor environment and resource use. The ability to monitor conditions regularly can support clients to manage their utilisation of space, reach their net-zero ambitions and make the move to predictive maintenance. When questioned on what is next for Arup, Neil noted that they are looking to make the transition from observation and reporting to analytics and recommendation – watch this space!

Next to speak was Katie Steele, Founder and Director for Cheribim, a new Sheffield-based startup using IoT and sensors to manage conditions in churches and heritage buildings. While undertaking her own work with churches, Katie noticed huge disparities in data management, and stretched local resources, inspiring her to found Cheribim to create a more regularised and holistic approach. The start-up has recently received grant funding to run an IoT pilot, and they are now working with TEAM SY’s IoT Engine to deploy sensors monitoring church conditions to understand common issues and find ways to reduce energy consumption and heating bills. Katie introduced us to various sites where the pilot is taking place, many of which local attendees would recognise. Despite some issues with network connection and thick church walls, the pilot is so far very successful, and the next stage for Cheribim is to move to data visualisation and expanding to future sites.

Finally, we heard from Pierre Drezet, Director of InX Limited, who talked about making IoT devices ‘smarter’. Pierre gave us a run down of InX’s software system – Lucid – a graphical programming environment that streamlines automation and programming of embedded systems. Lucid makes it easy to write sophisticated control software for better utilisation of equipment without having to delve into code, and the results can be extremely beneficial! For example, 13 million homes in the UK have an electrically heated hot water system, managed by a mechanical thermostat with little intelligence, resulting in energy loss. Yet, by simply shifting when the tank is heated, 20 million tonnes of CO2 can be saved each day in the UK, amounting to 15% of the current grid daily emissions.

As always, the meetup ended with the opportunity for attendees to share their own relevant IoT activity and interests, before networking with pizzas and drinks! This event saw one of the highest attendances we have had, with over 50 people coming together in common interest, and we hope to keep the momentum up and grow the community further over the upcoming events!

Resources and Staying in Touch: To join the regional IoT community, please sign up to the South Yorkshire IoT Meetup newsletter, which will keep you up to date on IoT news and activity. Follow this link and select ‘SY IoT Meetups’

You can also join our Meetup Page: South Yorkshire Internet of Things Meetup (SY IoT) (Sheffield, United Kingdom) | Meetup

Acknowledgements: Thanks to the team at Arup for hosting the event, Barnsley DMC and TEAM SY for sponsoring, and the brilliant You & Us Events for managing all the logistics.

We have had an incredible year in Barnsley at the IoT Engine pre-accelerator programme! We are supporting 23 start-up and small businesses to adopt, integrate, and develop any aspect of the Internet of Things (IoT) into their company through 1:1 mentoring, hands-on-validation and prototyping support. The programme is part of the TEAM SY project powered by Connexin and delivered in partnership with Barnsley Council and Capital Enterprise. The aim is to validate business concepts, build an early version of a prototype, and expand companies by introducing a new product or service to them.

One of our key aims for the year, alongside running the programme, was to make IoT more accessible and break down its complexity to show how beneficial it can be to businesses. To do this, we created a few short video guides, explaining all about what the IoT is, how it works, and how it can help startups and SMEs in the region and beyond:

We are so proud of the companies we are working with through the programme, and we have had some incredible successes with them throughout the year. There are certainly too many to name them all, but we have to highlight a few of our companies who have completed, or are near closing their projects with us, and are driving their businesses forward as we head into 2023.

We have supported;

• Co-founders Grant and Fran at Family Phone to build a prototype for an ambient assisted living device for those living with dementia. They told us that this has accelerated their business by three years, and are now ready to seek investment!
• Sheffield Tribology Services, using the facilities at the excellent Barnsley DMC MakerLab to 3D print their initial prototype for rail friction testing – which will hopefully be adopted across the rail industry and avoid some of those dreaded delays!
• Andel Ltd to diversify their existing flood and leak monitoring systems to utilise the IoT. We’ve designed a new device with them which interfaces between their existing products and a cloud solution to enable remote monitoring, alerts and control, and have supported them to engage with Binary Forge to develop a robust cloud platform and mobile app to allow easy provisioning and management of a fleet of devices.
• Twin Dynamics to develop an IoT sensor suite to provide live temperature, pressure, humidity and door activity data from the co-working space at DMC 02. The data provided via this IoT solution enabled them to develop their novel air quality/energy monitoring software.

We have also been working with a whole host of companies across South Yorkshire in a variety of different sectors from manufacturing to machine automation, and cyber security to astronomy! Many of these businesses spoke at our IoT Engine Showcase evening, which was an amazing night celebrating all of their successes and the achievements they have made whilst being on the programme.

But, it doesn’t end there. We have also been a part of growing a connected and collaborative IoT Community in South Yorkshire, and organise regular Internet of Things Meetups for likeminded individuals to come together, listen to some great speakers, and network with beer and food. We have had topics ranging from IoT in Space, Agritech, Rail and Flood Defence, and are looking forward to hosting more in the New Year! Recently, we took to the (cinema) stage at the South Yorkshire Tech Summit in Barnsley to share everything we have been up to recently and spread the word about how great the programme is (of course!).

At the Summit, TEAM SY launched their ‘Tech 100’ Report, of the hottest 100 tech start-ups in South Yorkshire, and we are so proud that 7 IoT Engine participating companies were listed! We are really lucky to work with such brilliant start-ups and SMEs across the region, and it is great to see so many of them getting the recognition they deserve in this report!

So, overall, it has been an extremely rewarding and successful year for the IoT Engine, and we look forward to what 2023 has to bring! We accept rolling applications for the programme until June 2023, and if you would like to find out more you can visit our website or email me at l.shale@connexin.co.uk – we would love to chat with you more about the work we are doing!

South Yorkshire Internet of Things Meetup: Tuesday 8th November 2022

By Lauren Shale

Last week, members of the Internet of Things (IoT) community were welcomed to Gatsby Bar in Sheffield for a night filled with excellent speeches, plenty of networking and – of course – some delicious Mexican food! Although the meetups have been themed in the past, with the topics of IoT in Space, or in Food and Agritech for example, this event was focussed on a more general theme to celebrate and showcase just how broad all of the IoT activity in the region is.

The evening was hosted by Mark Davies, CEO and Co-founder at Sheffield-based cybersecurity company Ioetec. Welcoming regular and new faces, Mark stressed the importance of these meetups for creating moments of serendipity, building strong networks and bringing people together.

Taking back the mic, Mark shared the fact that 5 million homes in the UK are at risk of flooding, demonstrated perfectly with a photo of him chest-deep in water in his back garden! This was all to highlight the importance of our next speaker, Gerbren Haaksma from the Flood Defence Team at Andel Ltd. Andel is an environmental service company, focussing on sensor based monitoring to solve issues for clients across the nation. Gerbren talked us through Andel’s Flood Defence end-to-end solution, including a Flood Alert system which measures surface and ground water levels as they rise and sends alerts when needed. Andel also provide various solutions in response to flooding, including flood barriers and pumps – which Mark may need to make an investment in!

Last to speak was Ben White, of Sheffield Tribology Services, a start-up based in Sheffield focusing on friction wear testing of railways. STS are working with TEAM SY’s IoT Engine pre-accelerator programme to build a prototype of their portable tribometer (friction testing device), which is the first of its kind to be designed for widespread industry adoption. Currently, the reaction between leaves and the steel on the rail costs the UK £350million a year and industry workers have a total lack of suitable test equipment. With their tribometer, STS will be able to optimise friction measurements to help prevent damage, reduce safety incidents and decrease delays – which the audience were particularly happy to hear. IoT connectivity will be integrated into the device with centralised sensors measuring contamination, temperature and humidity, and LoRaWan networks automatically uploading this data to inform decision makers of the environmental conditions, ultimately helping to create a safer, faster, and more efficient rail industry.

As always, the meetup closed with the chance for attendees to share any relevant IoT activity or interests. Sam Jones from the IoT Tribe stood up to speak about their new equity-free programme ‘DECARBONISE SY’ which they are running with TEAM SY. The programme is for outstanding startups and scaleups with a product or service built around the Internet of Things (IoT), helping cities and industries achieve a net zero future. Applications to the programme close on November 18th. For more information, and to apply. Visit: Decarbonise SY

Lauren Shale reminded attendees that for those with early-stage IoT ideas, their pre-accelerator programme, the IoT Engine, can support SMEs and start-ups to adopt, integrate and develop IoT through 1:1 mentoring, prototyping and proof-of concept support. Applications for the programme are open on a rolling basis, and you can find out more here: IoT Engine – TEAM SY (weareteamsy.org)

She also invited attendees to the South Yorkshire Tech Summit, taking place at Cineworld in Barnsley on Thursday 24^th November from 12-6pm. This will bring together industry expertise, business leaders and senior decision makers from across South Yorkshire and beyond to hear from a range of thought leaders and experts about the importance of a vibrant tech and digital economy in the region. You can find out more, and register for a ticket here: South Yorkshire Tech Summit Tickets, Thu 24 Nov 2022 at 12:00 | Eventbrite

Finally, Ceri Batchelder from TEAM SY stood up to speak about their latest support programme, the AI Academy, which is taking place on 29^th and 30^th November at Sheffield Tech Parks, which will support businesses to introduce artificial intelligence and grow their business. Applications are open until 22^nd November, and you can find more information here: AI Academy – TEAM SY (weareteamsy.org)

Ceri also extended an invitation to the TEAM SY Christmas Showcase, taking place at the DMC in Barnsley on Thursday 8^th December from 5-8:30pm. This will be an amazing evening celebrating all programmes across TEAM SY, including the IoT Engine, with ‘market stall’ style exhibitions and plenty of chances to network over festive food, drink and entertainment. You can get your tickets here: TEAM SY Christmas Celebration Event Tickets, Thu 8 Dec 2022 at 17:30 | Eventbrite

The event finished with further networking opportunities over Mexican tacos, nachos and cocktails – the perfect end to the evening!

Resources and Staying in Touch:

To join the regional IoT community, please sign up to the South Yorkshire IoT Meetup newsletter, which will keep you up to date on IoT news and activity. Follow this link and select ‘SY IoT Meetups’

You can also join our Meetup Page: South Yorkshire Internet of Things Meetup (SY IoT) (Sheffield, United Kingdom) | Meetup

Acknowledgements: Thanks to the team at Gatsby for hosting the event, Barnsley DMC and TEAM SY for sponsoring, and the brilliant You & Us Events for managing all the logistics.