News Story

Make My City Smarter!

Jaisha Bruce, Thursday 7 Apr 2016

MK:Smart project was part of a select range of Open University projects showcased to parliamentarians, in the Atlee Suite of Portcullis House in Westminster on 9th March 2016.

The team comprising of Jaisha Bruce, Jane Whild and Mathieu d’Aquin from Knowledge Media Institute (KMi) and Daniel Gooch and Annika Wolff from the University’s Maths Computing and Technology Faculty (MCT), presented an overview of the MK:Smart project with a focus on the data, education and citizen engagement work to of MPs, parliamentary figures, committee clerks, representatives from the HE sector, civil servants and third party companies.

As part of the showcase, the team ran a competition for MPs and Parliamentarians offering two half day consultations; draw one offered half a day with Mathieu d’Aquin on the MK Data Hub and draw two offered half a day with Annika Wolff on the Urban Data School Initiative. In order to join the prize draw, MPs were asked to write their constituency area on a flag declaring they would like to make their city smarter and pin this to their location on a UK map. “Every MP will think their city or area is the best” mentioned Peter Horrocks, Vice Chancellor of the Open University, during his speech “however, now you can start on your path for smartness with the MK:Smart competition”