Professor Enrico Motta, Project Director of MK:SMART led a delegation of project partners to an informal exchange of ideas with the Glasgow Future Cities Initiative this week. After some interesting updates on the progress, opportunities and challenges faced by the Glasgow initiative and an introduction to the scope of the MK:SMART project, the conversation centred on city wide integration and approach to control systems – how to ensure that we go beyond piecemeal solutions and make integration a cornerstone of the systemic approach to smart city development.
 
futurecity.glasgow.gov.uk  have already launched an open data portal and have run successful hackathons. With Strathclyde University’s plans for a Technology and Innovation Centre already well established, the Glasgow partners are on target to deliver to their key themes of traffic, safety and data.
 
The MK:SMART team were eager to discuss synergies between the initiatives and look to strengthen the ties between the two projects in the new year.
 
The MK:SMART team accompanying Professor Motta were Geoff Snelson, Director of Strategy, MKCC; Gary Bruce, Principal Researcher, BT; Professor Gerd Kortuem, Faculty of Mathematics, Computing & Technology, the Open University; Alan Fletcher, Business Development Manager, Knowledge Media Institute, The Open University; Professor David Barrett, Executive Dean, University of Bedfordshire