Speaker Series

Garage Talks

Conversations with technologists, designers, and policy leaders exploring how connected systems move from lab to real-world deployments. Dive into lessons learned, favourite tools, and playbooks you can reuse.

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Latest highlights from 2023 alongside an archive of earlier talks.

Richard Wenner presenting Trends and Developments in IoT

Invited Recorded

Trends and Developments in Internet of Things

Richard Wenner

Abstract

This seminar introduces LoRa technology and its wide range of applications across smart-city deployments.

Speaker

Richard Wenner is a design engineer whose companies have supplied optical communication systems to multi-national organisations and the UK Ministry of Defence. He has delivered early internet infrastructure projects in Cardiff and now collaborates on initiatives such as The Things Network, Telraam, and e-mobility platforms.

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Invited Recorded

Internet of Things in Cities: How to Really Make Our Cities Smart

Alex Gluhak

Abstract

A walkthrough of data marketplaces and their role in making smart-city ecosystems interoperable, highlighting how Urban Data Collective enables sharing of real-time urban data.

Speaker

Alex Gluhak has over 20 years of experience across smart-city technologies, IoT, and urban data solutions. He founded Urban Data Collective in 2020 following leadership roles at Intel, Ericsson, and Digital Catapult.

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Invited Recorded

Data Protection as a Career

Stephanie Beaumont

Abstract

A session on bringing data protection to life through practical examples and empowering people to make informed decisions about their data.

Speaker

Stephanie Beaumont is an experienced privacy and commercial lawyer combining deep legal and data protection officer expertise. She previously served as Group DPO for Willis Towers Watson and collaborated on privacy-by-design tooling.

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Invited Recorded

Big Data in Smart Cities

Behzad Heravi

Abstract

An overview of big data in smart cities, featuring sensing use cases, solution patterns, and lessons learned from large-scale deployments.

Speaker

Behzad Heravi is the co-founder and CTO of Vortex, building IoT solutions for smart cities, Industry 4.0, and smart infrastructure. He completed doctoral studies in Communication Systems at Lancaster University and is an honorary research fellow at Swansea University.

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Invited Recorded

Emergence of the Sentient Web and the Revolutionary Impact of Cognitive AI

Dave Raggett

Abstract

This seminar explores the Sentient Web and cognitive AI, drawing on advances in cognitive sciences to combine REST APIs, graph databases, statistical models, and rule-based reasoning.

Speaker

Dave Raggett is part of the W3C European staff attached to ERCIM and a visiting professor at the University of the West of England. A pioneer of early web standards, he now focuses on the Web of Things and cognitive AI.

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Invited

Inbodied Interaction and How the Body Works, Inside

m.c. schraefel

Abstract

A discussion on systems thinking for wellbeing and the role interactive technologies can play in improving human performance and health at scale.

Speaker

m.c. schraefel is a professor of computer science and human performance and leads the WellthLab, designing human systems interactions that make healthy living the default choice.