This webinar will explore AI and Smart-Tech in the Home, take the opportunity to hear from Research Associates and Industry on this topic. This event is in partnership with The Open University Faculty of Wellbeing, Education and Language Studies.
The presenters will cover:
– The MK:Smart programme, a smart city initiative update and future directions for the smart city using the example of a hypothetical smart project using robots to encourage people to engage in active travel, supporting healthy ageing and reducing social isolation
– Hear from Pantri, a company who embed AI into home appliances
– Home assistance robots
– A brief historical overview of robotic assistants plus overview of ‘Gatekeeper’ project including details on the application and it’s functionalities
DURATION: 1.5 hours
This free to attend event is held as part of the ACTIS programme – a project part-funded by the European Regional Development Fund, click here to be re-directed to further information about the project. This event is classed as State Aid to participating businesses, the value of which is £190, but is delivered completely free of charge to participants.
Speaker Profiles:
Gaynor Henry-Edwards, Research Manager, Faculty of Wellbeing, Education and Language Studies – The Open University
Gaynor manages the Health and Wellbeing Strategic Research Area at The Open University. The Strategic Research Area supports, coordinates and promotes health and wellbeing research across the university. Open University researchers conduct research in health and wellbeing across various disciplines and areas including healthcare management, ageing studies, reproductive and sexual rights, assistive technologies, patient data management, mental health and biological health sciences. The scope of University expertise ranges from the science underpinning health and disease through to the medical humanities. The Open University is committed to working towards social justice specialising in participative and inclusive research methods with marginalised and vulnerable communities.
Miguel Valdez, Lecturer in Technology and Innovation Management, School of Engineering and Innovation – The Open University
Miguel began his career as a software engineer, went on to become a technology journalist and is currently working as a Research Associate in the School of Engineering and Innovation at the Open University. His doctoral research interrogated sustainable transport pilots in Milton Keynes, with a particular focus on the sensemaking activities that took place in organisations. He further developed this understanding of cities as experimental spaces within the transport work package of MK:Smart, a £16 million smart city programme. Through his research, Miguel has explored the role of innovative technologies in envisioned and developing future urban environments. His research has drawn insights from urban geography and innovation studies to interrogate how the experimental spaces in cities may facilitate the development of new knowledge about sustainable innovation, and on how such knowledge coalesce and travel.
Tom Cooper, CEO, Pantri
Tom is the CEO and founder of Pantri – a new platform which aims to make the new breed of WiFi connected kitchen appliances shop for repeat purchases automatically. He is considered a thought leader in the smart kitchen industry, with regular appearances in industry publications where he shares his views on how over the next 10 years, a lot of the weekly shop is going to become a lot easier and automated thanks to exciting new IoT and AI breakthroughs.
Gianluca Bardaro, Research Associate, Knowledge Media Institute – The Open University
Gianluca’s area of research is robotic software development. In particular, he is interested in how to enhance the existing tools and approaches to streamline the development process and achieve more complex, robust and functionality-rich robot applications. Currently, he is involved in the GATEKEEPER European project, as a task leader. As part of this project, his aim is developing a robotic assistant which operates within a smart home environment and which is capable of addressing the healthcare needs of elderly people.
