Education

City’s youngsters to inspire new tech in Peterborough

Medical wristbands, solar powered bin lorries and fast food drone deliveries have been just some of the great ideas put forward by Peterborough students for the Inspire Your City programme launched this week by CityFibre and The Skills Service.

Ten Peterborough schools will take part in the challenge to come up with new ways the city, its residents and businesses could make the most of its new gigabit connectivity. The first school to take part was Thomas Deacon Academy on Tuesday 26 November.

Groups of students will be competing against each other to come up with imaginative, high impact services or products that use the speed and power of CityFibre’s Gigabit City network. CityFibre is investing £30m in Peterborough to digitally transform the city and bring full fibre gigabit-speed broadband within reach of almost every home and business in the city.

Each of the teams involved will develop a business plan and pitch their idea to the other teams and a panel of volunteer judges from local businesses. The Skills Service, part of Opportunity Peterborough, will be running the events in 10 primary and secondary schools across the city. The first event will be on 26 November at Thomas Deacon Academy.

Three winning teams will be chosen at each event by the judges. Ahead of the final event in March 2020, the top 30 teams will be reduced to 10 in a panel meeting of the judges.

In the first event at Thomas Deacon Academy, the winners were:

  • 1st place – Everybodies Band – a medical band that can alert carers and doctors to changes in blood pressure and blood sugar levels.
  • 2nd place – BinTech- a grid of solar powered bin lorries that could collect community bins in between regular collections.
  • 3rd place – Goodscopter – a fast food drone delivery system

CityFibre has sponsored the initiative to shine a light on the potential of the Gigabit City programme in Peterborough, which is helping to improve the lives and wellbeing of residents, while also supporting business growth and productivity.

Rebecca Stephens, City Manager at CityFibre said, “CityFibre’s Gigabit City development will be of enormous benefit to residents and businesses in Peterborough, offering the kind of data transfer speeds required for the modern digital landscape. The full fibre network we are bringing to Peterborough is opening up so much potential for businesses, public services and residents to work faster, more efficiently, and maximise their use of integrated and smart technology.

“The Inspire Your City programme offers the perfect opportunity to work with the community and start to understand what exciting transformational benefits the network will bring.”

Sarah Anstiss, Skills Lead at The Skills Service said, “This partnership with CityFibre adds a fun twist to an enterprise challenge that will really fire up students’ imaginations.

“This adds a new dimension to our work, inspiring students’ career choices and helping them understand how businesses function. We want this to give students a greater stake in Peterborough, inspiring local businesses and informing plans for how the city should work and function in the future.”

For more information visit https://www.theskillsservice.co.uk/schools/inspireyourcity/

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