Did you miss out on innovation event Venturefest Bristol and Bath? Back in June Bristol’s Engine Shed and Passenger Shed were host to some amazing examples of cutting-edge tech from all over the West of England, from self-driving cars to electric-powered aircraft. And there were some great talks from the people and organisations that work so hard to make all this innovation happen.
These speakers included Scott Wilcox from SXSW eco (the festival for tech in social enterprise), robotics experts working on everything from driverless cars to 3D-printed robotics hands, aerospace experts from the likes of Airbus and Rolls Royce and city innovation experts on the tech that will make our cities open and
If you missed out, don’t worry, we’ve compiled videos of their Venturefest talks for you to catch up here.
High Technology: Robotics for good
Bristol is a robotics innovation hub acting at the intersection of microelectronics and ICT. In these talks (see video below), steered by Nikos Pronios, Lead Technologist, InnovateUK chairs the High Tech Panel Session, our high-tech innovation panel talk about using robotics for good.
John McCarthy, Technical Director at Atkins presents on the VENTURER project that has secured funding from Innovate UK to test driverless cars in the Bristol region and talked about how they could shape our future cities.
- You may like: Driverless cars hitting Bristol’s roads next month
Joel Gibbard, CEO, of Bristol-based OpenBionics explains about how 3D printing technology is allowing the company to provide low-cost robot hands for amputees.
Mahesh Sooriyandandara from Toshiba Telecommunications Research Lab in Bristol looks at machine-2-machine communications and the place of robots in the Internet of Things. Clare Reddington from Bristol’s Pervasive Media Studio speaks about the Being There project, which is exploring how cutting-edge robotics might impact upon our experience of public space and bridge the gaps between the ways we communicate in person and online.
Keynote Address – Scott Wilcox Director of SXSW Eco and Director of Technology for SXSW
Scott Wilcox created the SXSW Eco conference, which creates a space for business leaders, investors, innovators and designers to advance solutions that drive economic, environmental and social change.
In this keynote address he shares his insight on how eco-technology has changed in the past 5 years whilst he looks ahead to the trends and opportunities he’s spotted for the future in the USA and internationally.
City Innovation: How digital tech is transforming life in cities
Chaired by Stephen Hilton, Director of Future Cities Group, Bristol City Council this panel of experts includes Gerard Grech, CEO, Tech City UK; Matt Crisp, Managing Director, BigBelly Solar UK; Peter Vaessen, Segment Director, Future Transmission Grids, DNV GL and David Mason, Senior Sustainability Manager, Skanska.
They talk us through such topics as digital economy, high growth business, mesh networks; digital infrastructure; building innovation in design & construction of cities; smart grids; and how energy grids are integrated with the internet offering smarter services.
Advanced Engineering: Next generation of sustainable aviation
Chaired by Leo Johnson, Bristol 2015’s ambassador and founder of sustainable finance. The first session is on the next generation of sustainable aviation and how technologies being developed in aerospace engineering are being applied in other sectors.
- You may like: Bristol Eco-Flyer unveiled at Venturefest
He’s joined by Airbus‘ Technical Marketing Director Dan Carnelly, Dr Naresh Kumar from Rolls Royce, Dr David Standingford of CFMS and Dr Richard Trask from the University of Bristol. They cover a wide range of topics – novel technology for electric-powered flight, alternative propulsion systems, moving “towards zero prototyping” and how biomimicry is informing the future of multifunctional materials. The future of aviation is here.
Digital Innovation: High performance computing networks for climate, cities & consumers
Taking the reins on our next talk is Nameless CEO Jaya Chakrabarti MBE as she chairs a panel on the use of high performance computing services and advanced networks and how they are being used to deliver new big data and digital services to business and consumers.
Joining her are 5 experts in the field; David Underwood, Deputy Director of High Performance Computing at the Met Office shows how its advanced climate modelling and weather forecasting is being used around the world. Paul Wilson, CEO, Bristol is Open explains how Bristol is developing an open programmable city region to test how citizens and organisations can interact with future smart cities. While Naji El-Arifi, Product Innovation Manager, Somo and Mark Perry, Global Enterprise Architect – HP Future Cities, HP give their perspective on topics such as how consumers are using data services in cities and how cities are using high performance computing networks and big data.
Shona Wright
Shona covers all things editorial at TechSPARK. She publishes news articles, interviews and features about our fantastic tech and digital ecosystem, working with startups and scaleups to spread the word about the cool things they're up to.
She also oversees TechSPARK's social media, sharing the latest updates on everything from investment news to green tech meetups and inspirational stories.
