After the excitement of August (read all about it here if you haven’t already), September had a lot to live up to. But it more than rose to the occasion, with an action packed month of events, conferences and awards. So, today on the blog we’re rounding up the highlights that made this an especially memorable month.
After 18 months of virtual events and conferences we were excited but also a little bit nervous to be heading to Cenex. Those in the mobility industry will know that Cenex is one of the big events of the year, with a large technology exhibition, an incredible speaker programme and options to see and sometimes even to go for a spin in the latest new low carbon vehicles.
But this year’s event wasn’t just about listening and exploring. Not one but two of our CAV research and development projects were there - Projects Endeavour and D-RISK - and it was amazing to see the projects side by side in the Innovate UK area.
D-RISK has a big goal: to create the world’s largest library of driving “edge cases” - situations that are unusual or unexpected but could be dangerous. These can then be used in simulation to train autonomous vehicles, ensuring they can safely respond and manage these situations on our roads. It was fascinating to be at Cenex and discuss our objectives from this project with an extremely well informed group of people. We were also happy to collect some new and unique edge cases along the way - one from an ambulance driver about the perils of trying to navigate past drivers wearing headphones and another from a motorcyclist who was unlucky enough to be behind a wobbly grain-spilling combine harvester. If you’re interested in knowing more about the project and our research into public perceptions around AVs then check out our recently published Insights report here.
Another highlight from September was the Connected Britain conference. Our Head of Telecoms Mark Pearson was there to hear the latest on next generation broadband technologies, including fibre and 5G. We were thrilled to be in the running for a Digital Skills award in recognition of our work reducing digital exclusion in Greenwich as part of the Community Champions project. Sadly the top prize wasn’t ours but went to a very deserving St Mungos project.
We had more luck elsewhere as this month we learned that DGC was named Innovator of the Year at the SME Energy and Power Awards. Thanks to SME News for the recognition!
We’ve got an extremely busy next few months lined up and to help us on the way the team is growing again. We are looking for a behavioural scientist interested in cities, inclusive tech and sustainability. If that sounds like you then check out our jobs page.