Science & Technology

IN THE SPOTLIGHT: SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY

ROBOT FLEET HITS MILESTONE

The first quarter of 2021 saw Starship Technologies celebrate one million autonomous deliveries – the first autonomous delivery company in the world to reach the milestone.

Contactless deliveries have proven to be hugely popular over the last 12 months during the Covid-19 pandemic, with many people choosing them as reliable ways to protect vulnerable populations and enable social distancing.

Andrew Curtis, UK operations manager at Starship, said: “We’re very proud to have been able to offer such a crucial service in Milton Keynes and in the other locations around the world where Starship is operating during this time.

“In Milton Keynes we have seen our service continue to grow in popularity, with order numbers tripling in the town in the last year. It is exciting to know that with 120 robots, Milton Keynes is home to the world’s

‘IN MILTON largest fleet of

KEYNES WE autonomous robots!” In March, Starship HAVE SEEN OUR expanded its service

SERVICE in Milton Keynes to

CONTINUE TO reach even more

GROW IN neighbourhoods and households across the

POPULARITY’ town. Andrew added: “The support we’ve received from local communities across Milton Keynes over coming up to three years now continues to be overwhelmingly positive. “We’re looking forward to continuing to work closely with the Council to roll the service out to even more neighbourhoods in the months ahead.”

Andrew Curtis with the robots

NEW POINT OF SALE DEVICE

Paycard Solutions is offering a new point of sale device to provide a fast, cost effective way to do business.

The Clover Flex unit accepts all major payment types, charges in an hour and lasts all day. It also offers both printed and digital receipts.

The five-inch antimicrobial hi-res touchscreen is perfect for modern use and can be set up in minutes. Paycard Solutions assist businesses in finding the right card payment solutions that best suits their business, while helping to reduce their costs on their card processing fees, through transparent pricing.

Their new product works on WiFi and 4G, and the Clover account lives in the cloud so businesses can track sales and trade from anywhere at any time.

Students at the SCIoT

INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY HERALDS A BRIGHT NEW DIGITAL FUTURE

A new regional centre for digital training and education has opened in Bletchley. The South Central Institute of Technology (SCIoT) is a collaboration between Milton Keynes College and a consortium of global companies and important local brands like Cranfield University.

The SCIoT, which is expected to welcome a thousand talented students and apprentices a year, was established when the consortium won a grant of £26m from the Government in a national competition and will be based in state-of-the-art facilities.

It’s the only place in Milton Keynes offering higher technical qualifications equivalent to university at levels 4 and 5. The qualifications have substantial input from businesses ensuring the skills taught are the ones local industry desperately needs.

Principal Alex Warner said: “This is a whole new concept in education. The SCIoT is an inclusive centre for technical qualifications, higher apprenticeships and training to plug the growing gap between demand and supply for technical and digital roles, including cyber security. Students will experience our flexible Lifestyle Learning approach, in which they can choose to study in-person or online.

“They’ll be taught by amazing people with up-todate experience in tech and they’ll work on real world problems supplied by our partners to prepare them for the careers of the future.”

Around half of the course content is delivered by dual professionals, many of whom come from the project partners.

IN THE SPOTLIGHT: SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY

PREVENTING OUTAGES

BCL Power have emphasised the importance of maintaining uninterruptible power supply (UPS) systems in case of a mains power failure.

The infrastructure protection services firm warns that the absence of UPS and battery maintenance could be catastrophic should your company’s standby power system fail.

To ensure risk reduction and the reliability of your UPS systems and standby batteries in the event of a power failure, BCL Power offers a range of Uninterruptible Power Supply (UPS) maintenance solutions.

Each level includes a preventative maintenance visit, 24/7 technical support and an agreed response to site as standard.

Director James Abbey said: “Having a formal standby power services resiliency program in place will prevent unwanted outages. “Since we, as a society, have developed such a reliance on power, businesses have followed suit. Unfortunately, our infrastructure has not been able to keep up with the ever-increasing power demand. “Uninterruptible power supplies provide peace of mind that when the power does go out, your telephones, tills, computers, security systems, servers and any critical ‘AS A SOCIETY equipment, such as what is found in

WE HAVE hospitals, stays online without any interruptions.”

DEVELOPED

SUCH A For more information about UPS RELIANCE ON and standby battery services please

POWER’ visit www.bclpower.co.uk or contact us via email at info@bclpower.co.uk

COMMS365 TO TACKLE EV CHARGING ISSUES

Comms365 Limited, the innovative network services and IoT infrastructure company, has been announced as a winner of the first phase of the Low Carbon Transport Innovation Challenge.

In partnership with Scottish Enterprise, the Scottish Government has awarded a share of £180,000 to Comms365 to improve charge point accessibility across ChargePlace Scotland electric vehicle charging network.

Comms365 will now create a comprehensive solution to tackle the issue of bay hogging or ‘ICEing’ –where a non-electric vehicle parks in an EV charging bay and blocks the ability to charge, by finding the appropriate wireless network infrastructure and IoT sensor technologies for deployment in EV bays. In addition, IoT and ChargePoint datasets can be processed to highlight and improve charge point accessibility, aiming to reduce charge point availability anxiety for the consumer.

This funding will enable Comms365 to develop and demonstrate its innovation in response to these challenges, with the intention to extend the project through prototypes and field-testing.

Mike van Bunnens (pictured), Managing Director, Comms365 comments: “Comms365 is thrilled to have won this competition to develop a solution to overcome existing electric vehicle charging pain points and to greatly improve the user experience. We are grateful to the ChargePlace Scotland network and Scottish Enterprise for the opportunity to play an important role in refining EV accessibility, especially as Scotland and the rest of the UK continues to make great strides to meet the 2050 net-zero emissions target.”

HARNESS THE POWER OF VIDEO

A talented team of video production experts are

running a fantastic offer for fellow Chamber members.

Video Inn Production, based in Northampton, has launched a new deal for Chamber members to help them harness the power of video.

Managing director Andrew Bentley said: “Business owners already know the video is incredibly powerful but they often believe the investment is too high. That’s why we’ve launched a new deal to hugely help our fellow Chamber members.

“We’re inviting Chamber members to come into our fully equipped studio armed with a script - or bullet points - and a series of images and they will leave with four professional videos.

As part of the special package, Chamber members will receive support from a helpful technician, professional video camera work, the highest quality microphone, studio quality lighting, green screen and live editing and image processing.

TRANSFORMING YOUR BUSINESS

Business change specialists Sunfish Online have outlined some insights into how organisations can successfully navigate change during the uncertainty of the pandemic.

Sunfish Online’s co-founder and technology practice lead Satinder Sangha (pictured) has shared his thoughts on how businesses can use change as an opportunity to become stronger, more agile and more profitable.

He believes making a change project succeed relies on three key elements –planning, implementation and handover.

Satinder said: “Transformational or change projects can be some of the most nerve-wracking and stressful times for any business.

“The project needs to have clear goals and measurable outcomes.

“It needs fallback plans and contingencies in case things don’t go to plan and it needs leadership willing to make definitive decisions about the directions taken.

“Ensuring the change takes place is perhaps the most painstaking part of the process, but also the most rewarding: you’re out of the blue-sky stage and into the nitty-gritty of the action.

The three C’s are key here: Communication. Communication. Communication.

“Finally, the processes developed during the planning and implementation phases will be vital for the handover stage, as these will provide the bridge between the two teams.

“Handover is also a time for reflection. Think about actions you can implement for the next successive change project.”