Croke Park is to become the ony stadium in Europe, and only the second in the world, to become an Internet of Things test bed where some 70 companies will work together to develop technologies that can solve customer experience problems that could find applications at city management level.
The project brings together researchers at Dublin City University and Arizona State University (the state’s Sun Devil Stadium being the other participating venue) with Croke Park Stadium and Intel. Up to 70 companies are expected to trial ideas at the stadium with current projects focussed on pitch quality monitoring and stadium microclimate, athlete performance analysis, predicting traffic to and from the stadium, and developing apps showing queueing times at concession stands and other facilities.
“The next 5-10 years will see exponential growth in the burgeoning IoT sector and we have an opportunity to lead Ireland’s test bed facility with Croke Park and Intel in order to bridge the research to market gap,” said Prof Noel O’Connor, director of DCU’s Information Technology and Digital Society Research & Enterprise Hub. “Ireland is rich in high-potential start-ups and SMEs that can both get value and bring value to the Smart Stadium concept which will draw on multi-disciplinary expertise in Irish universities to focus on problem-solving on a national scale.”
Philip Moynagh, vice president of the Internet of Things group at Intel, said: “The Croke Park test bed, and our collaboration with DCU and ASU, will push the boundaries of innovation within the Smart Stadium context, and critically will provide an open platform allowing enterprises of all sizes to co-innovate for experience and value.”
The global value of the IoT sector is predicted to exceed €30 billion a year by 2020 with an expectation that 25 billion devices will be connected by 2025. One of the most significant barriers identified to the development of the IoT industry is the lack of test beds to trial new technologies for wide-scale deployment.
DCU and Arizona State University have been collaborating since 2006, developing international cooperation in education, research and economic development, based on their shared values of innovation and entrepreneurship, technology-enhanced learning, research and discovery.
TechCentral Reporters
Subscribers 0
Fans 0
Followers 0
Followers