It’s no secret that Milton Keynes is celebrating its 50th birthday this year.
With celebrations in full swing across the city, MK:Smart played its part by teaming up with the National Museum of Computing to host the third and final instalment of MK:Smart’s collaboration with the Bytes Festival series, this one especially dedicated to MK50.
Visitors to the Museum, including many young families, were able to get hands on with MK:Smart technologies, not least by going behind the scenes in an interactive smart garage, where embedded sensors were creating data to drive visualisations.
There was also a chance to puzzle at the electronic workings of an LED cube and get up close to MK:Smart heat maps—aerial datasets on buildings’ heat loss and potential for solar installation. And for those wanting to understand more about wearable technology, there was an opportunity to design and build your own light up badge.
The event was led by Dr Annika Wolff, Dr Michel Wermelinger, Emilie Giles and Theo Georgiou of The Open University.
Dr Annika Wolff said: “We talked with several hundred people over the course of the three Bytes Festival events and it was 
fantastic to hear such enthusiasm about smart technologies. The smart garage in particular raised lots of fascinating questions about sensor technology. It’s great to see people so inspired!”
The MK50 Bytes Festival may be the last of the series with which MK:Smart will collaborate, but the National Museum of Computing is well worth a visit anytime, especially for budding computer scientists and our next generation of engineers.
To find out more and plan your trip, go to www.tnmoc.org
