SkillsPlanner formally launched: Seme4’s £1.3m collaboration with government and industry to address skills shortages

Seme4’s collaboration between central government, local councils, universities, contractors, suppliers, industry bodies, training providers and Ethos (a network of social entrepreneurs who find innovative and sustainable solutions to complex problems), SkillsPlanner, has been formally launched.

Stage 1 of the project will last 2 years and will focus on the skills gap in the construction industry in London and South-East England and includes large-scale projects such as HS2, the Thames Tideway Tunnel and Crossrail.

Seme4 is providing the software infrastructure for the project, which will allow current and future employment needs to be shared widely. This will enable better planning and delivery of training and skills provision and reduce costs for both government and industry.

£827k of the £1.3m was secured by successfully bidding for funding from Innovate UK‘s Collaborative Research and Development Programme, which provides investment for innovative and collaborative research and development projects that increase the resilience, quality of life or economic performance of urban areas.

Slides from the presentation given by Seme4 founding partner and founder of the Open Data Institute Professor Sir Nigel Shadbolt at the launch event can be found here.

A video of SkillsPlanner partners and customers discussing the project can be found here.

Wendy Hall awarded British Computer Society Distinguished Fellowship

Professor Dame Wendy Hall has been made a Distinguished Fellow by the British Computer Society, the British Chartered Institute for Information Technology.

http://www.bcs.org/content/conWebDoc/55671

She was recognised for her work in science and engineering policy and education, being one of the first computer scientists to carry out research in multimedia and hypermedia and her role in championing women in Information Technology.

Other notable Distinguished Fellows include Bill Gates, Sir Tim Berners Lee, Martha Lane-Fox and Vint Cerf.

Wendy Hall named in Debrett’s top 500 most influential people in 2016

The Debrett top 500 is a list of the most influential people in the UK who “inspire, influence and instigate change beyond expectation.”

Professor Dame Wendy Hall was named in the Engineering and Technology category. The list is compiled by independent experts in each category.

More details can be found by clicking on the following link:

http://www.debretts.com/people-influence/debretts-500-2016/engineering-technology/prof-dame-wendy-hall-dbe

Seme4 delighted to welcome new Sales and Marketing Director Robert Pye

Seme4 are excited to have appointed Robert Pye as the new Sales and Marketing Director.

Seme4 has collaborated with Robert in the past in his capacity as Founder and CEO of Ethos VO Ltd., an innovative organisation that finds sustainable and ethical solutions to complex problems. Ethos works with a wide range of clients, including central and local government, charities, NGOs and the private sector.

Before founding Ethos in 2010, Robert’s distinguished career included serving as Vice President of the electronic systems company Thales, member of the board of UK Technology Trade association TechUK, Business Development Director for the outsourcing and professional services company Capita, Director of Sales for the Financial Services company E&Y and Divisional Director of IBM.

SkillsPlanner: Seme4 partners with government and industry in £1.3m project to address skills shortages

SkillsPlanner is a collaboration between Seme4, Ethos (a network of social entrepreneurs who find innovative and sustainable solutions to complex problems), local councils, universities, contractors, suppliers, industry bodies and training providers.

The 2 year project will focus on the skills gap in the construction industry in London and South-East England, working on large-scale projects such as HS2, the Thames Tideway Tunnel and Crossrail.

£827k of the £1.3m was secured by successfully bidding for funding from Innovate UK‘s Collaborative Research and Development Programme, which provides investment for innovative and collaborative research and development projects which increase the resilience, quality of life or economic performance of urban areas.

Seme4 is providing the software infrastructure for the project, which will allow current and future employment needs to be shared widely. This will enable better planning and delivery of training and skills provision and also reduce costs for both government and industry.

Seme4 and partners produce open data platform to provide information on parking availability

Seme4 has partnered with Ethos VO Ltd., OpenSensors.io and a number of parking companies to produce an open data platform which provides information on parking availability.

The information is accessible to motorists through an app, and is available as a viewer which provides management information for transport planners, retailers and other organisations. So far the platform has been rolled out to Brighton, Guildford, Greenwich and Kingston.

Further information can be found in an article which appeared in Forbes below:

http://www.forbes.com/sites/rawnshah/2015/08/05/there-is-more-value-in-the-iot-economy-than-big-data-analytics/4/

Wendy Hall to be presented with award for outstanding contribution to ACM

Professor Dame Wendy Hall will be presented with the award for Outstanding Contribution to the ACM (Association for Computing Machinery) in a ceremony to be held on the 20th of June in San Francisco.

http://preview.acm.org/2014-service-awards

The ACM is the largest world-wide educational and scientific computing society.

Professor Hall will be presented with the award for having “transformed the way the world views computing” and for having “increased the visibility of the ACM in leading scientific venues worldwide by broadening its values, resources, and services.”

Professor Hall was the first person from outside North America to be appointed to the post of ACM President. She also initiated the establishment of ACM Councils in Europe, India and China.

Wendy Hall named as a founding member of International Council on Artificial Intelligence and Robotics.

The new International Council on Artificial Intelligence and Robotics (iCAIR) will provide advice on robotics and artificial intelligence.

The Council will also draw up a global action plan, create educational materials and run an awards scheme.

It is being set up by the World Economic Forum’s Global Agenda Council on Artificial Intelligence and Robotics and will be managed by the Prime Minister’s Office of the United Arab Emirates (UAE).