i-City
i-City (Intelligent sustainable networked City) is an exciting postgraduate student innovation competition running January-February 2023, sponsored by MathWorks and jointly run by MPLS and Reuben College.
The Challenge
The UK has ambitious targets for achieving sustainability and reducing emissions by 57% by 2030, and in the era of big data and connectivity, smart cities that operate reliably, responsibly and intelligently will be key to achieving these targets. Meanwhile, the so-called ‘Energy Trilemma’ (providing affordable, resilient and clean energy) has been identified as a critical issue by UK Research and Innovation (UKRI), and dealing with resilience and connectedness issues is among its strategic priorities.
Running in Hilary Term 2023, i-City (sponsored by MathWorks) invites post-graduate students from diverse disciplines to work in teams and find new ways to deploy AI and Machine Learning tools to solve challenges in the following three broad pillars of focus:
- Connected Mobility: How can we use AI tools to regulate traffic? Can we use aerial vehicles to monitor ground ones and guide them in real time?
- Smart Electric Vehicle Charging: Can we achieve vehicle-to-grid and/or vehicle-to-home charging? How to optimally use electric vehicles as dynamic storage devices and direct the stored power to cover grid or home needs?
- Energy Efficiency and Sustainability: How can we enhance integration of renewable energy sources? How to control buildings efficiently? How can we avoid wasting energy?
“I learned lots of things during the process, in terms of technology and in terms of entrepreneurship. I am even considering to adventure into this world of entrepreneurship”
“By talking with our group members and the assessors, I am interested in my topic (though it's not my DPhil thesis topic), and we are going to finish this research in the next 6 months. We are hoping to have a publication or a potential business project”.
“The skills of building a business model and finding opportunities can be helpful for my career plans in industry”.
“Think critically, always look for opportunities”
“In terms of the length of the competition, this was a good timing considering what the deliverables expected by the organizers. This in-between length between a intense hackathon and a year-long competition forced us to consider the balance between time and development of our ideas”.
“I really love the atmosphere of the i-city competition. But honestly, it's different from what I initially thought. It will be aggressive if it's defined as a match. But my feeling is very nice; everyone ( the organisers, members and the speakers) is so kind!!! So what I mean is, maybe it could be an i-city class?”
“Length of competition is on point. Would love to have more chances for coached sessions from entrepreneurs.”
Join us first in the Natural History Museum lecture theatre at 6pm on Thursday 19th January for a taster session, setting the scene for the competition.
The main programme starts with an in-person challenge setting meeting at 9am on Wednesday 25th January, followed by 2 days of workshops, introducing tools for innovation, generation and development of ideas, as well as technical training on AI and Machine Learning for those who need it, culminating in pitching each team’s solutions.
The teams will pitch their solutions at a final workshop on 23rd February in front of a panel of judges drawn from academia and industry. Winners will be announced and prizes awarded at a special ‘Dinner with the Dinosaurs’ event held at the Oxford Museum of Natural History on 2nd March.
| Week | Date and time | Content |
| 1 | Thurs 19 January, 6-7pm |
Seminar at Natural History Museum promoting i-City: Kostas Margellos (Reuben College) |
| 2 |
Weds 25 January, half day 9.30am-2pm |
Inaugural workshop with industry challenges Rory Adams (MathsWorks); Carolyn Hicks (Brill Power); Anupama Sen (Smith School) |
|
Thurs 26 and Fri 27 January, two full days 9am - 5pm (Lunch provided) |
Future Innovators Training Programme (SkillFluence) |
|
| 3 |
Fri 3 February, half day 9am-1pm |
Technical training: (MathWorks) |
| 4 |
Fri 10 February, half day 2pm-5pm |
Progress check-in: |
| 5 |
Thurs 16 February, half day 10am - 1pm |
Meet the Users (round table discussion at Oxford Martin School). |
| 6 |
Thurs 23 February, half day 9am-1pm |
Final workshop (student presentations and assessments). |
| 7 |
Thursday 9th March, evening 6.30pm-9pm |
Dinner with Dinosaurs (with presentation by winning team). |
Who can participate?
The competition is open to students of all disciplines from Reuben College and post-graduates all departments in the MPLS Division at the University of Oxford. No previous experience of working with AI and ML is required - diversity of teams is key, and the competition welcomes students with backgrounds in economics, sustainability, ethics and business as well as engineering and computer science students.
Why join in?
- Build skills in innovation, technology, presenting, pitching and more
- Enhance your employability - gain valuable transferable skills that will help you in your future career
- Tackle real-world challenges - and have fun doing it!
- Prizes will be awarded to each winning participant - full details to be announced