And at the corner of the street
A lonely cab-horse steams and stamps.
And then the lighting of the lamps.
This week we saw two very different groups from within our community, both assessing and managing risk.
BP and Telensa came to talk about monitoring remote assets. BP assess the likelihood and consequences of breaks in their pipelines, which differ greatly between those running through the mountains of Georgia or growing townships of Canada. They control those risks through horse patrols, sniffer dogs, optic cables checking temperature, noise and vibrations, and a range of other sensing technologies. If anyone has good ideas on how to detect small underground leaks, they are keen to hear from you! Telensa is helping local governments and energy companies tackle the 20% of their carbon footprint due to street lighting. Their lamp units improve on the local light sensors and allow authorities to dim lamps with the option to light them quickly if there is an incident. Engineers from 42 Technology, Antenova, BAE, Cosworth, Cyan, Nokia, Sentec, TT Electronics, Zimiti and elsewhere had plenty to contribute to discussion.
Royal Bank of Scotland came to forecast how foreign exchange will vary over the next few months, and suggest ways to control that risk. A strengthening dollar may help local exporters like Aixtron, Antenova, Biocair, Biotica Technology, Cambridge Consultants, CSR, Datanomics, Jagex, Light Blue Optics, Nujira, Plastic Logic, Pi Shurlok, RAND Europe, Taptu, Ubisense, Xaar. But the increased volatility of foreign exchange makes it more expensive to hedge.
Bringing Cambridge ideas to the world requires skills in making sense of technology to handle real-world problems, and financing and scaling up businesses to deliver those solutions around the world. It was good to see experts of both kinds getting together.
