In this final episode of our secure connected places series, five leading experts review all the themes from across the series, and discuss the challenges places are facing when deploying IoT:

Professor Rachel Cooper OBE, Lady

Rachel is Distinguished Professor of Design Management and Policy at Lancaster University. Much of which her research has focused on the future of cities and human and planetary wellbeing. She has published extensively on these topics, including books, 'Designing Sustainable Cities', 'The Handbook of Wellbeing and the Environment' and ‘Living in Digital Worlds; designing the digital public space’. She was a Lead Expert for the UK Government Foresight programme on the Future of Cities and latterly Chair of Built Environment Subcommittee of the Oxford Commission for Creating Healthy Cities.

Farah Ahmed

Farah Ahmed heads the Cyber Security Policy Team for connected places at the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology. Farah has previously worked in the Cabinet Office, Defra, and DCMS on a range of policies, including data standards, international digital policy, open data and transparency, horizon scanning, data transformation and strategy, data ethics and digital identity.

Olivia Gass

Olivia is a Policy Advisor for the Secure Connected Places team at the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology. She works on the team’s demand policy and leads several projects working to support the cyber security of organisations procuring and managing connected places technologies. Prior to joining the Secure Connected Places team, Olivia worked in the private sector as a consultant to some of the UK’s largest infrastructure projects.  

Yalena Coleman:

Yalena is a leader in technology and data who has worked across Europe, Asia and Africa, with a focus on data governance, digital strategy, software and product development, IoT and cybersecurity. She is currently the Director of Applied Data and Technology at Connected Places Catapult, the UK’s innovation accelerator for places and transport. Her portfolio includes the Digital Twin (DT) Hub, the Climate Resilience Digital Twin Demonstrator, and the Digital Connectivity Infrastructure Accelerator amongst others.

Alex Gluhak:

Alex describes himself as being “on a mission to democratise access to real time urban data [so others can create better urban futures]”. With over 20 years’ experience in smart city technologies, IoT and urban data solutions, Alex founded Urban Data Collective in 2020 and was previously the Head of IoT Technologies at the Digital Catapult, [and worked for global technology leaders such as Intel and Ericsson].

Links listeners may find useful from our conversation:

• https://www.gov.uk/guidance/secure-connected-places-playbook the alpha Secure Connected Places Playbook which DSIT refer to. 
• https://www.gov.uk/guidance/secure-connected-places for more information on the DSIT’s Secure Connected Places work programme as a whole 

As ever, thank you to Professor Alan Chamberlain for gifting his AI generated music which we have used throughout this series.