IT Complex

Brand new state of the art building specially designed to attract SMEs to use to investigate business applications of the latest ICT technologies, under the guidance of a team of highly qualified professionals.

Wolverhampton
Wolverhampton is in the heart of the West Midlands ‘Black Country’, and as such has excellent transport links to many West Midlands organizations.  IT Futures have also assisted several ‘high tech’ companies in the Welsh/Shropshire Marches which is part of the rural regeneration area.  S-Nav is one such company which specializes in Satellite navigation software.

Equipment for loan
As well as investigating hardware/software within the IT Futures Centre, SMEs can loan this equipment for evaluation assisted by ITFC Consultants at their own premises over a longer period of time at no charge. A typical example would be Bronx Engineering.  After a superficial investigation of SolidWorks and Inventor (both 3D CAD packages) Bronx have loaned both packages for a period of 3/6 months for further evaluation.  They have produced appropriate drawings and animations for their customers and have been able to make a direct comparison between them.  They can then justify the purchase of the most appropriate package to their financial director.

Research
In the IT Futures building academic research in the field of IT and Engineering is being carried out that is directly applicable to SMEs, with the IT Futures consultancy staff acting as an ‘interface’ between academics and companies.  Opportunities for further development can be explored in a stimulating environment.

The first major area of research is:

Payment kiosks (for multiple payments by cards/cash), together with:

• Smart card technology
• Chip and pin technology

IT Futures are working closely with several companies on this research, not as is usual in academic isolation. One such company is KPR Midlink Ltd.  They have developed a payment kiosk for use by local authorities, higher education etc for the payment of such items as Council Tax/rents and for providing ‘on line’ information. Chip and pin facilities are required by their customers, but although the technology has been developed up to a point there are still areas where further investigation and development are necessary for the payment kiosk to be fully chip and pin enabled.  IT Futures are researching the fine details of this process and assisting KPR in selecting appropriate hardware from a myriad of potential OEM suppliers.

In parallel, IT Futures is collaborating with KPR and Bradford University on the use of smart cards within universities and the charging of smart cards using unattended payment kiosks.

RFID

The second major area of research is RFID (radio frequency identification).  RFID is about to enter many business arenas and is the next technological stage from bar codes.

The hype is that bread makers and microwaves will be able to read recipes, and washing machines will be able to work out what is inside them and set themselves to the correct programme.  If a product has an RFID ‘tag’, machines in the kitchen can be programmed to read its code as soon as it is brought into the home.  The tag emits a radio signal up to a 15 ft range.  Washing machines can be made to read ‘tags’ on clothing labels and then set themselves to the right programme.  

IT Futures is acting as the interface to enable SMEs to apply RFID in their business areas.  They will provide practical support with the inevitable technical hitches that occur in a new scenario such as this.  They are linking this research with their research into smart cards and liaising with researchers in both fields.  

Visitor Analysis
The third major area of research is visitor analysis for museums, etc.  Often, museums are ‘manned’ by volunteer staff or staff inexperienced with technology.  

IT Futures have already developed an intelligent ‘touch screen’ technology that allows museums and similar organizations to quickly and easily enter the multitudinous data required by funding agencies (e.g. how many visitors/gender/ethnicity/whether staying locally/mode of transport).  This data is then analysed, producing a range of formats to be included in monitoring documents/reports.

Contact Us

University of Wolverhampton                                                                                  

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Wulfruna Street
Wolverhampton
WV1 1SB
T: 01902 323396 / Fax: 01902 321477

http://www.initiativeitsolutions.co.uk