PTC has announced ThingWorx, a PTC technology, is joining the MK:Smart project, a £16M HEFCE (Higher Education Funding Council for England) smart-city initiative, led by the Open University, which aims to tackle barriers to economic growth in the city of Milton Keynes, UK. ThingWorx will provide a rapid application development environment as an additional feature to the MK data hub. Partners of this project include BT, Milton Keynes Council and UCMK (University Campus Milton Keynes), supported by ThingWorx Partner InVMA.
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The MK Data Hub enables a data-centric approach to open innovation and provides a platform that can be used to deliver apps and services to address the challenges of an expanding city. This provides opportunities for local companies to take data-driven innovations to market.
ThingWorx provides a purpose-built IoT application development environment that is free to SMEs (small and medium-sized enterprises) in MK:Smart for the development of their market-ready applications. Pre-connected to data available in the Data Hub and open to new data sources, the ThingWorx® platform will accelerate the development process of combining data sets and building rich, interactive applications.
Training and advice for SMEs is provided by the team at UCMK, supported by BT and ThingWorx Partner InVMA. In addition to this technical support, MK:Smart offers a range of business engagement activities for innovative SMEs who are seeking to engage with the MK Data Hub to build new data-driven applications and services.
“ThingWorx is a great addition to the MK Data Hub,” said Professor Enrico Motta, Open University, Project Director, MK:Smart. “It will enhance our platform by facilitating rapid prototyping and delivery of IoT applications, a key aspect of smart city solutions. I am looking forward to seeing the results from this exciting collaboration.”
“ThingWorx is honored to join MK:Smart, one of the world’s preeminent smart city initiatives,” said Russ Fadel, president, ThingWorx. “Integrating ThingWorx with the MK Data Hub will not only enable universities, high tech businesses and incubators to quickly and securely deliver IoT applications that unlock the value in the city’s open data sets, but also to accelerate economic growth in Milton Keynes by promoting the creation of new local business ventures. MK:Smart is truly demonstrating the way forward for cities around the world.”