ICT Visit: Birmingham Science Park Aston

On Thursday 27th January 2011 a group of ICT students in the lower and upper sixth visited Birmingham Science Park Aston. We met Mr. Hugo Russell, an IT entrepreneur, he guided us to a state of the art video conferencing suite, where we were shown Tandberg’s video conferencing system costing approximately £80,000.  It had a true-to-life picture interface and a clever moving HD camera connected to a very large TV which had call making capabilities. This effectively enables meetings to be conducted in several places around the world simultaneously on one large screen without the need for transport. A direct connection can be made between universities and schools from the suite to discuss research and product development, to create a greater depth of knowledge on one particular project by using more unique minds. We were also given an opportunity to interact with the system which was fun; this was supported by a technology seminar which lasted about 90 minutes.

Next we met the Managing Director of an upcoming, rapidly growing social networking games company called Soshi games who announced a top secret game project concerning music. The company initially started with three members of staff and now is expecting a turnover of £20million in the next 5 years with 20 staff. The company is shortly releasing a game called “Village raffles” on Facebook. We were given advice by Mr. Russell about the opportunities in new emerging technologies, where there is bound to be financial gain. Intel AppUp development, which is currently under exploited and overlooked due to Apple and Android applications development which is peaking at present, was felt to be an under developed opportunity. He felt that in the near future social networking games on platforms, such as Facebook, will eclipse the gaming console and most gaming will take place online with different users around the world, which is looking very likely. Hugo instructed anyone who is serious to set up a business and has a genuine business plan with a movement made already, should approach Aston Science Park who would be happy to accommodate the business free for 6 months subject to conditions.

The knowledge gained from this visit gave an invaluable insight into the convergence of Business and ICT and how things are marketed to us, for example 3G is put across to us as the consumer as an exciting new feature when a 4G wifi connection already exists at the Science Park. I also personally learnt that business powered by Information Communication Technology is an essential part of the world we live in today. We also learnt that to succeed in business you should not fear failure as it is a stepping stone to success. These concepts will support me in my Advanced Diploma Course where ideas and experience from the ICT Business world need to be applied to work, for example in database development and website development which I am currently studying.

This is an exciting time for ICT as it is being rapidly evolved to comfortably integrate and positively impact all aspects of our lives and make us all dependent upon it. The Visit was an over whelming success. Another educational visit which is currently being arranged is to Land Rover Solihull, which is a thrilling prospect as it will provide an opportunity to see the latest ICT and manufacturing technologies!

Raihan