Research IT

Making a Difference Award for Manchester Urban Observatory

Ann Gledson, Research Software Engineer, is part of a cross-university team that recently won a University of Manchester “Making a Difference” award for the Manchester Urban Observatory.

Ann Gledson, Research Software Engineer, along with other members of the Manchester Urban Observatory (MUO) team led by James Evans (School of Environment, Education and Development) and David Topping (Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences) was recently awarded a UoM Making a Difference award for their work on the Manchester Urban Observatory (MUO). The awards acknowledge the difference that University staff, students, alumni and external partners are making in their communities and beyond. With nine award categories covering the many different types of social responsibility projects and activities, the team won the award for “Outstanding contribution to social innovation and environmental impact”.

Using her experience on previous Internet-of-Things (IOT) and Smart City projects, Ann was asked to help with the £1 million bid for UKCRIC funding, leading to the launch of the MUO. The MUO offers a unique service by bringing data, sensors and expertise together to improve decision making in cities. With help from the RIT Infrastructure team, she drew up the technical specification and budget for a Manchester data hub, to host live city data. She also compiled a system architecture design for the data-hub and an inventory of publicly available Manchester data and sensors to be shared on this new data platform. She spent the final month of the project designing and developing the MUO website, which uses a content management system developed by our Web Application Development Service (WADS).

The MUO is part of a wider network of UK urban observatories funded by UKCRIC, designed to gather data about urban environments and make them openly available to organisations and communities. For example, the MANCHESTER-I platform, built as part of the MUO platform, allows the visualisation and analysis of traffic, air quality, meteorological and hydrology data. It gathers data from urban sensors and projects, presenting it accessibly to users including councils, researchers and the public. MUO also brokers equipment and expertise from across the University to support partners addressing air quality, urban infrastructure and wellbeing.

The awards panel asked for evidence where their activities align to the UN's Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and this was something that the MUO was well placed to give. Achieving the SDGs requires data-driven decisions to create smart, resilient sustainable development, but most data are private, under-utilised and often expensive. MUO opens up data and supplies research expertise and equipment to support positive social, economic and environmental change, at multiple scales. In particular the MUO addressed the air quality (SDG3), urban infrastructure (SDG11, 12, 13) and health and wellbeing (SDG3) SDGs.

The platform has made data from University based projects, Transport for Greater Manchester and Manchester City Council open for the first time. MUO also brings equipment and research expertise to bear from across all faculties to support work. These range from monitoring Greater Manchester’s low traffic neighbourhood schemes and the pedestrianisation of Deansgate, to working with Global Action Plan and Phillips to develop air purifiers and action plans for clean air for schools. The MUO has also allowed new opportunities for learning, from local schools accessing our air quality data to applied study opportunities for students.

To celebrate their achievement the team will be presented with certificates and trophies at a later date..

The full team MUO team are:

  • James Evans (School of Environment, Education and Development)
  • David Topping (Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences)
  • Thomas Bannan and Ian Crawford (Centre for Atmospheric Science)
  • Ettore Murabito (Manchester Urban Observatory)
  • Jennifer O'Brien, Jamie Anderson and Joe Rees (School of Environment, Education and Development)
  • Jack Benton (Division of Psychology & Mental Health)
  • Mushtahid Salam (School of Social Sciences)
  • Matthew Harrison (Digital Futures Institute)
  • Martie van Tongeran (School of Health Sciences)