IoT in monitoring and analysis: what, why and how

At DG Cities, much of our work is involved with exploring the practical applications of emerging tech, consumer attitudes and behaviours, and the value that innovations can bring to people and communities. Taking an overview of some of our IoT projects, Innovation and IoT Consultant, Sam Grounds looks at the challenges of trialling monitoring devices, choosing providers, the benefits of working with big data and key lessons we have learned.

In our team, we spend a lot of time thinking about how to use technology to support urban transformation, often in the field of housing. Monitoring is key to producing data that can provide evidence of conditions in social housing, the way this can change over time and the impact of different interventions. We see monitoring as key to identifying best practice and providing the evidence base for business cases and the scaling up of potentially useful solutions. 

Why is monitoring important?

Monitoring is integral to any project involving the use of new tech, as it provides evidence of its impact and allows us to develop a greater understanding of its potential in solving problems. For many of our clients, the ability to monitor impact over time is invaluable and has the potential to allow for the delivery of greater, more tangible benefits. That’s why we try to incorporate monitoring into our evaluation or projects, as much as using data as a driver for decision-making.

We value IoT tech as it enables the collection of a lot of data cheaply and continuously. While previously we relied on visits to check the condition, now we can gather the same information remotely. Even better, that information comes in a non-biased, standardised manner – and is not only providing a snapshot but a full set of datapoints over a period of time. This is the real innovation in IoT for many of the applications we look into. The challenge is often to understand whether this data is trustworthy, relevant and actionable. On the market today, we see an endless array of sensors, but just because we find out about something in detail it doesn’t mean that the knowledge actually allows us to act in a better, more targeted way than without it. 

Key Elements

Baselining

There are a number of different steps we take to understand the potential of such data and whether or not the new tech is actually delivering value for our clients. The first step is baselining – establishing a defined starting point and identifying trends over time to measure and compare the impact of new interventions. This can be done by:

1. procuring new tech to monitor conditions,

2. combining existing historical data sets, or

3. a combination of the two.

While this is key to understanding impacts, we must allow for a period of monitoring in which there are no interventions in order to fully understand their impact. We have found that often this tech is only installed following an intervention and comprises part of an overall programme of works. However, we advocate for monitoring as the first step in a programme of works, as it provides key performance data that helps when comparing performance and designing bespoke interventions.

Case study

Fly-tipping reduction in Greenwich

One such example is a DG Cities’ project with the Royal Borough of Greenwich, which aimed to reduce fly-tipping on housing estates. DG Cities worked closely with the RBG caretaking team to understand where fly-tipping was most prevalent on estates, and identified a smart camera solution to tackle the issue and discourage people from leaving waste. This was an innovative behaviour change + tech approach, which combined insights from data and behavioural science to deliver more holistic, effective and lasting improvements.

To measure the impact of this camera solution, DG Cities worked with the council to access historical fly-tipping data and measure instances before and after intervention to find if rates changed. We found that rates of fly-tipping began to reduce in the first week following the installation of cameras, evidenced in fly-tipping data and anecdotal evidence from caretaking teams on the ground. This type of monitoring is potentially valuable across a wide range of projects, building an evidence base for clients driven by real data – a process that can help fast-track improvements, scale up interventions and develop more impactful projects.

Resident engagement

Another key step is to consider the value of using tech to improve communication and engagement with residents. This is particularly useful in tackling damp and mould, and is a good example of where tech can add value. DG Cities is currently working with a number of London boroughs on the use of tech in the management of damp and mould in social housing.

This is an urgent public health issue, however designing solutions is not without complexity. According to recent government guidance, ‘understanding and addressing the health risks of damp and mould in the home’, tenants cannot be blamed for damp and mould, meaning local authorities need to find effective, collaborative ways of engaging with residents around these issues. While providing a healthy home is the responsibility of the local authority, the use of data in these conversations is key in developing a trusting partnership with residents, providing them with an evidence base and working to identify solutions together. Environmental monitoring allows a local authority to identify true causes of damp and mould in properties, linked to lack of ventilation, cold bridges or any other physical or environmental conditions. The data can then be used to work with tenants to identify holistic solutions that would work best to mitigate negative impacts. This produces an overall approach to damp and mould reduction that doesn’t apportion blame, is supportive and focused on improvement.

An evidence-based approach

DG Cities has been providing clients with actionable data, combining new and existing data sets to produce recommendations on retrofit and decarbonisation, from capital works all the way to resident behaviour in individual homes. This has been helped by our understanding of the technology landscape. We conduct extensive research into new and emerging tech that can meet client needs, and develop partnerships with solutions providers, sitting at the intersection between tech providers and local authorities. We then manage and deliver projects across the whole lifecycle, from inception and implementation all the way through to delivery and evaluation.

Recently, DG Cities partnered with Sense Inc to procure home energy monitors for housing tenants, providing residents with real time energy usage information for individual appliances in their home. We monitored usage over a period of time, and delivered targeted advice based on their data, helping them find ways of reducing it. We then continued to monitor to determine the impact of different advice. This trial and error is made possible by the ability to monitor outcomes, and provide recommendations to organisations and residents on appropriate and effective interventions. Through these projects, we have come to understand the power of monitoring and its applications across a project’s lifecycle.

These are some of the key lessons we have learnt:

• Identify KPIs early and allow room for them to change

• Consider wider possible applications at the start of the project and revisit regularly

• Don’t underestimate the power of a clear and compelling data set

• Consider client priorities at varying levels of seniority.

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How can we help?

DG Cities can work with your organisation to design, trial and evaluate monitoring, building on our relationships with tech providers and our experience in the industry to identify the right tech solutions. Importantly, we are not tech-led but driven by effective solutions – our in-house behavioural science team complement our approach. We work with clients across from inception to delivery and evaluation, ensuring monitoring is always possible and prioritised throughout a project, and we have a proven track record of delivering projects for local authorities across a wide range of services. To discuss a particular issue or solution, get in touch.

Trial blazers: widening participation in tech pilots

For our latest blog, IoT Project Manager, Sam Grounds is taking a look at the importance of trials and pilots when it comes to ensuring the effectiveness and safety of tech-driven solutions, particularly in the context of social housing. He addresses the greatest obstacle in the execution of IoT trials: effective recruitment, in particular among older adults. We need a thoughtful, personalised approach to recruiting all age groups for trials, if we are to unlock the full potential of IoT technology to improve people’s lives and address broader issues, like energy efficiency and housing standards.

IoT covers a broad spectrum of technological solutions to a wide range of problems, from tackling Bovine Respiratory Disease to scheduling jet repairs at airports across the world. But IoT also serves a less glamourous purpose, enabling access to innovation for individuals to solve problems that are smaller in size on an individual level, but put together, form some of the biggest challenges to the planet and people.

Take, for example, damp and mould across housing stock, or electricity usage of individual appliances in homes. Individually, these are small-scale interventions, but when implemented across a population, these interventions tackle big issues like fuel poverty, energy efficiency, and balancing the demand on energy systems.

As the world becomes increasingly dependent on tech-driven solutions, tech trials and studies are essential to ensure the efficiency and safety of these innovations. Much of DG Cities’ recent work in these spaces has revolved around running trials of this small scale IoT technology with tenants in social housing.

A colleague told me recently that “a project is at its most perfect during the planning phase.”

The planning phase is considered to be the purest phase of a project’s lifecycle, as during this phase the project exists purely in the realm of concepts, ideas and strategies, where outcomes and deliverables are dreamed up and the benefits to participants are never-ending. The planning phase exists before the complexities and challenges of execution start to shape the project, which got me thinking about the barriers I’ve experienced in conducting such trials. One stuck out considerably more than the rest – recruitment.

While the potential benefits delivered to residents are broad, appropriate and effective recruitment proves to be a major barrier to achieving these benefits across a whole group of participants. Returning to the previous quote, a lack of effective recruitment can prevent you from delivering all the benefits that you dreamt up in the planning phase.

One significant challenge researchers and tech companies often face is recruiting older adults into these trials. In my experience, there are thee major barriers to effectively recruiting older adults:

1. Technological Intimidation

2. Perceived Irrelevance

3. Mistrust of Technology

Technological intimidation is a primary barrier to recruiting older adults into tech trials, where many older adults grew up in an era without smartphones and IoT, the idea of agreeing to install such technology in their homes can be intimidating. During many of my conversations with residents, I hear variations on the following; “how do I know if my phone is smart?”, “my daughter is the only one with access to my emails”, “what’s an Android?” - highlighting a clear digital divide between younger and older participants. According to analysis of data by AgeUK (2021), 79% of over-75s cited a lack of IT skills as the major barrier to getting online more.

So what is the solution here? In one of my previous blogs, I discussed the idea of categorising participants according to their level of confidence in using new tech, ranging from tech-savvy to indifferent. These categorisations enable you to design bespoke engagement plans for participants according to their tech personality. For those that are experiencing tech intimidation this might include comprehensive tech training and support, as well as offering user-friendly interfaces and clear instructions during trials. I’ve also found that support delivered over the phone is not always appropriate. Users experiencing intimidation and a lack of digital skills benefit more from in-person demonstrations where they can see first-hand how easy it can be to use apps effectively, and generates greater levels of both interest and confidence.

Perceived irrelevance is another barrier to effectively recruiting older adults into tech trials. There is a disconnect between what new tech can deliver, be it better conditions in homes, higher energy efficiency or money savings, and people’s understandings of how tech can deliver these things. To help try and solve this, it is important to map benefits in the planning phase, and create an engagement plan centred around this.

It’s crucial to strike a balance between highlighting the possible benefits and promising too much. There is nothing worse than promising the world and not delivering. Try to understand who your target demographic are and identify the differences among them, then align your engagement efforts with those interests. For example, if your product has lots of bells and whistles, get your tech-savvy participants excited about them, if your product has an easy to use interface, include that in your messaging to your less digitally confident residents.

To find out how the DG Cities team designs, delivers and evaluates tech trials, and supports synergies between industry and local government, get in touch.

References:

https://www.ageuk.org.uk/latest-press/articles/2021/nearly-two-million-over-75s-in-england-are-still-digitally-excluded--in-a-covid-19-world/

Research in practice with students from Imperial College London

The nature of working on projects at the forefront of innovations in tech means we often team up with researchers and academics, as well as industry partners. Our relationship with Imperial College London has developed over the years, and recently we were delighted to support a team of students with a live brief to help them develop a project with real-world implications. Our IoT Project Manager, Sam Grounds supervised the group and explains more.

Sam and the Imperial student team

As part of DG Cities’ ongoing relationship with Imperial College London, I supervised a group of Electrical and Electronic Engineering students for their end of year summer project. The purpose of these partnerships is to give the students real-life case studies to work and experiment with, as well as embellishing existing DG Cities projects with outside perspectives and expertise.

The group chose to work on one of our IoT projects, which is aimed at using technology to improve people’s understanding of energy usage in their home. We gave the students an overview and a set of research questions to answer, keeping them broad to encourage a creative approach. Their work was fantastic, and gave our DG Cities team some interesting new insights.

One of their most useful suggestions was to categorise users based on their assumed ‘energy behaviours’, ranging from ‘tech savvy’ to ‘indifferent’. One of the challenges within this project can be identifying the most effective messaging to use to communicate with people with different levels of motivation. By identifying these characteristics early on, it would be possible to communicate with different residents in ways that suit them best, driving greater levels of engagement and ensuring users can get the most out of the technology. The students developed a methodology to identify these personalities through surveys and data analysis, which could inform engagement strategies for future projects.

At DG Cities, we have a wide variety of interests and expertise across our team, and staff are always encouraged and able to make meaningful contributions to our work. By extending this line of thinking to academic institutions, we are able to not only extend our network, but we are exposed to increasingly fresh and innovative ideas.

Working with the students on this project was such a valuable process for me to be a part of as a project manager. Running a project, it’s all too easy to get bogged down in problem-solving and the challenges faced along the way. Introducing the project to a new set of people allowed me to reflect on where we were to date, and identify not only the successes, but to gain a new perspective on the challenges and encourage learning. It benefits both parties; for students entering the final stages of their university education, the prospect of joining the world of work can be daunting, but partnerships such as these provide valuable insights into real life projects, and allow them to contribute meaningfully to outcomes. I’m excited to see where our future collaborations take us!

Here's what they had to say about the project and our collaboration… 

Tanya Chopra

When initially presented with the various project briefs, I was immediately drawn to the “Nudging Energy Trial” proposed by DG Cities, due to my interest in the machine learning and energy sectors, alongside the potential positive impacts the project could help have on the community. “Reduce your energy usage” is something we always hear; however, this project has provided an opportunity to gain a deeper understanding of energy usage trends and general misconceptions. I always thought I made an effort to reduce my usage, however having undertaken this project it has made me more conscious of various factors that can affect our usage levels.

Due to us each having varying background experience, we were able to support one another effectively and allocate roles between us to help achieve the best results. In our initial group meeting, we talked about our skill sets and interests, and from there we assigned roles and divided into subgroups. This helped us in playing to each other’s strengths, and to ensure everyone was content with the roles they had been allocated to.

One of the challenges I did not initially expect to face was how complex it can be trying to categorise users into distinct groups based on their energy usage levels, as there are often several factors that come into play, which result in a change in behaviour between different times of day.

Miguel Bragança

At first, the limitless aspect of our problem seemed a bit intimidating. But as we navigated through it, it turned into an unexpected blessing. It gave us the freedom to tweak and adjust our project's direction. It empowered us to venture down paths that we felt were both meaningful and fascinating.

We always had this clear idea to create a product that combined qualitative data - from surveys - with quantitative information powered by Machine Learning. But, we hadn't quite expected the level of iteration and the numerous changes in direction we'd make throughout the project. Progress wasn't a straight line; there were times when some of our work didn't find its way into the final product at all.

But here's the thing - facing and overcoming these challenges played a huge role in our overall satisfaction with the final product. It was the journey, with all its ups and downs, that made the destination truly worthwhile. 

Derek Ang

Balazs and Sam gave us lots of freedom to do what we wanted, so the project started off as an open problem. Eager to define the objectives and start work quickly, I stepped up as project lead. I was lucky to have talented and supportive teammates for a randomly assigned team. We concluded that we would require roles in data modelling, public outreach, and design. The team filled up the roles based on their interests and delivered exceptional results.

It was challenging to package our solution to meet the academic expectations laid out by our supervisor. Throughout the project, we encountered many real-life obstacles, such as uncertainty and incomplete data. To progress, we had to rely on educated guesses and assumptions, which presented difficulties in documenting and explaining our decisions.

We were able to strike a balance between the academic and DG Cities’ expectations by maintaining clear communication with both parties throughout the project. It was very useful to hear Balazs and Sam’s perspectives during our weekly meetings. They guided us in the right direction and provided lots of on-the-ground context for our solution. They also offered us the wonderful opportunity to present our project to a wider audience, from whom we received valuable feedback.

Yuhe Zhang

From the first time reading the project title of ‘Nudging Energy Trial’, I immediately sensed its widespread social relevance as energy topics always capture public interest. To perform data analysis in this project, we were not only applying cutting-edge machine learning algorithms on ideal datasets but also thinking ourselves as members of the community, empathizing with residents, and contemplating feasible ways to collectively build a sustainable living environment. The diversity within our team has revealed countless possibilities to me. In addition to the complementary strengths of our team members, we are receptive to viewpoints presented by the DG Cities team from a corporate perspective. The continuous refinement of our project's concept is also attributed to our positive communication between both parties. As we actively engaged in project research and conducted in-depth investigations, we consistently encountered challenges and overcame difficulties, further solidifying my belief that we can leverage our academic knowledge to provide practical solutions for societal issues.

Patrica Acha Zemora

Learning about the challenges of working with residents drastically changed my view on community engagement. The diversity and complexity of community perspectives, along with varying participation levels and the difficulty in reaching residents, added layers of complexity I hadn't initially anticipated. Initially, I assumed it was a straightforward process of seeking feedback and analysing responses. However, gathering useful data was much more difficult than I anticipated!

This experience reshaped our approach. We realised the need to craft concise yet comprehensive survey questions that would keep participants engaged without overwhelming them. We had to strike a balance - we wanted to gather substantial data to craft well-informed solutions, but we also had to respect the time and energy of our respondents. Overly lengthy and open-ended surveys often deterred them from participating.

Upon gathering and analysing the data, we managed to broadly divide the population into different segments. It was fascinating to see our data team use this information in their approach to create tailored solutions!

Elodie Delort

Since the project deliverables required a variety of skills in very different domains, it was nice to be able to assign each of our responsibilities based on our individual skills and interests. As I personally do not have much knowledge in Machine Learning or AI, I thoroughly enjoyed being able to contribute with the more creative side through the leaflet and poster. The entire project was really helpful in giving us insight on how real-world company projects would work with the combination of many people from different backgrounds and interests. We were able to all show off our personal skills on the tasks that we each worked on whilst simultaneously learning about how other people approach the same type of tasks.

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From all at DG Cities, thanks to the Imperial student team for the insights, hard work and passion they brought to this project – and our very best wishes for their future studies.

Welcome Sam, our IoT Project Manager!

A cheerful piece of DG Cities news for our final blog of the year: a welcome to the newest member of our team, Sam Grounds, our IoT Project Manager. Sam joined us on a placement as a graduate trainee and liked it so much he decided to stay. He’s brought some great skills to the team, and has already been getting stuck into a range of projects, from a smart homes initiative to improve housing maintenance, to the trialling of IoT cameras to reduce antisocial behaviour.

Image: Diliara Garifullina

It’s exciting to have joined the DG Cities team full-time as IoT (Internet of Things) Project Manager. Having been seconded to the company for six months as part the graduate programme at the Royal Borough of Greenwich, I had the chance to experience the innovative and exciting world of DG Cities before I joined. One of the things I appreciated from the start was the chance to work with this talented team of specialists with backgrounds in such a wide variety of sectors.

My academic background is in geography. I studied this at the University of Manchester, with a year studying abroad in the USA at the University of Vermont. My focus was human geography, which introduced me to the themes around urban development, innovation, energy, health and IoT that are at the heart of what I’m working on now.

After university, I lived in Australia for two years, travelling and working before returning home to start the Local Government Association’s National Graduate Development Programme, based in the Royal Borough of Greenwich. My initial role was in Children’s Services, then I moved to DG Cities for my second placement – and haven’t looked back! Already, I have worked on a variety of projects, including decarbonisation, fly-tipping monitoring and energy reduction initiatives.

At the end of October, I joined DG Cities full time as IoT Project Manager. My focus is continuing to develop our IoT programme, and there are a few exciting projects in this area coming up. The first is a partnership with Sense, a household energy monitoring device that uses AI and machine learning to monitor the electricity consumption of appliances in the home. The pilot project will involve the installation of Sense devices in 40 council owned homes across the Royal Borough of Greenwich, as well as carefully developed behavioural interventions. The behavioural science aspect to projects at DG Cities is full of new experiences and lessons for me; I’m excited by the potential of behaviour change and technology interventions to work together – this behavioural aspect has added an interesting new layer to some of the projects I have been working on.

Smart Homes is another project we are delivering, in partnership with the Royal Borough of Greenwich, where we are planning to install environmental sensors and Smart Fire Detection Systems in 160 council-owned properties. This will involve incorporating IoT systems in housing, focusing on properties with damp and mould issues, sheltered accommodation, large multiple-dwellings units, and void properties. The aim of the project is to find effective ways of using technology to monitor conditions in social housing, to get ahead of any potential issues and improve the response to damp and mould in homes. These projects are particularly exciting as I believe they can make a difference in the context of the cost-of-living crisis and rising energy costs; we are implementing exciting potential solutions that are relevant to the real issues people are facing today.

It’s been an exciting few months, and I can’t wait to see what next year at DG Cities brings. It’s a great team, and I’m looking forward to continuing to learn and develop alongside colleagues with such a breadth of experience. I’m also proud to be a part of a company that is putting the opinions and needs of service users at the heart of what they do, to advance the innovative, technology-led solutions that can make a real, positive difference to people’s lives.