Picking up a random book to read in the library led me to take it out and read it cover to cover. The excellent “Out of their Minds” profiles 15 Computer Scientists including John Backus, Alan Kay, Edsger Dijkstra, Knuth and Fred Brooks. Having the human element really makes a change from a lot of the other reading I’ve been doing on all things smart energy, smart power and smart homes. Often the papers present systems in such a dry, systematic manner you would be forgiven for forgetting that people are supposed to want to live with them. Exploring the motivations for installation then the extent of continued interaction is a theme I’d like to explore more within the “smart home” area.

This in mind on Friday, I, Rachel Keller and Gordon Blair visited the Horizon DTC at Nottingham University. Discussed my interests in smart energy and kept in mind my inherent computer science predisposition to frame problems and discover solutions.

Met some students after being shown into the facilities by the Lake on the Jubilee Campus. The computer science buildings are located separately to the main Nottingham campus and finding it in the morning on the way up from the Igloo Hostel was a happy accident.

After sitting in on a meeting then having lunch we went to the other building housing the Horizon project and got mini-introductions to a variety of projects by staff. The time taken out to see us was much appreciated. Finally we met Prof. Tom Rodden whom seemed to share similar ideas to me around the data side of smart meters and pointed out some relevant projects with a great deal of knowledge and enthusiasm.

Meeting this Ubicomp focused contemporary of Highwire was an enjoyable and valuable day out.