VIEWS & OPINION
What “Industry 4.0” means for students and educators
Comment by GARY MCKAY, CEO and Founder of APPII
The essential protection of your students demands highly reliable surveillance products
Comment by TONY LANNON,
Technical Sales Manager at Veracity UK Ltd
The last digital revolution gave students and educators unprecedented access to information through the internet, and saw technologies such as smartboards engage students in new and innovative ways. Today, we are on the precipice of our fourth industrial revolution. Industry 4.0 will be defined by decentralised networks, artificial intelligence, the Internet of Things (IoT) and blockchain, and the disruptive potential of these technologies within the education sector is enormous. The proliferation of such technologies will ensure a sharp rise in demand for students and graduates with skill sets that are not only directly applicable, such as coding and engineering, but also that lend themselves to these areas, such as Mathematics and Design. To ensure students are able to capitalise on these new opportunities, and to keep ahead in a competitive market, educational institutions must be willing to embrace Industry 4.0 as it develops.
Virtual and Augmented Reality will have a real impact on the education industry. Students could be able to learn about anatomy by virtually travelling ‘inside’ the body to see first-hand how it works or be able to immerse themselves in a profession when considering potential career paths. This is undoubtedly set to revolutionise the way students engage with their education. Industry 4.0 is also likely to see digitally augmented tutoring become commonplace. With IoT devices connecting people internationally, students with specific needs or interests can be easily connected with teachers who have the appropriate qualifications to help them learn.
One of the fundamental pillars of Industry 4.0 will be blockchain - a vast, open and decentralised ledger where information is verified by individuals and organisations, and is subsequently unalterable, making it trusted and secure. The potential applications of blockchain in the education sector are enormous, and some are already well in motion. For example, students are already able to use platforms to catalogue and verify any type of experience, education or qualification, meaning CVs will become a simple and ongoing record of career shaping events within an individual’s life. These verified CVs will become the most legitimate and trusted way for employers to recruit individuals, as much of the ambiguity will be removed from the process, putting those who utilise them at a great advantage.
Innovative platforms also have the potential to lower the workload of administrative staff, career advisors and teachers in the education sector, as well as significantly reduce the costs for universities, colleges and schools by unlocking valuable time and resources to be focussed on education rather than administration. For example, employment and student record verification could be automated using blockchain. Blockchain could further upend the way that student debt is managed as blockchain-supported cryptocurrencies could be used by students to sell shares in their future earnings, rather than paying back loans. New methods of privately supporting students would incentivise all parties to ensure that a candidate is maximising their career potential. Cryptocurrencies could also be used to crowdfund education for those from less privileged backgrounds, or even to sponsor extra-curricular activities by organisations through their Corporate Social Responsibility commitments.
November 2017
Reports indicate that one fifth of full time students were victims of crime in the 2014/15 academic year, a noticeably higher proportion than in the general population. Pressure is growing on Further and Higher Education establishments to invest in the security and safety of their students. At the same time, budgetary pressures have raised the importance of the Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) of their CCTV surveillance systems. Many educational establishments retain older, analogue CCTV systems using coaxial cable and low-pixel cameras. Struggling with variable lighting conditions, their indistinct images have improved with analogue HD options but these will always be constrained. By upgrading to higher definition IP camera systems, monitored from purpose-built multi-screen Control Rooms, CCTV becomes an essential operational tool in the campus infrastructure. IP cameras deliver exceptionally better clarity and detail, enabling forensic analysis of incidents to give reassurance to those on campus. Video data can mitigate assaults, activate incident responses and assist in potential lockdowns depending on the assessed threat-levels. Older campuses with their widely-dispersed buildings, lengthy perimeters and architectural oddities create real challenges for CCTV installers. To overcome this, technology exists to utilise legacy coaxial cable and avoid the costly cycle of removal, replacement and redecoration across potentially historic facades.
The better cameras generate more data, therefore any system upgrade will also require a re-assessment of its video storage capacity. This may account for more than 40% of the total system cost so investment at this level demands reliability, efficiency and the lowest TCO possible. The fall- back has tended to be the combination of IT data and IP video data within the same RAID solution, a legacy IT approach that doesn’t accommodate the specialist nature of long-term retention of IP Video. These RAID systems, managing data from sometimes hundreds of cameras as well as the IT demands of the campus, have exceptionally high power and air-con requirements. Their high level of disk activity leads to increased levels of disk failure and therefore a frequent need to replace storage. In short, the use of RAID reduces the useful life of storage and produces a high lifetime cost as well as high power consumption costs.
Veracity adopts a different approach to the transmission and storage of IP video data. For over a decade campus security in Europe and the USA has benefitted from Veracity’s innovations, enabling existing coaxial infrastructure to use mega-pixel IP Video cameras and extending Ethernet networks far beyond 100 metres. The specialist storage solution, COLDSTORE, uses a unique approach called LAID to sequentially record IP video. Delivering major increases in reliability and an extended lifetime of storage, COLDSTORE reduces energy usage by up to 90% when compared to RAID solutions. Completing Veracity’s true end-to-end surveillance solution is VIEWSCAPE, an advanced modular integration Command and Control platform giving Campus Security Officers and operators flexible and immediate control over complex surveillance and security functions. Giving your student community the highest levels of protection does not require a complete rip and replace of your existing infrastructure, and you can benefit from lower cost of ownership while transforming your quality of service.
www.education-today.co.uk 23
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