Birmingham hosts third CENELEC ICT on Trains Workshop

The Birmingham Centre for Railway Research and Education at the University of Birmingham hosted the third Information and Communication Technologies [ICT] on trains workshop [Tuesday 8 - Wednesday 9 September 2015], organised by the European Committee for Electrotechnical Standardization [CENELEC]. 

Following two successful workshops in Prague in 2011 and Milan in 2013, Birmingham presented the 2015 workshop, which brought together leading experts from across Europe to discuss the importance of state-of-art of ICT applications in the railway sector.

The workshop aimed to:

• Identify needs and requirements for information exchange coming from European policy, regulations, technical specifications and standards
• Track the progress of information sharing solutions in current ICT best practices, products and research projects
• Present and analyse the state-of-the-art for information exchange in innovative ICT products
  
  

Keynote speakers included: Professor Clive Roberts, Director of the Birmingham Centre for Railway Research and Education, University of Birmingham, Poalo Umiliacchi, CENELEC, Patrizio Grillo, European Commission, Hajime Ochiai, West Japan Railway Company and Maria Grazia Vigliotti, Rail Safety and Standards Board [RSSB].

Dr John Easton [School of Electronic. Electrical and Systems Engineering], University of Birmingham, and workshop organiser, said:

Information and Communication Technology [ICT] have an increasingly important role in the railway sector, as they are the basis for an efficient public service. Additionally, they can also bring innovation in fleet managements, both from operational and maintenance points of view. The workshop focused on ICT as a solution to enable information sharing within the railway sector, to ultimately achieve an ecosystem of connected devices and services.

Notes:

• CENELEC is responsible for European standardization in the area of electrical engineering. Together with the European Telecommunications Standards Institute [ETSI] and European Committee for Standardization [CEN], it forms the European system for technical standardization. Standards harmonised by these agencies are regularly adopted in many countries outside Europe which follow European technical standards.