Dev8D: Meet the organisers: David Tarrant

Feb 14, 2012 by michelle-pauli

David Tarrant is Dev8D’s “toys czar” – a title that belied the seriousness of the role. He explains how Dev8D brings together developers and industry by being at the forefront of technological progress

What’s your role?

I’m a research fellow at the University of Southampton and this year at Dev8D I’m helping out with the programme, making sure that everyone gets the space to be able to have their say in the programme.

I’m also “toys czar”! It’s a frivolous way of describing the business of connecting developers to industry through tangible demonstrations – something industry can look at and understand, something that flies, that you can touch, that’s not just a piece of code but something you can interact with in some way. I’m encouraging developers to build up these demos that can be brought to the event each year, from home automation systems to the flying quadrocopters.

Why does Dev8D have these kind of demos?

They are important because they bring an element of tangibility to the event for institutions, senior management and industry. One example is that last year we demoed a flying quadcopter here using off the shelf hardware. We then demoed it to a few companies in Southampton and not only do they think it’s an awesome demonstration of what you can do, there are real application in eg the NHS, teaching about movement within 3D environments. Our set-up was a tenth of the price of the one they use and does the same job. We could show that it was not just a toy but has a real world application. You can turn your hobby into something that makes money and helps the economy!

What’s new this year?

We’ve got a couple of brainwave scanners – things you wear as headsets – we haven’t had these at the event before. We’ll be looking at what data you can get out and what novel applications can be thought of. We might use it to judge how happy people are with the event, or to control the quadrocopters. It’s a new piece of tech that I expect to be mainstream in the future. We’re going to be at the forefront of that here at dev8d. We want to be at the forefront of technology.

What do you get out of the event?

I always get so many ideas out of the event that I don’t know where to start! I want to help people build and develop the community by playing with this tech, in whichever way is suitable for them

How has Dev8D evolved over the years?

There have been some necessary changes with the event because of economic pressures so, for me, it’s been about trying to focus the event so it is better positioned to be more widely accepted and a more widely critical event for people to attend without losing the ability to establish valuable communities. It’s a very delicate balance.

The positive change is that we have managed to focus the event around teaching and education and training without losing the ability to freeform groups around conversations and allow those conversations to happen organically.

And there are lots of new people again this year! It’s not become a gentlemen’s club, which I would hate for it to become. I think we’ve succeeded in avoiding that by keeping it openly advertised and remaining free – it’s open to all members of the community and they are actively encouraged to come by JISC so we keep refreshing the cycle of people.