DURHAM, N.C. — From smart parking apps to real-time streaming drones, it’s all getting ready to drop – and make North Carolina one ‘smart’ state.

That was one of the underlying themes on Tuesday night when more than 200 people packed into The Rickhouse in Durham for the half-day symposium, RIoT XXX:Smart and Connected Gigabit Cities.

Sponsored by US Ignite, a handful of local innovators were on hand to provide live demos of their latest projects – a new generation of Internet of Things (IoT), connecting everyday devices to the internet, using gigabit technology.

Among them was Taylor Kerby, 28, founder of Triangle UAS, an aerial systems and drone technology provider based in Raleigh. He recently received a $10,000 US Ignite grant to partner with the city of Wilson, developing an app that provides secure, real-time streaming of video and other data from the city’s three drones.

“I want people to realize that there is are tons of ways this IoT community is coming together to make public safety and community betterment possible,” he told WRAL TechWire.

 

 

Taylor Kerby, founder of Triangle UAS.

More than 200 people packed into The Rickhouse in Durham for the half-day symposium, RIoT XXX: Smart and Connected Gigabit Cities.

Jacob Ward of Triangle startup, dropark, speaking at RIoT XXX: Smart and Connected Gigabit Cities on Tuesday night.

Ben Markoch and Sierra Thomas of PARADIGM.

Mike Cuales and Modinat Ogun discussing IoT and smart cities.

Another project demoed was the smart parking app called dropark. It finds parking spots for drivers and allows them to pay the meter, all from the comforts of the car.

Its founder, NC State University student Mahdi Inaya, was a member of Innovate Durham’s 2017 cohort and a winner of US Ignite’s reverse pitch competition.

“No one is piloting anything in Raleigh, besides us,” said Jacob Ward, who works for the startup.

“We’re trying to get a little groundswell of support behind us from this local community. We did some user studies, and the whole system works in the end; we just need to get to scale it now.”

 

Larry Holt and Ken Kutner.

Tony Papa, Omkar Barde, John Davis, Jen Parata.