As technology progresses, one has to think about the practical uses for this technology.

Chris Hill, director of Geographic Information Systems (GIS) and Advanced Meter Infrastructure (AMI) for City Utilities (CU), says now is the time for putting technology to its best use at CU.

“We’ve done metering in the same way for more than 50 years – all a very manual process,” said Hill, Missouri State computer science alumnus. “Over the last 30 or more years, we’ve built information systems that are great at collecting data, but we don’t do much with that data.”

Questions to ask before investing

Hill is working on a way to use that data to better customer experience, internal operations and the environment.

He says there are several questions to answer before heavily pursing new technologies.

“What will the technology do to improve our operational efficiency, which helps keep our costs low,” asked Hill. “What will it do for our customers – will it improve our service to them, will it help with reliability of the products we provide?”

How CU and you can use this technology

CU is working with two main technologies to extract data: data analytics and AMI, which is an Internet of Things (IoT) system.

These technologies have a much wider purpose past utility data.

“IoT and data analytics are hot topics in the world of business these days,” said Hill, who also sits on the MSU computer science advisory board. “Having an understanding of how these things affect the businesses and world around us can be beneficial, especially if you’re a person who is headed down that career path.”

Hill will speak on campus about his role at CU as well as the IoT and data analytics on Feb. 26 at 9 a.m. in Cheek 151.