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Research conducted since July 2008 by the University of East London in collaboration with Control Techniques Dynamics (CTD), a leading manufacturer of Permanent Magnet Synchronous Motors (PMSMs), has led to the development of a software tool called the PMSM analyser. This tool has helped CTD to improve its motor design methodology by incorporating electromagnetic, thermal and cost models, together with genetic algorithms. In turn, the design optimisation allowed CTD to enhance motor performance and reduce manufacturing time by 30-40%, leading to an increase of 20% in company sales between 2008 and 2013. During the same period the company was able to cut materials usage by 15%.
Research was undertaken into practical methodologies for integrating disparate engineering design software packages, including techniques for managing data in different formats and package functionality available through varying programming models. There was an emphasis on usability for end users allowing a complex solution to be built without advanced programming experience or technical understanding of the underlying packages. The results were made available through a commercial software package marketed by an SME, successfully contributing to a significant increase in company profile, modified internal working procedures and an expanded portfolio of services available to customers. The final product has only recently appeared on the market, but to good review, promising early sales and projections of significant sales and increased turnover.
City University London's patented rack generation mechanism, the `"N" rotor profile', offers substantial improvements on the rotary screw compressors widely used in industry at present. It allows for an increase in compressor capacity and makes compressors more energy efficient. Significantly, it can be easily retrofitted to existing compressors, thereby delivering immediate benefit. The mechanism has already been licensed to 27 major manufacturers around the world, resulting in savings of 0.1% of global electricity consumption and an equivalent reduction in global CO2 emissions. City academic staff have worked with an existing firm (Howden Compressors Ltd) to raise funds and train researchers for the development of this technology. In addition, a new spin- out company (Heliex Power Ltd) has been formed to build on research developed since 2009. Important examples of the impact include:
This research has enabled companies that operate worldwide in air compression, refrigeration, air conditioning, oil, gas and process industries to improve their economic and environmental performance in response to demanding governmental demands.
Compressors developed at the Department of Engineering Science have formed a key component of the cryocoolers used to cool the infra-red sensors on satellites. Their low mass has trimmed almost $250k from the cost of individual satellite missions. Sixty seven have been sold to date, with sales totalling £2.8M between January 2008 and July 2013; three units are currently in Earth orbit with another nine planned to follow in 2014. A specialised version has been developed to achieve extremely low temperatures, with prototypes already built for the Mid Infra-Red Instrument (MIRI) that will form part of the James Webb Space Telescope.
Researchers from this UoA developed 3D modelling techniques and virtual visualisation software to help car-makers address potential imperfections (gaps between panels, misalignments, etc) that arise during vehicle assembly, even when all part dimensions are manufactured to within their tolerance range. The University of Leeds spun out Icona Solutions in 2003 to develop and exploit this intellectual property. Icona's Aesthetica software was launched in 2006, and since 2008 it has been licensed by over 20 automotive companies in 10 countries. The software has contributed to improvements in the design and manufacture of around 70 different vehicle lines, reaching over 40 million consumers, and saving car-makers approximately £25 million in efficiency and cost savings (including reduced scrap and rectification costs). Icona's turnover since 2008 is well over £1 million.
Compendium software is used to map dialogue and information around socio-technical dilemmas with economic, public policy, educational and health impacts. In Australia, urban planners attribute stakeholder buy-in to dialogue mapping with Compendium. In the USA, a deadlocked environmental planning process used it to make progress, while Southern California Edison use it to manage environmental policy. In the NHS, it can map therapeutic group dynamics, while in Germany, a journalist summarised a medical ethics case to parliament with it. More than 170 companies and individuals have endorsed Compendium, a striking application being to control Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) at work.
Research from the Sheffield Department of Mechanical Engineering has led to major improvements in engineering analysis and design software for aerospace companies such as Rolls-Royce and Airbus. As a result of introducing new practices based on our research, the organisations have reported significantly reduced time input to design components as well as related economic benefits. For example: Rolls-Royce has reported an order of magnitude improvement in the time needed to mesh components. Similarly, by adopting our highly efficient computational aerodynamics solvers, Defence Science & Technology Laboratory has reduced the time its engineers spent evaluating concepts from many days to a few hours.
This case is based on economic impact. It shows how research by Professor Michael Wooldridge at the University of Liverpool on the Gaia Methodology for agent-oriented software engineering improved the performance of the Swiss company Whitestein Technologies AG and of international users of its key product. Specifically, the research enabled Whitestein to develop its business process management system (BPM) Living Systems Process Suite which delivers several million pounds per year of revenues, corresponding to 50% of their total business revenues. Users of Whitestein's Living Systems Process Suite since 2008 include Daimler AG, Transcor Astra Group, Vienna Insurance Group, and the US Department of Veterans Affairs. In 2010 Gartner, the world's leading IT advisory company, recognized the impact and innovation of the Living Systems Process Suite by naming Whitestein a Cool Vendor in BPM.
Practical Waveform Engineering, developed at Cardiff, is having a major impact on how modern- day microwave power amplifiers are designed, delivering real competitive advantages for global communications companies such as Nokia-Siemens-Networks and M/A-COM.
Economic impact is through reduced time-to-market and lower design costs, leading to high- performance power amplifier products. Examples include $40M revenue and employment of additional staff for M/A-Com, and the successful spin-off company Mesuro Ltd., generating revenue in excess of £2.5M.
Impact on practice is through successful demonstration of new device technologies and amplifier architectures, the introduction of PWE-based CAD models, and most significantly, the introduction of the "Cardiff Model" into mainstream simulation tools.
Environmental Impact is by improving the efficiency of power amplifiers and significantly reducing the carbon contribution of mobile communications systems, translating into savings of approximately £2.5M/year and a 17 kiloton reduction in CO2 emission for a typical EU network.
The volume and diversity of data that companies need to handle are increasing exponentially. In order to compete effectively and ensure companies' commercial sustainability, it is becoming crucial to achieve robust traceability in both their data and the evolving designs of their systems. The CRISTAL software addresses this. It was originally developed at CERN, with substantial contributions from UWE Bristol, for one of the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) experiments, and has been transferred into the commercial world. Companies have been able to demonstrate increased agility, generate additional revenue, and improve the efficiency and cost-effectiveness with which they develop and implement systems in various areas, including business process management (BPM), healthcare and accounting applications. CRISTAL's ability to manage data and their provenance at the terabyte scale, with full traceability over extended timescales, based on its description-driven approach, has provided the adaptability required to future proof dynamically evolving software for these businesses.
This case study embodies a non-linear relationship between underpinning research, software development and deployment. It involves computer science research at UWE in conjunction with its applied development for the world's largest particle physics laboratory and onward deployment commercially into private sector industry.