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Visual analytics is a powerful method for understanding large and complex datasets that makes information accessible to non-statistically trained users. The Non-linearity and Complexity Research Group (NCRG) developed several fundamental algorithms and brought them to users by developing interactive software tools (e.g. Netlab pattern analysis toolbox in 2002 (more than 40,000 downloads), Data Visualisation and Modelling System (DVMS) in 2012).
Industrial products. These software tools are used by industrial partners (Pfizer, Dstl) in their business activities. The algorithms have been integrated into a commercial tool (p:IGI) used in geochemical analysis for oil and gas exploration with a 60% share of the worldwide market.
Improving business performance. As an enabling technology, visual analytics has played an important role in the data analysis that has led to the development of new products, such as the Body Volume Index, and the enhancement of existing products (Wheelright: automated vehicle tyre pressure measurement).
Impact on practitioners. The software is used to educate and train skilled people internationally in more than 6 different institutions and is also used by finance professionals.
Derek Bunn has led a research programme on understanding competition, market evolution, and prices in electricity markets. He and other researchers in the LBS Energy Markets Group have modelled production facilities in detail, their explicit ownerships, and the price-formation process. Their use of computational learning provides subtle insights which have eluded conventional approaches. The LBS group was the first to do this, and the approach is now widely applied. Relevance of the work is recognised via funding from major energy companies and research organisations. In terms of external impact, this work has informed extensive advice to several government inquiries, stimulated further research, and is actively used by commericial businesses.
Analysis of partial discharges for management of high-voltage assets has become commercialised in the last 20 years. Work at the University since 1993 has improved asset management techniques used by companies world-wide. This was achieved in two ways: first, improving power network reliability, enabled through two start-up companies employing 59 people and turning over £5m/annum; and second, by providing techniques for testing and verifying safety of new electrical power components for aerospace applications (e.g. A380). In four illustrative case studies, over £3m savings are identified for end-users through improved reliability of power networks. Further impact has been delivered by ensuring the reliability of power networks in aircraft.
The field of conceptual chemical process design as practiced industrially has been influenced significantly by the outputs from the Centre for Process Integration (CPI) at Manchester. Process Integration Ltd (PIL) was spun-out from Manchester and currently employs over 50 staff globally, who have conducted projects that have resulted in annual cost savings of hundreds of millions of US dollars. The application of CPI technology has led to significant reductions in both energy costs and emissions of greenhouse gases. Since 2008 ca. US$350m of savings have been realized through the exploitation of CPI technology with US$1.4m generated from software sales.
Many organisations rely on increasingly large and complex datasets to inform operational decision- making. To assist decision-makers when decisions are data-driven, computational tools are needed that present reliable summary information and suggest options allied to the key objectives of decision-making. Research at RGU has developed novel learning and optimisation algorithms driven by multifactorial data and implemented this in commercial decision-support software. The research has had economic impact by providing products to be sold: drilling rig selection tool (ODS-Petrodata Ltd.) and subsea hydraulics diagnostic tool (Viper Subsea Ltd.). Further economic impact comes from operations management software developed for British Telecom.
The banking crisis that followed the collapse of Northern Rock in 2007 resulted in an urgent need to inject liquidity into the financial system. In order to resolve these issues, the Bank of England asked Professor Klemperer, an expert in auction theory, to help re-dseign its long-term market operations to allow the Bank of England to auction loans backed by financial collateral of varying quality. Since 2010, this has been adopted as the Bank of England's standard mechanism for its long-term repurchase operations. The potential impact of the new auction design extends beyond the Bank of England to other central banks, private industry and to industry regulators.
HDM-4 is the most widely used system for road investment appraisal and decision making, generating improvements in public policies and services. Economic development and road agencies in developing countries are major users of the tool. HDM-4 has become the de facto standard used by the World Bank for its road investment appraisals and has been used to assess more than 200 projects since 2008, with some $29.5bn of World Bank loans, credits or grants drawn-down to fund these. Uptake of the tool has led to the commercial success of HDMGlobal, a consortium which manages the distribution and development of the software under exclusive licence from the World Road Association-PIARC, with revenues of £1.6m generated since 2008. HDM-4 has also been utilised for economic assessment and road systems investment management in the UK.
Ontologies are used to describe the meaning of terms in a domain. Manchester has had a leading role in the design of ontology languages, algorithms and tools. Through standardization, algorithm development and tool creation, we have significantly influenced the uptake of the Ontology Web Language (OWL) and Semantic Web Technologies by public service providers and industry. For example, the NCI thesaurus and SNOMED CT are medical terminologies in OWL; specialised semantic web companies such as Clark & Parsia, Racer Systems and TopQuadrant provide semantic technologies and services that build on OWL; and companies such as Oracle and B2i Healthcare include tool support for OWL.
Payment card fraud is a significant cost to business, as well as being a route to funding of organised crime, drug smuggling and terrorism. Detection of fraud requires a technique that is both transparent and adaptive. We have used the Department of Computing's expertise in machine learning and rule induction to develop a scalable method of automated fraud detection that meets the industry's needs. This technique is now being commercialised by AI Corporation, with a contract for its use having been placed by the world's largest retailer. Contracts with major banks are currently under negotiation.
The University of Brighton's (UoB) research has reduced information misuse and decreased the threat of data and identity theft in Nokia Location and Commerce (L&C). Further impact has been to lower the risk of corporate liability and consumers' personal loss. UoB's innovative research in the creation of concept diagrams now underpins and provides rigour to Nokia L&C's privacy engineering processes. Consequently, they can now communicate complex information across diverse teams in an intuitive and accessible manner. Ultimately, the impact is on all customers and users of Nokia's L&C's services worldwide.