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Working with a farming co-operative in India, this project developed new software design and deployment methodologies to create a mobile phone system, Kheti, (Ref 4) for providing on-the-spot, and locally relevant agricultural advice.
In trials, Kheti handled queries from over 100 different farmers, helping to avoid critical threats to their crops and livelihoods.
Software companies employed the methodologies: Safal Solutions applied them to microfinance IT projects in India, generating savings for over one million people; SAP Research used methods evolving from this project to create technologies for supply chain management by thousands of small-scale Cashew and Shea Nut farmers in Ghana, Burkina Faso and Ivory Coast.
BU's software engineering research has focused on the improvement of software development methods with a particular emphasis on the `upstream' or requirements phases. The benefits include improved development processes as well as considerable financial savings, as evidenced in this case study. The research has been used locally in projects with medium sized enterprises (SME's) and in collaboration with international partners including National ICT Australia (NICTA) to enhance business and IT alignment (Australia and Japan); the European Commission funded VIsualise all moDel drivEn programming (VIDE) project to impact commercial tools (France and Germany); and with Bosch Automotive (Germany) to enhance model driven development.
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 into the operational characteristics and applicability of biological reaction networks, carried out at the university in collaboration with groups at Caltech and Sony Systems, revealed the pressing need for a standard format that could be used for storage and exchange of mathematical models of such systems. Hertfordshire researchers played a crucial role in the initial design, dissemination and early exploitation of the Systems Biology Markup Language, SBML, now recognised as the de facto standard format for this purpose. Several major scientific publishers operating across academic boundaries require their authors to use SBML, and 254 software tools, including MATLAB and Mathematica, are now SBML-compliant. Online forums testify to a sizeable, international user-developer community that encompasses engineers, biologists, mathematicians and software developers.
Motors are at the heart of all electric machines. World-leading software developed at the Scottish Power Electronics and Electric Drives (SPEED) Laboratory at the University of Glasgow has been used to design thousands of new motors, enabling the manufacture of millions of machines across a range of industrial sectors. From compressors in refrigerators to the motors in power tools, SPEED has improved the design of products manufactured by over 60 companies across the world including Bosch, General Motors, Grundfos and Rolls Royce. In 2011, the SPEED Laboratory was purchased by CD-adapco, the world's largest independent provider of computer-aided engineering simulation software.
Research, undertaken at the University of Sheffield since 2001, into the discolouration of drinking water occurring within distribution systems has had economic, policy and professional practice impacts on the water supply sector since 2008. This has resulted in improved levels of service, has safeguarded water quality delivered to the public and has delivered substantial economic savings. For example, in one of the few cases where monetary value is available, Wessex Water made 63% savings on two trunk main schemes with an initial estimated cost in excess of £1M. The 4 and 7 km lengths of these trunk mains represent less than 1% of the trunk mains being impacted by our research. Our research has resulted in a step change in the concept and approach to the management of discolouration in water distribution systems.
Research undertaken by Dr. Harsh Pant has examined the cause and consequences of India's rise as a global power. The research findings have had broad reach and have had influence in shaping the views of the US State and Defense Departments, the US Congress, the Indian Ministry of External Affairs, the Israeli Ministry of External Affairs, the Swedish Ministry of Defence and the UK Foreign and Commonwealth Office and the Ministry of Defence.
This case study reports the impact on businesses and practitioners of model-driven software architecture research, workflow-based application development, and intelligent computing through a series of connected JISC, Knowledge Connect projects, and, especially, Knowledge Transfer Partnerships.
Key impacts for software companies, related to their software development processes and products, include the adoption of the model-driven architecture approach, showing:
Integration of intelligent computing in the form of data mining and decision support in software processes and products.