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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.
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.
In 1997 ERPE invented a novel automatic machining feature recognition technology which has been incorporated into the Pathtrace EdgeCAM Solid Machinist Computer Aided Manufacture (CAM) package, now owned by Planit plc. EdgeCAM is considered as one of the leading independent solid machinist CAM package, with 10 - 15% of the world market. Related ERPE feature recognition in shape representation and characterisation has enabled the design of a 3D shape browser for product data management systems. Commercialised in 2005 as ShapeSpace with £0.7M current market value, for application to the parts industry in automotive markets, it has attracted the US Actify Inc., as an equity sharing partner to aid ShapeSpace to access worldwide markets.
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.
The impact relates to improved productivity, operational efficiency, working practice and knowledge management within the European maritime industry through the use of a Virtual Integration Platform (VIP). The platform is a software package developed within the University of Strathclyde that has been used by eleven European ship design, engineering and project management consultancies, which specialise in the application of advanced computational design, analysis and physical modelling techniques within projects on an international scale. Specific company benefits of using the VIP include: 67% reduction in process time; guaranteed data consistency; additional productivity of 15 hours/day from automated over-night operation; capturing and reuse of expertise; cost effectiveness (lack of data consistency typically costs €100k per project); and ease of operation within complex design processes.
BRITEST is a global leader in the development of innovative process solutions for the chemical processing sector with > £500m of value being realized since 2008. Research in Manchester (1997-2000) generated a set of novel tools and methodologies which analyse chemical processes to identify where and how process improvements could be made. BRITEST was established in 2001 as a not-for-profit company to manage the technology transfer and effective deployment of these tools and methodologies into industry. Manchester holds the IP arising from the underpinning research and has granted an exclusive license to BRITEST for use and exploitation of the toolkit.
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.
The Computational Mechanics and Reliability Group at the University of Greenwich has been developing design and materials modelling expertise and tools for electronic manufacturing and reliability since the late 1990s. This case study details economic and environmental impacts and impacts on practitioners. In particular it shows how our expertise has:
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.
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.