FEATURED THEME: DATA
Data is at the centre of new UoD building
The University of Derby’s new Data Science Research Centre (DSRC) has been set up to help organisations gain intelligence from - and maximise the impact of - the raw data they gather. The centre is distinctive in that it
has a physical – rather than a virtual – presence. Based in the university’s new STEM centre, it features high performance computing facilities and a state-of- the-art data visualisation laboratory. The centre is staffed by a team of computer and data science specialists under the leadership of Professor Antonio Liotta, who has a global reputation for research in this field. Professor Liotta and Ashiq
Anjum, Professor of Distributed Systems at the centre, believe that big data, when used effectively, can help organisations find solutions to a wide range of issues such as reducing scrappage and wastage costs, improving inventory management and providing a more targeted end product to customers
and clients. He said: “We work with a
company which creates models, for example of engines. We are looking at their big data and using analytics to make small changes in the data and seeing how that would affect the engine in development. This allows a dynamic live realisation of the changes made without the cost of making the changes physically.” Stock and supply chain management improvement are another key influencer on a business’s costs. “A large packaging company that
we work with supplies packaging to large food and drink retailers. We are working with them to remove the manual counting process and move to zero touch inventory management. This will enable them to reduce costs and be better able to foresee demand. “We are also working with a
leading pharmaceutical company to integrate clinical and genomics data so that doctors will be able to see
STEM Centre, University of Derby
‘Any organisation of any size dealing with big data can benefit from working with the centre’
where changes in genomes occur. They will then be able to run tests on that one gene rather than needing to run full testing. This means doctors will be able to save time and cost, and patients will receive a quicker more effective service. “It’s not just large companies
ABOUT THE PROFESSOR
Professor Antonio Liotta is at the forefront of influential international research in network and data science, with six patents and more than 270 publications to his name. Founding Director of the Data Science Research Centre, following almost ten years at Eindhoven University of Technology, he sees industry partnerships as central to his role and is open to discussing businesses’ ideas. He can be contacted at
a.Liotta@
derby.ac.uk
Finding your place on the digital curve
Where are you on the digital transformation curve? Many businesses have a positive answer, but many shrug their shoulders. In an attempt to reach out to
those companies, Loughborough- based IT experts Business Intelligence & Strategy (BIAS) recently hosted the first in a series of free events to increase awareness. BIAS enjoyed a good turnout at
Loughborough University’s Advanced Technology Innovation Centre for the inaugural event, which focused on finance. The event, Fall in Love with
Forecasting and Budgeting All Over Again, attracted delegates from businesses and students from Loughborough University. “We all love data,” explained
BIAS owner Peter Dean, an accountant by trade but now an experienced entrepreneur. “It was very much a light, top-
end-of-the-funnel type event to see what it could do. Finance was a good place to start because it’s the centre of a business, everything comes through finance in one way or another.
22 business network May 2018
The event inspired delegates to use data to help leverage their business strategy “It was useful to get in front of
people and understand where they are in terms of their business model – have they got a strategy? Do they use data to help leverage that? Everybody is on a different maturity curve. “Not everybody has a strategy,
so we want them to understand how a strategy would be realised and have a process for understanding what drives their
business models. There’s not only a different maturity of using data across different industries, it’s also within departments, where there can be a huge gulf.” Dean’s whole ethos is helping
businesses to transform and drive better business outcomes. At the core of that is data. “If businesses haven’t got any
strategy around data, they would be at various levels of maturity.
“So at the back end, you’re just
not very digital, you’re using old processes - your data is not joined up, there’s no sponsorship from the top, you don’t understand the use of predictive analytics, so it’s unlikely you would succeed, even if you put a digital project in, because the framework is not set up internally, so we’d deliver that. “At the other end of the
spectrum are companies that are pretty much fully digitalised. “They’re the two ends of the
extreme and in the middle, there’s a huge raft. Different industries are at different levels of sophistication. “There are more than 70
knowledge-based companies and world-class research centres housed at Loughborough University Science and Enterprise Park, where they can thrive in an environment that encourages collaboration. “I’m from this area and want to
invest back into the community and in the bright students coming through university. We’re not a just- for-profit venture, we’re about having people enjoying their work and doing good things with data.”
that can benefit. Any organisation of any size dealing with big data can benefit from working with the centre. The Data Science Research Team can enable you to access cutting-edge expertise, saving you time and money through smarter decision-making.”
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