Impact case study database

Process of research leading to the impact: Research projects coordinated and participated by AVCN, supported 36 staff and student mobilities across 10 Asian research institutes, including lead author of [3.1] and [3.2]. Research advancements made through these projects has enabled 11 students to secure higher degrees (PhD, MPhil, and Masters). Research from these projects has resulted in two ongoing KTP projects in the areas of data analytics for indoor air quality, and ML-driven business intelligence with BRS Technology Limited, and Golden Casket. In addition to this, four PDRAs trained from SmartLink and gLink projects, secured KTP Associate, and Senior Research Scientist posts with BRS Technology Limited, KeyFM, Bradford University, and Mechatherm International Limited.

Economic impact: AVCN has successfully up-skilled conventional farming practices in Nepal, Bhutan, and Thailand, resulting from smart farming adoption and practices beyond Europe through EU SunSpaCe project. The project has already trained over 30 conventional farmers from Chiang Mai and Khon Kaen provinces in Northern Thailand through the train the trainer program [5.1a, 5.1b]. This training has up-skilled farmers to use IoT devices and AI-based data analytics techniques for smart farming to improve the agro-health, use of farming-resources, sustainable organic farming, and access global markets. The consortium acknowledges that the AVCN played “the pivotal task of developing data analytic models and associated learning materials for the training programmes”.

Wuxi Chigoo Interactive Technology Co. Ltd China, in collaboration with AVCN deployed the I3Q smart trolley in 19 Chinese airports including Guangzhou Baiyun (China's third-busiest, and the world's 11th-busiest airport) serving dozens of millions of passengers annually [5.2] – resulting in a significant increase in revenue from advertising. The underpinning research [3.3] and [3.4] helped identify the group users, making recommendations based on spatio-temporal and contextual data. This industry-focused research has been featured in local and international news with a viewership of 2,000,000 ( e.g. The National, Evening Times, The Herald, The Herald online, and Paisley Daily Express).

Police Scotland are using our new aerial drone system to help in searches for missing and vulnerable people. The system is now scheduled for trials with Swedish Drone Rescue in liaison with Police Sweden. This CENSIS (GBP100,000) funded search and rescue operations (SAR) has enabled AVCN’s drone-based AI video analytics platform to be ported to the Police Scotland platforms, which are being deployed across their SAR teams - Glasgow, Aberdeen, and Inverness with a significant proportion of rural areas being remote [5.3, 5.4]. The system ultimately saves live by speeding up the highly resource intensive, dangerous and time-consuming process of tracing and tracking missing people in inaccessible geographies. The project has received a range of high-profile media coverage, particularly after it was reported by BBC News [5.5a] and UK Authority [5.5b]. The project won the Knowledge Exchange/Transfer Initiative of the Year at the Times Higher Education (THE) Awards in 2020 [5.9a]. The project also won the CeeD-Scotland Industry Awards 2020 - Innovation Award [5.9b]. Furthermore, enhancements made to AI-enabled video analytics is applied to detect ground personnel with complex backgrounds in the SmartCrane project for the lifting industry in Oil & Gas, construction and other related sectors [5.6, 5.7]. Another AI-enabled video analysis application for Low-Pixel Automatic Target Detection and Recognition was covered by BBC [5.8] and won a ‘Special Commendation’ in the Multiparty Collaboration category at the 2018 Scottish Knowledge Exchange Awards [5.9.c]. AVCN’s AI-enabled video analytics demonstrates numerous applications in smart city, smart building and utility infrastructure management, intruder detection, and animal tracking, amongst others.

AVCN’s data stream analytics research in the two ongoing KTP’s with BRS Technology Ltd [3.G] and Golden Casket [3.F] embeds ML/AI expertise within the companies, creating commercial and financial growth opportunities [5.10a, 5.10b]. The research has applications in the areas of indoor air quality, predictive maintenance, BI-informed sales decision-making and sales operations. In addition, these partnerships are set to deliver GBP5,290,000 accrued profit impact to the UK economy.

In the social housing sector, the technology can be used to enhance living conditions. The BRS Technology KTP focuses on indoor air quality monitoring for preventive mould development interventions. The AI-based analytics and privacy preserving achievements [3.1], and [3.2] are embedded into BRS Technology to develop a predictive analytics framework for condensation and mould detection. This has a significant impact on housing associations, supporting the UK’s ambitious target of at least an 80% reduction in net carbon emissions by 2050 and creating a healthy space for families, thus having research impact beyond the technological spheres. The BRS Technology testimonial is clear: “ *This [project] KTP has significantly helped BRS Technology to demonstrate a clear growth trajectory to its core team thus **improving staff retention by 80%**” [5.10a].

On the other hand, the KTP project with confectionary company Golden Casket is utilising AVCN’s BI and data analytics research to transform the way the company operates by providing mobile computing and dynamic customer service with BI informed decision-making capacity to improve customer engagement, marketing and sales resulting in a profit of more than GBP3,000,000 over five years post-KTP. The project has addressed multiple challenges that currently inhibit growth: improving customer engagement (current and new), improving decision-making based on robust data analytics and culture change transforming the business into a sector leader in the use of digital technology [5.10b].