Shining a light on industry’s hidden data:
Professor Stephen McArthur tells a story about the nineteenth century engineer Robert Stevenson who defied those who told him that he would be unable to build a lighthouse 11 miles out to sea.
The Bell Rock was duly erected off the Firth of Tay and was completed in 1810. The masonry work on which it rests was constructed to such a high standard that it has never been replaced or adapted.
“I had been watching a television programme about it and it struck a chord with me,” says McArthur. “I’d also been told my plans could never be achieved.”
So when it came to naming his data science company, McArthur knew it had to be Bellrock Technology.
“Stevenson showed the same sort of determination and values we have,” he says.
The company was spun-out of the electronic and electrical engineering department at Strathclyde University five years ago and there is now a team of 15, including engineers and advisers, working from a modest office on the fifth floor of a central Glasgow business centre.
McArthur teamed up with Adam Brown who had been working with him as a researcher. Brown shared McArthur’s desire to turn their data analytics work into a commercial venture and is now CEO.
Their software enables customers, mainly energy utilities, to improve the performance of their day-to-day operations.
McArthur says: “We knew that the research we had done had an application in industry and companies were saying they needed what we had.”
Data science is a booming academic discipline which is becoming big business. It involves the collecting, organising and interpreting of large sets of digital information and has the potential to transform public and private organisations.
The technologies and services behind it could be worth $2.7 trillion globally by 2020, according to the International Data Corporation. It is a potential driver of economic growth in Scotland as a new cluster of companies emerge to exploit its potential to help firms improve their operations, understand how their own technology works and provide early warning of imminent problems.
EDF Energy was an early adopter and has cascaded Bellrock’s technology through a number of its divisions. SSE is using it to predict faults, and thereby get its repair teams more quickly to locations where they know problems are likely to occur.
McArthur and Brown admit they live and breathe the business and the science that drives it. McArthur, who is chief technology officer for Bellrock, studied at Strathclyde, completed a PhD and continues to work there as a deputy associate principal.
“I guess I’m a Strathclyde lifer,” he jokes, adding that the link to the university is umbilical as it means the company is continually plugged in to the latest research and development.
While data science is a new buzzphrase in tech circles, he says the scientists themselves have been perfecting analytical tools for some time.
“We have been at the forefront of data science since the early 1990s,” he says. “My academic career has always engaged with commercial activity. Universities are ideally placed to be partners in this work.
“I was always aware that there would come a point when I would want to create something commercial.”
Bellrock went through a proof of concept “journey” with Scottish Enterprise in order to confirm the validity of the technology and establish there was a viable business.
It has been backed by a number of investors, including members of the angel syndicate ESM Investments, the Scottish Investment Bank and Strathclyde University who, together, injected about £500,000. Scottish Enterprise provided a £100,000 grant alongside the funding round to support early engagement with EDF Energy.
The company also received some early funding from £25,000 picked up from the Converge Challenge in 2011. It was matched by funding from Smart Scotland.
It was helped by picking up some immediate contracts. Brown says this was vital to underpin the business.
“Having commercial contracts from day one was crucial,” he says. “We would not be here without them. We said we would not spin out without commercial support.”
McArthur adds: “We wanted to take people with us and we see opportunities in other sectors.”
The company is looking to the oil and gas industry, transport and possibly food and drink.
“The technology is industry agnostic,” says McArthur. “It is growing and becoming an essential part of helping companies work better.”
PERSONAL CHECKLIST
Prof Stephen McArthur
Birthplace: Glasgow
Age: 46
Education: Strathclyde University (Electronic and electrical engineering); PhD in applying artificial intelligence in the electricity industry
If you could invite three people, from the past or present, to dinner, who would they be?
Steve Jobs: was he as single-minded as he was made out?
Dr Jigaro Kano: who founded judo and developed martial arts as a well-being activity
Salvador Dali: to get an insight into the mindset of a creative genius.
Adam Brown
Birthplace: Lisburn, Northern Ireland
Age: 35
Education: Strathclyde University (Computer and electronic systems)
If you could invite three people, from the past or present, to dinner, who would they be?
Frederick Forsyth: his early career and route into writing is fascinating
Trent Reznor: the guy’s a musical genius, a survivor and incredibly experimental when it comes to presenting new material
Willie John McBride: aside from being an Irish rugby legend, I would never tire of hearing more about the craic of the ’74 Lions tour
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