Impact Lab - Immersive Vision Theatre

Data science and statistics

Lauren Ansell

Lauren’s background is in the field of mathematical sciences and she has skills in data analysis, and communicating maths and statistics.

Find out more about the projects she is supporting below. 

Impact Lab team - Lauren Ansell

Harrier LLC

Harrier LLC have been printing photos at their site in Newton Abbot for over 40 years. 

In that time technology has seen a transition from 110 film through 35mm to the mass market digitised photos of today. The business has expanded rapidly in the last 3 years and diversified into the wider high volume personalised photographic product and short run digital printing markets.

The Impact Lab project investigated their data to enable comparative volume forecasts. Until recently, the company have used simple year on year, times-series based comparative volume forecasts, to create a daily forecasts. Impact Lab investigated other external sources that significantly influence sales, using this information to create accurate and meaningful predictive models.


Photography stock image

Monkey Mind

Monkey Mind is a company with a mission to help organisations discover, understand and improve people’s thoughts and feelings. 

Their passion is educating and empowering individuals to enjoy higher levels of mental wellbeing. They aim to facilitate effective support in key ways, by using technology to ensure their resources are accessible 24/7. They employ a practical, no nonsense, approach; their coaching system ensures good mental wellbeing is easily understood and more achievable. Their unique approach ensures that the specialist resources delivered to organisations and individuals provide excellent value. 

Monkey Mind worked with Impact Lab to individually tailor the tips sent to the users of the well-being questionnaire, based on their individual results. The project involves the use of technology to identify where the responses are lowest, so that appropriate individualised tips can be retrieved from their database.

Woman with mobile phone

Devon Biodiversity Records Centre

DBRC collects, manages and makes available records of wildlife, with a database of over 4.5 million records being updated by 2,000-5,000 records a month. DBRC also manage data on wildlife habitats and geological sites, and actively engage in partnership and community led projects to deliver field surveys and training in biological recording/species ID to a range of age groups and skill levels. DBRC is one of a national network of Local Environmental Records Centres in the UK.

Impact Lab support has been focused on the collection of data around schools in the Tamar Valley, identifying schools located close to rivers/bodies of water and engaging students in green space activity. Work has also included collecting demographic data at Lower Layer Super Output Area level, mapping this data on to an Open Street map of the Tamar Valley, and collecting mapping data of footpaths, bridle ways and cycle paths.

Monarch butterfly, courtesy of Unsplash

Smart Applications Management (SAM)

SAM is the UK’s largest member owned provider of ITSO smart ticketing managed services. There are substantial benefits to using the convenience of smart ticketing, yet these benefits and detail on how the system works has not been clearly communicated.

Focusing on a single passenger and their data, Impact Lab have assisted with creating a simplified 2D animation with the aim to communicate the complex interactions within the systems and services of SAM’s ITSO Smart Ticketing in a simplified, stylized and engaging way. The animation will be used on the homepage of the SAM website and used in presentations to clients and stakeholders.


 
The SAM system

Software Solved

Software Solved is a data and software specialist operating across a variety of sectors including insurance, retail and logistics. Working with clients, they help unlock and harness data to build unique solutions to solve business problems and create a competitive advantage.

In early 2019, Software Solved embarked on a machine learning project with Innovate UK that is focused on Insurance risk prediction and is being delivered in association with the University of Plymouth. Open source data sets are an important part of this and, working with Impact Lab and project partner Exeter City Futures, valuable data sources were identified covering a range of situations such as natural disasters, crime data and location-specific information which has helped accelerate the project.


Global network image, courtesy of Pixabay

Plymouth Energy Community (PEC)

PEC Trust (trading as Plymouth Energy Community or PEC) is a community energy organisation focussed on three core objectives; reducing energy bills, improving energy efficiency and developing local ownership of energy infrastructure. Their focus is relieving fuel poverty in the city, supporting community participation, and nurturing new projects including a community led housing development and housing retrofit service.

Impact Lab support has been focussed initially on analysis of existing PEC data and data from open sources such government bodies, working with them to identify trends and source additional data to aid in the identification of areas that are more likely to be brought into the analysis.

European Regional Development Fund (ERDF)

The University of Plymouth is proud to be supported by the European Regional Development Fund. As one stream of funding under the European Structural and Investment Funds (ESIF) Growth Programme 2014–2020, the ERDF focuses on smart, sustainable and inclusive growth.
The main priorities involve contributions to research and innovation, supporting and promoting small and medium size enterprises (SMEs), and the creation of a low carbon economy.
European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) logo