Research Services

World-class consultancy and R&D services tailored to your requirements and budget.

Business-focused value-driven R&D

Research projects are notoriously difficult to manage. Our experience in this area allows us to de-risk projects, delivering reliable work on time and to your specification.

Often it pays to do exploratory development — small-scale pilot studies to find out the best solution and how well it will work. These studies de-risk subsequent work, and provide valuable insights. We will recommend pilot studies where appropriate and the costs of such a study are discounted from any subsequent development work.

Areas of Expertise

We will work with you to identify the techniques and technologies best suited to a problem. We have particular expertise in data analysis and data-mining. Technologies we use include:

  • Data-mining: Find the value hidden in your data
  • Optimisation
  • Planning
  • Logistics
  • Forecasting and predictive analytics
  • Machine learning: Computer systems that learn from examples. E.g. neural nets and genetic algorithms. Machine learning can be tricky to use effectively. We have worked with a wide range of techniques, and will recommend which to use and how to apply it.
  • Statistical reasoning, including sophisticated techniques such as data fusion and combining human intuition with statistics
  • Mathematical modelling: Through simulating complex systems, Winterwell can help you manage risk and reduce uncertainty.
  • Natural Language Processing (NLP): Computer systems that partially understand English and other human languages
  • Logical modelling: Rule based systems for business processes

Always on time. Always on budget.

 Woman drawing abstract chart

Example: Intelligent Software

Problem: A financial software company wanted to enhance their flagship product. They knew what new features they would like to offer, but not how to achieve them.

Solution: A pilot study identified the best approach and helped secure funding. Collaborative work then produced a production-ready system.

Benefits: Bringing cutting-edge Artificial Intelligence into the product gave it a clear technological lead in a competitive market.

Related problems: Automation, machine learning, smart interfaces.

Results Example: The Feminism Project

Scope: The University of Edinburgh wanted to track the use of the hashtag feminism 's use on Twitter in the hopes of finding contextual trends in the use of the hashtag.

Gathered Data: Over the course of many months, Twitter data was sampled and amalgamated in order to create a massive sample size. This data is now available to the public in the form of a massive CSV file. Download the torrent file here.

Processed Data: The massive number of tweets were then processed according to the University's needs, and their results were delivered. The University has now used the results as sources of information for various publications.