An innovation centre aimed at helping firms tackle issues around “big data” is expected to deliver a £36million boost to the Scottish economy.
The Data Lab, which last year established an Aberdeen hub at Robert Gordon University (RGU), said the 21 data science projects it backed in the past year are expected to create 140 jobs.
One of the projects the Data Lab has funded has seen temporary power firm Aggreko team up with data scientists from the University of Strathclyde to develop a system able to predict equipment failure based on analysing historical data.
Gillian Docherty, chief executive at the Data Lab, said: “These are fantastic results for both the Data Lab and for Scotland. They are testament to the novel and innovative data ideas and talent coming from our country which is fast emerging as a leader in data science development.
“We’ve taken on four new projects recently including NHS Glasgow but our pipeline of potential partnerships exceeds 100. We’re on the cusp of unlocking our full economic potential and it’s a really exciting time for data in Scotland but it’s not all about collaboration. We need to grow our data science communities by investing in training and skills or risk losing our momentum as a leader in data science.”
This September, the Data Lab is organising Scotland’s first ever data ‘Boot Camp’, an intensive three-week course in Edinburgh,
The Boot Camp will complement the organisation’s recent launch of Scotland’s first engineering doctorate in computer science and their MSc in data science, which has grown from 40 to 90 places this year.
The group was established with an £11.3million grant from the Scottish Funding Council, an a big led by the Scottish Technology Advisory Group’s Big Data Lead, ScotlandIS, Lockheed Martin, DC Thomson-owned brightsolid and SAS.
