Leveraging a paradigm shift in Data & AI to transform ways of working in the control room.
The Challenge
Over the past two years, the fields of data engineering, machine learning and AI have evolved at incredible pace, offering powerful new tools, techniques and capabilities.
But water control rooms continue to suffer from problems which have plagued them for years:
- Overwhelming volume of alarms, many of which are nuisance
- Reactive, not proactive, approach to incidents
- Time-consuming manual reporting
- Poor visibility of trends in data
As UK water enters a period of transformative capital investment, now is the perfect time to draw inspiration from successes in the chemicals, automotive and software industries and change the way we work with data in our control rooms.
What new possibilities have been unlocked by this recent paradigm shift? The right innovations today will shape the sector for decades to come; this opportunity must not be wasted.
Our Proposal
We will develop novel, disruptive ideas for a future-proofed control room allowing operators to proactively manage systems with actionable insights, supporting decisions with data. We want solutions that the latest generation of data and AI innovations have taken from impossible to feasible, for example:
- A “control-room copilot” that transforms overwhelming SCADA alarms into clear, prioritised operator actions
- Could machine learning flag underperforming assets and recommend alternatives based on operating data from similar sites?
We will critique existing industry practices, examine successes in other industries and learn from speakers at the cutting edge of data engineering to develop innovative proposals across the domain:
This sprint aims to bring together experts in diverse areas and break down silos – the most successful data innovations will come from merging ideas at the intersection of design, engineering and operations.
What Will We Do?
| MONDAY |
Ice breaker: Introduce the sprint, meet each other and prepare for the festival. opportunities across the three pillars. and AI tools, techniques and capabilities. |
| TUESDAY |
Guest Speaker (TBC): A case study from a data innovation success in a different industry, that has come at the intersection of design and operations. multidisciplinary ideation groups, each focusing on one pillar: present ideas, compare themes and develop a longlist. |
| WEDNESDAY |
Shortlist Ideas: We’ll evaluate longlisted ideas based on feasibility, impact and originality. The strongest concepts will be shortlisted and developed into storyboards, ready for rapid prototyping. be assembled based on the shortlist and each attendee’s expertise. our experts across the industry. |
| THURSDAY |
Prototype and Hackathon: We’ll take advantage of everyone’s skills by assigning varied prototyping roles to stress test the shortlisted ideas. Some ideas may result in mini “hackathons” to underline their technical feasibility. prototyped idea, giving a vision of real-world implementation. |
Target Audience
We aim to bring together a diverse audience for this sprint, combining the experience of water industry domain experts with data specialists – and more!
This will maximise our impact: ensuring that we’re using the best modern toolset to solve real issues impacting the industry today.
This audience may include: -
- Control room operators and SCADA specialists
- Data engineers, machine learning engineers and software engineers
- Designers, developers and managers of plant fitting projects
As well as anyone else who wants to explore how the latest in Data & AI can be used to solve their problems.
