The team will work with CKDelta to deliver predictive maintenance models that could improve efficiency.
Researchers from Trinity College Dublin are partnering with software business CKDelta to address efficiency and sustainability challenges faced by the utilities sector using AI.
CKDelta, which is headquartered in Dublin and part of CKI Innovations Opportunities Development (CKH IOD), is providing €865,000 in funding to support the appointment of a postdoctoral researcher and a number of PhD students, who will work on a range of research projects.
The students will be supervised by Gregory O’Hare, professor of artificial intelligence and head of Trinity’s School of Computer Science and Statistics, and the collaboration will run for a total of four years.
The collaboration aims to deliver predictive maintenance models that provide better insights for informed decision making, rather than the current situation where maintenance is often driven by customer complaints and the logging of issues as they arise.
Experts from CKDelta will provide the platforms in which the Trinity researchers can investigate the data, as well as offering data engineering and data science support.
The research projects will fall under two main umbrellas: predictive maintenance and early warning systems.
Predictive maintenance is a data-driven approach that uses AI to monitor assets and predict when they need servicing or replacement. This means that maintenance can be scheduled at the optimal time, avoiding unnecessary downtime, reducing operational expenses and improving safety and reliability.
Meanwhile, early warning systems represent a set of tools and methods that aim to detect, monitor and forecast potential threats or disruptions to utility companies.
The research programme also aims to develop an anomaly detection system to identify near real-time differences from expected behaviours, which may be adaptable to other situations.
Commenting on the announcement, O’Hare said the scale of the challenges also means there is also “a significant opportunity” to improve sustainability and efficiency in the utilities sector.
“We believe our data and AI-driven approach offers great potential in taking a tangible leap forwards,” he said. “We hope that this collaboration will form the basis of a sustained, trusted and mutually beneficial relationship.”
Joe Parker, CEO of CKH IOD, said: “The partnership will generate new streams of knowledge transfer, with cross-pollination of skills, perspectives and specialisms that may otherwise be impossible.”
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