The University of Sheffield
The University of Sheffield
The University of Sheffield’s Impact team works to identify how the university’s research can change, influence or benefit organisations, policymakers, communities and individuals.
They look to use the research to improve public policies, benefit health and wellbeing, increase cultural capital, impact the economy and help the environment; working with researchers to produce plans, develop intellectual property and create new businesses.
The Curve’s pragmatic approach has helped us move forward with the project efficiently and I hope to continue to work with the team closely going forward.
The expertise and knowledge of the team at The Curve has helped us achieve our goal in developing a commercially viable business that will benefit a large number of corporations using the University’s world leading research.
How they were working
How we helped
The Curve were contacted by the University’s Impact team as they wanted to validate the market for some leading Computer Science research.
Working as consultants, our expert team built a business framework on how this research could be used to provide tracking technology to key organisations such as the NHS by analysing current markets.
The business plan we developed helped the university to launch a unique company which is on track for delivering considerable value for customers.
Further to this, the University’s Advanced Manufacturing Research Centre (AMRC) team is building a spinout company called FourJaw Manufacturing Analytics. The FourJaw team are working with The Curve to build its offering, which collects data from Computer Numerical Control (CNC) machines, undertakes analysis on the data and presents back information via a web app.
This information is used to enable manufacturers to improve productivity, profitability and therefore competitiveness. The AMRC is now working collaboratively with The Curve to develop a back-end database, and a front-end of the system.
Their thoughts
The Curve's approach and communication is regular and fluid which really helps get the best out of the team. They have put in place industry standard project management practices that greatly assist with this communication.
The professionals from The Curve are well rounded developers who, in addition to having excellent technical capability, understand and appreciate the commercial context surrounding the project.
This helps us to steer the project towards the right solutions.
The best part about it has been their flexibility to be able to adapt the software as we develop and grow as a business.
and CEO of FourJaw, (when the business officially launches)
The Curve has been a great fit for this project as they have industry experience and knowledge in developing ‘big-data’ platforms. They have therefore been able to help us build a more robust, scalable and permanent software stack.
The team really took the time to get to know our business and to learn how and where we could improve our systems. What’s more, when they presented their ideas to us, they didn’t use technical jargon but spoke to us in real and practical language that we could understand.
The Curve’s input has helped me develop my own personal skillset from developing and managing the software teams and processes, to improving my codebase.
