GovWire

The University of Sheffield has used Centre for Defence Enterprise (CDE) funding to produce a suite of tools that highly compress large databases for use with a corresponding set of mobile apps.

For this work, the University has managed to compress data sets to less than half the size achieved by industry standard tools.

They will now explore special gains that can be made using this compression on geographic and spatial data.

This compression could help get data from the servers to the people in the field who need it most. While of potential use for the armed forces, this could be of benefit to any organisation with larger data sets and a large number of individuals in the field (e.g. law enforcement, charities, utilities).

Dr Adam Washington, Research Associate, University of Sheffield says:

The funding from CDE provided the time for this project to go from an interesting possibility to a functional framework. Yet, the support and guidance provided by our CDE partners provided our greatest benefit, allowing us to direct and focus our work to where it could provide the most aid.

Founded in 1879, the University of Sheffield employs over 7,000 staff and educates over 27,000 students.

About CDE

CDE funds novel, high-risk, high-potential-benefit research. We work with the broadest possible range of science and technology providers, including academia and small companies, to develop cost-effective capabilities for UK armed forces and national security.

CDE is part of Dstl.

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