Edinburgh-based startup, Data Innovation.AI Ltd have secured a Scottish Enterprise SMART grant to test their pioneering bio-safety design tool with the EPCC.
The WorkSafeAI tool enables buildings to be designed to prevent the spread of aerosolised infections such as the SARS-COV-2 virus and seasonal flu’s.
Founder and COO Craig Fenton said “Our workplaces play a critical role in infectious disease transmission and COVID has exposed flaws in the way we design and operate our buildings. We have created WorkSafeAI, an AI-driven toolset that will allow buildings to be designed ‘bio-safe’”.
Over the next six months the team from Data Innovation.AI will also be working with the Usher Institutes UNCOVER team to validate the epidemiological research used within WorkSafeAI’s deep learning algorithms.
Co-Founder Robert Walker notes “Each structure is unique and currently airflow within buildings is designed for comfort. Generating and tracking aerosolised infections within our workspaces has previously proven very complex and it is only by using AI that we can make sense of the vast amounts of data to get to actionable insights.”
WorkSafeAI uniquely integrates global epidemiological research and human movement modelling with the standard design tools used within the construction sector. Proprietary AI-algorithms are used to identify how infections are generated and dispersed by building systems, enabling bio-safety to be designed-in.
Data Innovation.AI have just completed the first Post-COVID AI Accelerator programme delivered by the Bayes Centre and Edinburgh Innovations, and are in the process of securing follow-on funding to scale up the company.
“The validation work done with both the EPCC and the UNCOVER team is essential to confirm the commercial proposition for WorkSafeAI”, continues Robert Walker who is also Chief Advocacy Officer for the company. “Market research indicates we are now spending over 90% of our time indoors and COVID has caused employers and employees to be much more aware of their health and wellbeing within their workplaces. This is where our ground-breaking AI-driven solution can make a significant difference”.