August Newsletter

Cleaning Truck

We are just a few short weeks from launching our new cleaning unit. With this on the roads, we will be able to cut out the middle man when it comes to chamber clean outs. With the chassis due for delivery this week, construction and testing of the vehicle as a whole should begin shortly before getting the unit licenced for roads soon after.

While we are still looking for a team to run this unit, planning and logistics of this new asset will fall under the jurisdiction of Robbie Collins. This should hopefully improve on site productivity hugely, and we already have work lined up with Welsh Water to complete cleanouts for them in the coming months.

Remaining Fluid

As we all know, our remit here at Invenio Systems is to continue to develop new technologies and methods for the water industry to investigate and reduce leakage. With this in mind, the new project being managed by John Dolan, might seem a bit out of left field.

When DCWW repair mains they have to close the road. They hire portable traffic lights to manage the traffic flow. However, DCWW have been getting complaints from people about these portable traffic lights, where the lights are either out of sync or stuck on red.

John has been tasked with developing a kit that can monitor the state of the lights (either red or green) and the flow of traffic. Using a raspberry pi; during the first phase of this project he will be building the kit with the appropriate sensors and renting a set of traffic lights to do some testing. The second phase will be deploying this equipment on a DCWW site and including a communications module to send the data back to us from analysis.

Repairs

At the request of Welsh Water, we will be trialling a new non-intrusive supply pipe repair system very soon. The AquaPea has been developed by Qinov8 and they are carrying out successful trials in other water company areas. So far two of our engineers, Rhydian and Ashley, have been trained in the use of this innovative new system.

Data Analysis Developments

John has made some improvements to the Invenio Data analysis tool. It now has a much more aesthetically pleasing appearance and has two Machine learning algorithms built in, one to detect continuous flows (it performs really well on large flow but could use some further improvement in detecting medium-small flows), and another Machine learning algorithm, developed by Tom, to detect regular peaks in the data (due to plumbing losses/leaky cistern). Also, the script can now handle dual channel loggers and checks to make sure a property has not been grouped twice. A few other issues have been debugged too.

Employee Spotlight

Andy Maddox

– What is your role at Invenio Systems?

I am the Operations Manager for Invenio Systems; my priority is to manage the operational side of the business, this includes the overall programme, upcoming projects and resource availability, client meetings, Health and Safety, training and recruitment. I regularly report to Steve and Stuart and prepare update board reports for their board meeting. I am involved in some product development and testing and anything else that I think I can provide some useful input to.

– Tell us a little about yourself.

I was born in the carpet capital of the world, Kidderminster, I have been married to Amy for eight years. Besides a couple of career breaks I have worked in the water industry since I left college when I was 18. The intention was to get a job while I figured out what career path to follow, still figuring it out! I started in data logging and leakage and moved my way through the industry experiencing many aspects.

– Before working at Invenio, what was the most unusual or interesting job you’ve ever had?

Before I started in the industry I had a few small jobs trying different things. The most unusual one being working on a panel creosoting production line, which lasted a week as it turned out I had an allergy to creosote!!

– What kinds of hobbies and interests do you have outside of work?

In March I started my online MBA with Aston university, this has put paid to any hobby I used to have as the workload is quite intense. When I do get chance I enjoy music, photography and the usual ‘socialising’ with friends and family.

– People would be surprised if they knew:

Me and two of my friends raised money for charity by driving a car bought for £100 from the midlands to Valencia via South of France and Northern Italy. We wore Roman costumes and painted the car to look a little like a chariot complete with two wooden horse heads on the bonnet. The trip finished at La Tomatina festival, a festival in a town called Buñol where everyone gets buried by trucks full of tomatoes!!