Quorum Development

Recruiting talent

Dr Michael short, reader in Control and Instrumentation in the School of Science, Engineering & Design.

Quorum Development Ltd, of Sedgefield, County Durham, is a market leader in providing EDT (electronic data transfer) and EDL (electronic dispatches and logging) interfaces to National Grid.

Challenge

Jordan Robinson, an MEng Instrumentation and Control graduate, had a four month work placement, as part of his Master’s degree project at Quorum Development Ltd.

Solution

Jordan developed an interface that connected up Quorum’s software to a wind turbine, demonstrating that National Grid could automatically control a wind turbine’s output.

Impact

The company recently showcased a working prototype of this system using the software built by Jordan, which attracted considerable interest at a major industry conference for the energy sector. Quorum is now investigating possible industry partnerships to utilise this technology and is looking into the possibility of a further partnership with Jordan and Teesside University.

The placement has been a real success and the model that Jordan has developed has given us the confidence to go forward and start developing this software further.

Paul Fothergill, Technical Director

From an academic point of view, working on real-life projects like this is a good way to apply our research, and it helps inform our teaching. It also gives us insight into the current needs of industry so that we can ensure that our graduates are ready to meet the challenges of the workplace when they leave the University.

Dr Michael Short, Reader in Control and Instrumentation in the School of Science, Engineering & Design.