Tracking Covid

Atkins predict digitally driven COVID recovery

Atkins – a member of the SNC-Lavalin Group – has shared the findings of its independent research, which assesses the impact of COVID-19 on the UK infrastructure sector, measures confidence, and explores the roles of government and the private sector during recovery.

The work – which was carried out by the independent market research organisation Savanta ComRes on behalf of the Atkins – represents the first comprehensive survey of senior public and private sector decision makers across different subsectors within infrastructure, particularly transport, property and utilities.

In total, 398 responses were completed via an online survey during June and July 2020 and 8 indepth interviews were conducted.

The report, entitled “Infrastructure Insights: COVID Impact and Recovery”, found that while the industry has been impacted by the pandemic – with organisations reporting that 16% of the work they had on immediately before Covid-19 had been postponed or cancelled completely – 52% of senior decision makers were confident that they would see outlooks for the sector return to pre-crisis levels by Q4 of 2021. In the private sector, almost 7 in 10 respondents predicted a return to their organisation’s pre-crisis outlook before the end of next year.

There is general agreement that the sector will not emerge from the crisis in the same form, with the vast majority of respondents agreeing that digital innovation will be increasingly important. www.atkinsglobal.com

Telespazio and e-GEOS’s platform for coronavirus

Using AI to integrate satellite data and knowledge from the online so as to isolate new outbreaks of Covid-19, while monitoring areas where people congregate. This is often ECO4CO – Earth Cognitive System for CoViD-19 – a platform created by Telespazio and e-GEOS (a company owned by ASI, 20%, and Telespazio, 80%), and winner within the Health Emergency category of the worldwide involve “Innovative Ideas and Technologies vs. COVID-19 and beyond”, launched by the United Nations Industrial Development Organisation (UNIDO) in response to the coronavirus emergency. Telespazio and e-GEOS tied for the award with the Chinese company Shanghai Zhizhong Environmental Protection Technology.

ECO4CO systematically organises the skills and know-how of the entire Telespazio Group, and can correlate data from global observation and positioning satellites with non-satellite information from web searches and social network messages using artificial intelligence systems. In this way, using predictive analysis systems and autonomous acquisition of satellite data, as well as tracking and data learning ability, the platform supports systematic surveillance of areas of aggregation such as parks, public markets and sports stadiums, supplying data on human activity and on any possible gatherings. The information obtained can help isolate new outbreaks of the epidemic while monitoring places where people tend to concentrate. www.telespazio.com