Blighty BoffinsWe cog your gears of innovation

prototype · open

Build a digital twin of a tidal barrage lock

A twin that predicts gate loads and silt, not a dashboard that looks like a video game. Must run on a laptop in a harbour office.

Budget

£30–55k

Duration

20 weeks

Closes

10 Oct 2026

Background

We operate a lock structure where gate loads and siltation are currently managed by the accumulated judgement of a lock-keeper who has been doing it for nineteen years. His judgement is excellent. He is also going to retire, and the judgement is not written down anywhere.

We have bathymetry, a year of operational logs and a reasonable understanding of the hydrodynamics. What we want is a model that predicts gate loads and silt accumulation well enough to support operational decisions, presented in a way that his successor will actually use.

We are explicit about that last point because it is where these projects usually fail. A model with a beautiful three-dimensional visualisation that takes four minutes to run and requires a workstation is of no use in a harbour office. Something plainer that runs in seconds on an ageing laptop is worth considerably more.

Scope

  • Ingest existing bathymetry and a year of operational logs.
  • Model lock cycles, gate loads and siltation at engineering fidelity.
  • Deliver an interface a lock-keeper will use twice, then keep using.
  • Validate against the logged operational record, and report where it disagrees.
  • Spend time with the outgoing lock-keeper while he is still available.

Constraints

The awkward facts, stated now rather than in week six.

  • The interface must run acceptably on a standard laptop with no dedicated graphics
  • Site visits in winter are necessary and travel to Orkney is not always straightforward
  • The operational logs are handwritten for the first four months of the record
  • There is no budget for additional instrumentation within this package

Deliverables

  • Calibrated model and validation note
  • Operator interface (web or desktop)
  • Handover and a day of training in Orkney
  • Source code and a build that we can maintain after you have gone
  • A written record of the outgoing lock-keeper's operational heuristics

Milestones

  1. Week 3Site visit, data handover, and time with the lock-keeper
  2. Week 8Model structure agreed and initial calibration reported
  3. Week 15Interface prototype reviewed on site, in the office where it will live
  4. Week 20Final model, code handover and a day of training in Orkney

Who should apply

  • University or SME with hydrodynamic or digital-twin evidence
  • Willingness to visit the site in winter
  • Demonstrated ability to build software that a non-specialist will use
  • Prepared to hand over maintainable code, not a compiled artefact

How applications will be judged

In roughly this order.

  • Evidence of a delivered model that someone outside the developing team still uses
  • Realism about validation against an imperfect operational record
  • The proposed interface, which we will judge harshly and on behalf of a lock-keeper
  • Commitment to the winter site visits, stated plainly

Terms

  • Foreground intellectual property in the model and interface transfers to us on final payment
  • Underlying methods remain available to the developer for publication and reuse
  • Operational logs and bathymetry are confidential and may not be redistributed
  • Source code is delivered under version control with a documented build process

Apply

Tell the publisher who you are and what you would do. We pass it on. The rest is between grown-ups.

If you have never built something that a non-specialist relies on daily, this is probably not your package. Say so and we will part on good terms.