A group of informatics and mathematics Ph.D.s from EdinburghUniversity and Herriott Watt have won a 5,000 prize from the ScottishInstitute for Enterprise. The prize is for their business ThinkTankMathematics Ltd, which offers a new kind of consultancy: improvingproducts and services by investigating the mathematics behind them.ThinkTank will soon be moving to the Edinburgh Technology TransferCentre (ETTC) 'launch-pad' in King's Buildings.

Company director Samuel Halliday, was delighted with the result. "Wewere worried that the judges might not see the full value thatmathematics can bring to companies in Scotland, but our case studiesobviously convinced them otherwise."

With the slogan 'Data=Money', the mathematical consultants work byutilising a company's data. Data is a valuable asset, one that isoften neglected. By applying techniques from mathematics andartificial intelligence (A.I.), ThinkTank hope to deliver improvedefficicency, or make wholly new products and services possible. Thecompany will focus on data analysis in networked services. Clients sofar include Motorola and Renishaw.

The Scottish Institute for Enterprise (SIE) was created in 1999, withthe aim of stimulating enterprise and talent from within Scotland'suniversities. It runs events and competitions throughout the year. Other winners in the business plan competition included a school forplumbers, and a chocolate strawberry company.

For more information, visit http://www.thinktankmaths.co.uk/