Foresight review of big data

Big data can bring the societal benefits that are at the heart of the Lloyd’s Register Foundation’s mission, enhancing safety by fundamentally changing the design, manufacturing, maintenance and decommissioning processes for complex infrastructures and machinery. 

This Foresight Review evaluates large-scale data analysis and describes big data methods, techniques and solutions. It provides a number of accessible examples that indicate how and why big data is making a difference to critical infrastructure now, and why the future of big data is important.

To really embrace the opportunity that big data offers Lloyd's Register Foundation, it is concluded that we need to adopt 'data-centric engineering'. Data-centric engineering means recognising the value of data as an asset, and putting data considerations at the core of engineering design.

Based on the above findings, the Foresight Review recommends four key action areas to make a distinctive impact: 

• Technology road mapping: there is an opportunity to collaborate with funding bodies, the research community and other stakeholders to produce a technology roadmap for data-centric engineering.
• Design for data: embedded sensors, intelligent systems, and data management will be an integral part of engineering design in the future.
• Codes, standards and data sharing: we need to foster an open data culture in engineering, but create codes and standards to ensure data quality, traceability, security and integrity.
• Data analytics: the development of algorithms and models for data analytics is crucial for extracting value from big data, enabling better-informed decisions and enhancing safety.