Aurai FAQ

Why Focus on Data Science?

  • Data science is hard and expensive
  • There is a shortage of data scientists
  • There is immense value in the data that is not being leveraged, monetized or put to use
  • We have a big problem to solve – indoor air quality

 

Why Focus on Indoor Air Quality (IAQ)?

  • Because we as humans spend 87% or more of our lives indoors
  • Because there are over 2.9M deaths each year linked to IAQ and countless illnesses

 

Why Aggregate and Anonymize Data?  

  • Data sets are kept in silos – companies are gathering data but unsure of how to make use of the data
  • Companies with data sets know they hold immense value, so are unwilling to release the data despite not making use of it
  • Anonymizing data allows for valuable work to be done without threatening the value of the data to the company 

 

Why hasn’t this been done before?

  • Because it is expensive and hard to do
  • Because big data has only been around for the past 10-15, and IoT is even more recent

 

How can we reduce the barriers to making data science useful?

  • First, anonymize the data and allow it to be ingested to Aurai
  • Then, allow our machine learning platform and huge pool of data scientists to analyze the data and find useful data signatures
  • Make the developer platform super easy to access and use
  • Open the API and make it super user friendly 
  • Incentivize the data scientists with revenue shares of the data signatures and apps they develop, creating opportunities for annuity revenue streams

 

Open API Approach?

  • We believe in leveraging the global community, not just an in-house team
  • IBM set the example with Watson: open it to every other company to leverage and you can achieve exponential impact and value – see this article for reference https://hbr.org/2015/01/the-strategic-value-of-apis 
  • The simpler it is to perform data science, access the platform and monetize the results, the simpler it is to productize the results for our partners

 

How is a data signature made useful or productized?  

  • Lets start with our mold signature – would it be useful to have an alert if the conditions for mold are present in your home or building?  You could take corrective action before mold begins or spreads, saving you lots of $
  • Or, taking it a step further, what if the mold alert was also sent to your contractor so they could take corrective action?
  • Or even better, what if your HVAC manufacturer had a command/control function on the HVAC, automatically triggering de-humidification when the alert is issued, while also notifying you?
  • Or perhaps your smart home automation integrator can leverage this signature, provide an alert, automatically start the de-humidifier or AC, and do it in an energy efficient manner during the lower energy cost periods of the day
  • The possibilities are endless and provide manufacturers and service providers with further automation and intelligence giving them a competitive edge.

 

Can we develop apps from these signatures?

  • Yes, the data signatures are the intelligence.
  • The apps are products developed using the intelligence.  Either can be sold on the platform to buyers.