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Scientific Consulting Inc
Where Engineering meets Art and Science
Scientific Consulting Inc
Where Engineering meets Art and Science
We are a consulting company with expertise in research methodology and software development. Most of our staff have many decades of experience as contractors and direct employees in the corporate world prior to joining SCi.
Our research staff have experience in a wide range of subject areas: In the hard sciences such as Physics and Chemistry, in the Social Sciences and in manufacturing optimization.
Our software development staff have experience dating back to the large mainframe systems of the 1970s right up to the latest modern day platforms and ranging in size and power from the largest supercomputers to implantable medical devices. This historical perspective gives us the insight to see past the latest fads and fashions in the computer industry and design the best solutions to our clients needs.
We primarily use Opensource software solutions. Some of our preferred software is:
We can design and implement websites ranging from the simplest static content “brochures on the web” up to complex web applications. We can interface web sites to existing business applications running in a non-web environment. Our websites are responsive, and designed to work well on mobile devices and desktop workstations. Our preferred platforms are:
We also have experience in data visualization which can be integrated with our websites. We use D3 for client side implementations and PHPlot and JpGraph for server side implementations.
Although we continually evaluate new platforms and technologies as they emerge we prefer to select a small set of tools that get the job done. We do not want to follow every fad and fashion in the computer industry, but rather we seek to achieve competence in familiar tools and platforms that we know are effective. We strive to make our websites cross platform, able to run on many different browsers, and not dependent on the client having upgraded to the latest version of their browser.
We have considerable experience in Search Engine Optimization, and in the use of Social Media Marketing to promote our customer's websites. We are able to advise our customers on strategies to increase their web traffic based on empirical analysis of server logs and other metrics.
Our staff has research experience in a wide variety of fields. We have expertise covering physics, chemistry, biology, medical, computing, manufacturing and many other disciplines. We can advise and augment research projects conducted by our clients. In some cases we are able to conduct research projects in their entirety to answer questions of importance to our clients.
We have experience in developing embedded systems in many industries, including avionics and implantable medical devices. We are familiar with design and test methodologies mandated by the FAA and FDA.
In the avionics field we have developed and tested stall computers, brake controls, cabin pressure monitors and systems to download and analyze diagnostic data from aircraft. These systems are installed on many models of CRJ aircraft.
In the medical field we have developed software embedded in Bradycardia pacemakers, and in Tachycardia rhythm management systems to include pacing, cardioversion and defibrillation. In addition to implantable devices we have developed associated test and diagnosis equipment used in support of these implantable devices.
Often the information you need is available on websites, but in a format designed for humans to read rather than being machine readable. We have developed a number of in-house tools for extracting useful data from unstructured web pages, and storing it in databases for later use.
We have built scripts using cURL, wget and XPath and custom programs written in the C language to extract data even from websites that are designed to make webscraping difficult. We have developed parallel processing applications to allow our data collection to progress at high speed.
We can design and implement databases. We can arrange hosting in the cloud, or setup on our customer's servers. We can advise on, and if necessary implement, on going maintenance and backups. For SQL database solutions we prefer to use MySQL and PostgreSQL. For NoSQL solutions we prefer to use CouchDB. Although we can use other platforms if required by a client, or for the needs of a particular project, we prefer to restrict ourselves to platforms that we know well and are known to be reliable.
We can design relational databases from scratch for new projects. We can optimize and normalize existing databases, following best practices and ensuring that the design follows the normal forms.
We can aid in the migration of SQL databases to NoSQL databases, or in some cases migrate in the opposite direction. We can advise on the selection of a database paradigm. We can present the advantages and disadvantages of each paradigm to our clients allowing a decision based on sound principles thus eliminating bad choices resulting from following industry fashions.
We can provide advice and consulting services on statistical techniques, analysis and presentation of data. We can provide support for research projects in any discipline. Often researchers who are experts in their own fields would like a little help when it comes to the statistical aspects of designing their experiments, or describing statistical aspects of their analysis when preparing research papers for publication.
Even today when computational power is no longer a concern there are still many situations in which experimental efficiency is critical. Often the collection of data is expensive. Sometimes experiments inevitably result in pain, injury or death to the subjects of the experiment. In these situations it is morally and ethically necessary to minimize the number of experimental subjects that must be injured. Sometimes each data point takes considerable time to collect. In all these situations it is important to use an experimental design that is as efficient as possible.
We can advise our clients on the most efficient designs for their purposes, whether for a one off research project, or for ongoing optimization and control of manufacturing processes. We have experience of classical designs as well as more modern Taguchi methods.
Nowadays there is an enormous amount of data that can be mined from so many sources. The computational power is now available to harvest useful insights from this data. The “Wisdom of the Crowds” has long been recognized as being of great value. But now this wisdom is widely accessible and can drive business decisions.
We can provide advice and support to our clients wishing to use this technology themselves, or a full service solution to clients that would rather offload the details of implementation.
We recommend and use the following Open Source tools:
We have considerable experience in Communications Security. We can provide advise to our customers that wish to implement their own systems. We can also implement turnkey systems that will secure our customer's communications, preventing eavesdropping by even the most powerful of enemies. We have encryption software for email, Instant Messenging, and hard drive protection. We can set up email forwarding in such a manner as to make it impossible to trace the sender while still allowing the recipient to respond. We can send messages in such a manner that no one will even know that a message was sent. Our ComSec solutions can be tailored to the most hostile of environments.
In the computer arena we recommend the following:
In the radio arena we have solutions that implement Spread Spectrum and Burst Transmission