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Bournemouth University academics have been awarded £66,400 to carry out research for BT that aims to predict how the communications company’s customers will use its services in the future.

Computational intelligence researchers at Bournemouth University (

BU

) have been awarded £66,400 to carry out research for

BT

.

BU’s Smart Technology Research Centre (STRC) has attracted funding from Great Western Research to carry out a project on ‘Probabilistic modelling of customer behaviour using nature-inspired hybrid optimization techniques’.

BU, BT and Bristol University will work in partnership using mathematical and computing technology to better learn from large amounts of historical data and predict BT’s users and systems behaviour in the future.

The three-year research project, which has also created a PhD studentship, will use computer systems along with modelling techniques to create predictions of customer changing behaviour and preferences.

The results are expected to give BT a better understanding of future challenges. Recommendations emerging from the research will be tested in real-life scenarios at one of BT’s contact centres in Exeter, Devon.

Prof Bogdan Gabrys, director of the STRC, said: ‘Constantly changing business and customer-related data are growing at an alarming rate and need to be almost instantly interpreted for the benefit of both service providers such as BT and their customers.

‘Thanks to our close associations with other partners at the cutting edge of computational intelligence and applied mathematics we are confident of helping BT achieve its aim of increased awareness and ability to quickly identify and resolve any potential issues as well as deliver the best personalised service to its customers.’