 Identify Threats to ShippingWe've been featured in the latest issue of the Marine Insurer where Nick Shaw, CEO of the International Group of P&I Clubs (IG) discusses the impact of Covid-19 on the IG and the sector. Asked how the IG and its Clubs are using technology to help Members through the crisis, Nick responded: "On the recommendation of North [of England P&I] the Group launched a new online digital dashboard with technical service provider Geollect to help shipowners, charterers, operators and other parties in the maritime sector to track country and port specific advice. "The dashboard gives up to date details of the measures being put in place in response to the pandemic. This facilitates the dissemination of port and country specific COVID-19 restrictions to anyone interested. The tool allows the industry to identify commercial risks and physical threats to shipping around the world. It sources data from all 13 IG Clubs and their wide network of IG correspondents, the International Maritime Organization (IMO), World Health Organization (WHO) and other leading sources." Read the full article here. To find out more about the insights we provide our maritime insurance partners or request a free trial email info@geollect.com
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 by Josh Nock
I joined Geollect in October 2019, having previously put my geospatial intelligence skills to work in the utility sector. I was searching for a new challenge where I would be able to refine my knowledge and keep developing my abilities, whilst making a real difference with the work I was doing. Since joining the team, my role has diversified a lot and continually presents me with new projects which open up a multitude of different, interesting aspects of the geospatial world for me to discover - things I didn’t even know were possible before. Every project I work on is bespoke and tailored to suit the needs and requirements of a customer’s brief, meaning our team is required to have a diverse knowledge of what is possible with the available data and how we can approach tasks differently to overcome any limitations or obstacles we face. Our collective insight allows us to share our skills and work collaboratively, meaning that we can produce high-quality, efficient products within a short timeframe. I am constantly surprised by how much I have been able to learn from my colleagues and in return that I too have been able to teach them new skills. Working at Geollect has given me a lot of insight into the way I work, but also how others work and how our different strengths can allow us to collaborate well together. When we are working towards a common goal, it is infinitely helpful to have different perspectives and input from alternate points of view, as this can enable you to look at a task in a way you hadn’t even considered. Aside from the work we do together, our team really feels like a family in which everyone has their own important role to play. I have always felt supported, appreciated and encouraged, and know that my personal and professional development is a high priority for the management team. I am always excited to get stuck into my work and see what challenges each week will bring.  Geollect is one of 10 companies chosen to take part in a special mentoring programme being run by the UK’s intelligence, security and cyber agency.
The aim of the scheme is to develop creative products based on data science, machine learning and AI techniques that have the potential to help communities and businesses. A GCHQ spokesperson said the programme will play a crucial role in helping to keep UK businesses and consumers safe: “This 12-week programme will give these companies, using cutting-edge tech, unique access to GCHQ technologists to help hone their products – from helping to prevent the spread of fake news to countering people trafficking,” they added. The GCHQ Innovation Co-Lab is a joint venture with The Landing, a tech mentorship hub based in MediaCityUK in Greater Manchester and global tech accelerator UP Ventures. Emer Coleman, project director at Up Accelerator said: “Our goal is to help emerging businesses make technical and commercial breakthroughs with their ingenious products and services by giving them access to world-class GCHQ technologists as well as industry experts and dedicated coaches.” As part of the programme, Geollect will be working with GCHQ software engineers and technologists to further develop an innovative media insight and sentiment analysis tool called MOSAIC. The platform uses machine learning to process vast amounts of open source data to provide insights into sources of information in society and understand the spread of fake news. Geollect specialises in using machine learning and geospatial intelligence techniques to aggregate, analyse and visualise vast amounts of data. They work with customers in defence, cruise lines and insurance to develop technical solutions that simplify complexity and provide actionable insights. CEO Cate Gwilliam said the company’s selection represents a huge opportunity to learn from some great minds, “we want to use this as a springboard to scale our machine learning solutions to the next level and make a real difference in the UK and the US; we’ve generated significant interest in MOSAIC and we are excited to use the Co-Lab to further validate our capabilities.” The Co-Lab has come at a great time for Geollect, “this is a really exciting time for us” said Cate, “we are continuing to grow within Defence, entering a Series A funding round in the next few weeks, and are also participating in an accelerator scheme with Lloyd’s of London.” Details of the full cohort of companies set to receive mentorship services can be found here. Start-ups to be mentored by GCHQ revealed
Today we announced we will mentor 10 tech start-ups using AI, data science and machine-learning to help keep people safe. 3 September 2020 Companies selected to benefit from the 12-week support programme, based out of GCHQ’s Manchester office, include firms which use: AI to alert haulage companies to stowaways in their containers, data to determine how busy trains are to manage social distancing and AI and machine-learning to identify and prevent the spread of fake news. The start-ups will have unique access to GCHQ technologists and industry experts to improve their products, receive business mentoring. They will then have the chance to showcase their products to a panel made up of industry leaders and investors at the end of the 12-week scheme. A GCHQ spokesperson said: We’re pioneering a new kind of security for an ever more complex world and businesses can play their part in helping to keep the UK safe. This 12-week programme will give these companies, using cutting edge tech, unique access to GCHQ technologists to help hone their products - from helping to prevent the spread of fake news to countering people trafficking. The GCHQ Innovation Co-Lab is a joint venture with The Landing, a tech mentorship hub based in MediaCityUK in Greater Manchester and global tech accelerator UP Ventures. The companies which will receive mentorship from GCHQ technologists, based out of its new city centre Manchester offices, are;
Geollect team with James Madison University in support of the Congo Ebola Medical Relief project31/8/2020 Achieving a goal is always cause for pride in a job well-done, especially one that involves a global humanitarian effort. But meeting that goal and surpassing it by 100%? That’s how Dukes do it.
The JMU Supply Chain Club team and their advisor and professor of management Bill Ritchie recently loaded their second of two 40’ containers filled with much needed medical supplies destined for Africa. Along with Dr. Mark Smith, executive director of local nonprofit Mihret Medical Supply Group, the group were finishing up a humanitarian project that was a year in the making, called the Congo Ebola Medical Relief project. In the fall of 2019, the JMU Supply Chain Club leadership team met with Smith and developed the goal to source, store and ship medical equipment and supplies to African hospitals dealing with the Ebola crisis. At the time, they hoped to find enough supplies to fill one 40’ shipping container. They started by approaching Mike Hendrickson, COO of Matchbox Realty, who donated space to warehouse the supplies, and the team loaded it with exam tables and a surgical microscope donated by Harrisonburg’s Dr. Conrad Zapanta. Five months later they began filling a new, larger space provided by Interchange Group with donations from Sentara RMH Medical Center in Harrisonburg, and Carillion Clinic in Roanoke. As the COVID-19 pandemic began, international borders in some African countries were shut down and warehouse security increased, causing concern about the viability of meeting the project’s goals. During this time however, Smith identified additional medical equipment needs in Ethiopia and decided to add this destination to the project’s original goals. In early August, club members Bhumik Shah and Jess Lewis along with Ritchie and Smith loaded the first of the 40’ containers with supplies, and within a week it was on its way to the port at Djibouti and ultimately inland to Ethiopia. Dr. Tilahun Goshu, who is affiliated with the Ethiopian hospitals, was on hand to help identify critical equipment needed for the shipment. The second full container, the result of hard work and extending their previous goal, is bound for the Congo. Lewis was enthusiastic about the venture, saying “Our project with Mihret Medical is a great experience for the members of our club. It provides the opportunity to learn about supply chain operations while giving back to people in need.” https://www.jmu.edu/news/cob/2020/08/28-jmu-supply-chain-club-wraps-up-congo-medical-relief-project.shtml  Geollect has been recognised as providing groundbreaking services in support of tracking COVID-19 and impacts to shipping on a global scale. Follow the link to read the original article on gCaptain.
"In recent months organizations like the Royal Navy, maritime heavyweights like IGP&I, the US Department of Transportation’s Volpe Center, among others, have been partnering with startups and groundbreaking new companies like the UK based Geollect and the MIT based startup blkSAIL to develop maritime COVID tracking dashboards, maps, and AI algorithms. This week the US Navy joins the fight with new programs for maritime innovation." The Lloyd’s re/insurance market announced the latest cohort of insurtech disruptors that will join its Lloyd’s Lab innovation accelerator program with a focus on COVID-19 products and solutions.
The insurtechs will look at new types of insurance to support the COVID-19 response; help the Lloyd’s market to assess COVID-19 risks, and help Lloyd’s customers to adapt to a changing workplace. The insurtech startups will focus on three key themes: data and models; new insurance products and markets, and response to COVID-19. The new Lloyd’s Lab teams will join Praedicat, Metabiota and Dialogue, three teams specially selected in June to work on Lloyd’s COVID-19 response. More than 140 applications were received from across the world for the fifth cohort of the Lloyd’s Lab, which begins Sept. 7, 2020. The 10 successful teams were selected after presenting their ideas in a competitive process during a virtual pitch day on July 29, 2020. This is the second completely virtual Lloyd’s Lab cohort following the successful completion of cohort four. In July, the Lloyd’s Lab ran its first “Fusion” program, a new three-day event designed to test early-stage start-up ideas aimed at dealing with COVID-19 and other systemic risks. Three of the teams who took part in Fusion – Ryskex, Hivemind and Geollect – have been successful in their application to the fifth cohort of the lab. In the first four cohorts, start-ups, entrepreneurs and businesses have presented ideas ranging from live-streaming drones to event-based parametric insurance solutions for catastrophic flooding and on-demand insurance for the gig economy. Examples of success stories so far can be seen in alumni members such as ClimaCell, Parsyl, Layr and Flock. “This cohort of insurtechs will play an important role in our response to the COVID-19 pandemic and to help us develop the new models and insurance products of the future. We will undoubtedly need new products and services for insurers to deliver confidence and security against future waves of this pandemic and other systemic risks of the scale we have seen in 2020,” commented Trevor Maynard, head of Innovation. Lloyd’s described the 10 teams selected for cohort five of Lloyd’s Lab as follows:
https://www.insurancejournal.com/news/international/2020/08/11/578676.htm by Jason Murtagh  Back in the last few days of March I received a call from Rich & Cate Gwilliam, founders of Geollect. Rich & I had served together in the Royal Navy and since retiring from the service we had kept in touch; from a distance I had witnessed the birth, growth and success of Geollect. I was therefore surprised and flattered when Rich & Cate asked for my assistance in a project which had just landed.
During the conversation I became acutely aware that I was relatively naive in terms of understanding Geospatial Intelligence & Analysis and I could be entering an environment which would be far removed from any of my previous experiences. However, in my unconscious I kept hearing the same statement. During the later stage of my military service I had received this piece of sage advice, ‘don’t become fixated on what you want to do when you leave but do define exactly what you’re not prepared to do. You don’t know what you don’t know, so be open to opportunities’. It is with a sense of deep embarrassment that I cannot recall who passed this piece of wisdom; if you’re reading this then you have my greatest respect & thanks. Within the space of a few minutes and under the spell of Rich & Cate, I had decided to walk the talk and be true to my inner voice. This opportunity did not fall into the list of things which I was not prepared to do. Five months later I can say with ultimate confidence that joining Geollect was the right decision and has reinvigorated my desire to grow and develop both professionally and personally. The authenticity, humility and confidence of the Geollect family is infectious. The strength, depth and cognitive diversity of the team has had a most positive impact on my own thought processes and the way in which I address the challenges I face on a daily basis. I struggle to recall a day when I have not left the office, albeit the virtual version, with a smile and keen sense to get stuck into the next day's tasks. I would like to thank the Geollect family thank for your patience, perseverance and humour. I’m here for as long as you will have me! by James Grimes  For a College Student who had recently graduated, going straight into the job market seemed quite intimidating. It was also a strange time to say the least - at this young age, most were studying for a degree, while working full time almost immediately after college seemed unheard of. I was ready for something a little different. Many job applications and interviews later, I was offered the job as a Front End Developer at Geollect, a global geospatial intelligence company. It was a completely unfamiliar field and I didn’t have any knowledge of this industry before joining - I knew that this would bring many new and exciting challenges along my career.
On my first Day at Geollect, I was very quickly welcomed into a growing team of developers and GIS analysts. I had a feeling of unease being the youngest in such a team, but I quickly adjusted to the friendly work environment. I was tasked with setting up Web Maps, where I spent the majority of my time learning processes of being able to visualise points from data sets and creating User Interfaces for those applications. During my time at Geollect, my work has consisted of looking at large Mapping Applications and adding/modifying the code to improve overall user experience and interface. This really put my programming and problem-solving skills to the test - working with 1000’s of lines of code is far larger than anything I have previously handled before. After six months of working at Geollect, I have learnt so much about being a developer and what it is like to work in the Geospatial Industry. It was a real eye-opener experiencing the software development process first-hand and understanding business needs to create successful products. During my time, I have been surrounded by people working on different projects against challenging deadlines, which made me realise how fast Geollect is growing as a company. Overall, I have really enjoyed my experience so far working at Geollect. There have been many exciting challenges along the way and I have gained a good understanding of Mapping Applications used by the company in such a short amount of time. I look forward to what the future holds and am excited to be part of the team as Geollect continues to grow. London: Lloyd’s has started work with three new InsurTechs to help the Market respond to the COVID-19 pandemic. As part of its package of measures to respond to the COVID-19 pandemic, Lloyd’s has reimagined and expanded the scope, process and timings for new applicants to the Lloyd’s Lab innovation accelerator. The purpose of this is to help Lloyd’s and the start-ups bring to market more quickly their COVID-19 related products and innovations. Lloyd’s wants to understand, model and create products that better protect customers against pandemics, and other systemic risks.
``We are pleased to welcome three new teams to an exclusively COVID-19 related Lloyd’s Lab programme, which begins on July 13,'' said Lloyd's. The teams Lloyd's selected are: • Metabiota is a start-up focused on quantifying and mitigating epidemic and pandemic risk. The start-up draws on rigorous epidemiological analysis and a wide range of analytic tools to advance the science of modelling infectious disease outbreaks and estimating their socioeconomic effects. • Praedicat are a Lloyd’s Lab alumni from cohort 3. They use litigation data and science combined with technology to anticipate the next big liability catastrophe. They plan to develop a suite of cross-line clash COVID-19 scenarios, to assist the market to identify and track the emergence of COVID-19 liability risk. • Dialogue is a start-up focused on the Credit and Political Risk (CPRI) marketplace. Their solution is an online platform sitting between brokers and underwriters, to create, submit, negotiate, and place complex CPRI transactions. Dialogue has also created a centralised availability application to help brokers see underwriter availability, as working from home becomes increasingly common.. Fusion programme Lloyd’s is also running a short, but intense, three-day programme from July 21 to July 23. The Lloyd’s Lab Fusion programme has been designed to provide a setting for Lloyd’s market teams to work with InsurTechs to explore and develop early-stage ideas for tackling pandemics and systemic risk. Partner InsurTechs selected for this programme include Hivemind, Geollect, Ryskex and Survenus. https://www.asiainsurancepost.com/disaster-management/3-new-start-ups-join-lloyds-lab-fast-tracked-covid-19-cohort |
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