Transcend hope to transform the way we design critical infrastructure

Meet Transcend, one of the suppliers joining our Innovation Lab.

Could you tell us how you found out about the Innovation Lab and why you decided to pitch your idea? 

We are familiar with several past innovation lab participants and had heard great things about the program.

We felt the idea of design automation for wastewater treatment plants would benefit United Utilities in many ways – namely, to enhance United Utilities’ ability to complete master planning and capital planning activities with more innovation, speed, and quality at less cost. 

We also knew that having access to United Utilities’ experts would be invaluable for our start-up, especially in helping us understand UK market needs and creating a valuable product for UK water utilities. 

In simple terms, could you please summarise what your product does? 

The Transcend Design Generator (TDG) automatically creates complete, accurate, engineering quality wastewater facility designs at the push of button. We aim to fundamentally change the way utilities, engineering firms, and technology manufacturers assess and design critical infrastructure. 

With a limited set of inputs, engineers can create optimized wastewater treatment works designs in minutes – saving their time and energy for detailed, innovative, complex, sustainable work. 

What is the ultimate benefit your idea will bring to water customers in the North West? 

UU’s water customers will ultimately receive upgraded wastewater treatment works that incorporate innovative, sustainable treatment technologies rather than the centuries old, unsustainable infrastructure of years past. 

How are you hoping to develop your idea through the Innovation Lab? 

We are looking to learn from United Utilities’ engineering and business experts to determine required customizations to our software to make it work flawlessly for the UK market. We are also looking to test our software in a ‘real world’ setting on one or more of United Utilities’ wastewater treatment works to determine the value of our software. 

• How important do you think programmes like the Innovation Lab are for developing ideas? 

They are critical. Receiving candid feedback from the end customer at the early stages of a company can make (or break!) an idea. Without the lab, we would likely struggle to find product-market fit in a short time. 

What does innovation mean to you in three words?

Resiliency, sustainability, adaptability

If you fast forward two years from now, where do you see your product?

We will develop the capability to do potable water treatment and industrial (tough-to-treat) treatment designs, in addition to integrating more and more sustainable treatment technologies and solutions into our design platform.