Thomas Richards Consultancy
Thomas Richards
Recognised Spark Business
Thomas Richards studied a BSc in Medical Science (2014) followed by a PhD in neurophysiology (2018) at the University of Leeds. During his doctoral studies, he developed analysis pipelines using multiple programming languages in order study neural pathways for controlling human movement, and was seconded to Memorial University in St Johns, Canada, to work on a collaborative research project. He then undertook an internship in Leeds Institute of Data Analytics (LIDA), where he worked on an epidemiological study of prescription patterns of inhalers across the COVID-19 pandemic alongside the Alan Turing Institute, as well as on an agent-based model to simulate movement of people around a building.
Thomas Richards Consultancy began when he understood that the skills he had gained in programming, academic writing, and data science were in high demand in industry where many groups and companies are in need of this expertise that may not be the primary focus for their workforce.
“SPARK has been instrumental in supporting Thomas Richards Consultancy by providing access to incubator space in the Nexus building at the University of Leeds. They have also hosted multiple interesting seminars and talks with entrepreneurs. SPARK has also been very helpful in providing advice for kickstarting a business and has also arranged a free consultation with a lawyer for conversations relating to intellectual property.”
Thomas Richards
Founder
Thomas Richards Consultancy
Thomas Richards Consultancy has supported collaborative international research groups with scientific editing for grant applications and manuscripts, worked with companies who provide online educational content by offering subject-matter expertise in programming, and worked on the design of a digital electrode for control of a prosthetic hand through biological signals.
Alongside the consultancy, Thomas has been working with Sheffield-based digital health company Elaros on an Innovate UK grant they secured to build a device, digital platform, and algorithm for a system for reading electrical signals from muscles on a mobile phone to be used for assessment of stroke. Thomas Richards Consultancy is open to new contracts whilst the final phases of the prototype development work with Elaros come to completion in September 2023.
Thomas also plans on using the upcoming Helix makerspace for prototyping the development of new technologies, such as the digital electrode and portable electromyography (EMG) systems mentioned above.
