Mike Handley

PolyChord Limited is a spinout from Cambridge University formed in 2017 to commercialise the unique and cutting-edge analytical data tool developed by two cosmology professors (Professor Mike Hobson & Professor Anthony Lasenby) both now directors of the company. They had a particular task, the data they had to deal with came from the Planck satellite and was fairly large in size, going back from the present day to the Big Bang, spanning ten billion years. The tool, PolyChord, did a really efficient job in extracting information from that data - and naturally we are now looking to apply it to commercial instances where there are similar Big Data problems with issues of high dimensionality, many variables, complexity and indeed dirtiness. Many people these days claim to have smart data tools - PolyChord is a genuine step change ahead of the rest of the pack and can fit models to data when the task is exceptionally challenging, in order to extract information and make predictions. We have made the best progress by collaborating with large dynamic successful companies, who have clear data problems they need to solve, where there is obvious and large commercial value in solving those problems. Companies like this have gathered data and make it ready to perform analysis upon then have run into difficulties with too many variables, and high dimensions inherent in the problem - which makes fitting models to extract information impossible - thats where our PolyChord tool really delivers. Global optimisation is also possible in many circumstances. PolyChord has recently also been used to optimise neural networks, where we treat the honeycomb-like surface of the neural network as a high dimensional data problem in its own right and solve it using PolyChord to optimise it. The result is PolyNet, a second tool for the company, and a new way of using neural networks for more accurate Machine Learning. We see potential use cases related to the large complex data sets gathered by IoT sensors in 5G and can extract information from those datasets where other tools cannot. We have also recently been looking at opportunities to optimise the 5G networks themselves and are particularly interested in talking to service providers, who might seek competitive advantage in gaining superior optimisation of delivery no matter what the circumstances of usage, volume of users, performance of transmitter and so on with this cutting edge tool and extremely high level data science team.

Chief Science Officer: Prof. Mike Hobson

Director of Studies, Physics Prof Hobson is Cambridge University Professor in Astrophysics and Cosmology. Prof Hobson is a researcher in the Cavendish Laboratory, and both Director of Studies in Natural Sciences and a member of the Admissions Committee at Trinity Hall, Cambridge. His research interests include cosmology, in particular primordial fluctuations in the cosmic microwave background, and star-formation. He is an experienced teacher of university physics and mathematics.

Chief Executive Officer: Mike Handley

Marketing consultant with 30 years experience working on branded goods and services. Mike started his career as a Creative Group Head working in TV, radio, outdoor and print with Geers Gross plc. Mike also has experience of designing and manufacturing high quality products in the UK, manufacturing in China, and retailing through John Lewis and Mothercare. Mike has successfully run The Handley Partnership for the last 20 years. He brings commercial expertise to the PolyChord company and acts as principal point of contact for all client-focused business.

Prof. Anthony Lasenby

Cambridge Professor of Astrophysics and Cosmology Fellow of Queens’ College. Prof Lasenby’s areas of interest include Anisotropy of the microwave background, cosmology, the Galactic Centre, telescope surface profile measurement, phase reconstruction problems, atmospheric spectral line broadening. Geometric algebras, the application of Clifford Algebras in physics.

Chief Technology Officer: Dr. Will Handley

Theoretical Cosmologist, studying the very earliest moments of the universe, having recently completed his PhD under his supervisors Anthony Lasenby and Mike Hobson. Dr. Handley’s main interest is in examining the effect that high energy physics has on the universe a split second after the Big Bang. Recently, his work has focussed on developing novel Bayesian algorithms for high-dimensional parameter estimation and model comparison using nested sampling. Dr. Handley is a member of the Planck Core HFI team 2.