University News Last updated 13 September 2011
Lost coursework could be a thing of the past thanks to a new service set up by two recent Birmingham City University graduates.
Dominic Nielen-Groen and Chris Elmore, who both recently completed the BSc (Hons) Forensic Computing course at the University’s Faculty of Technology, Engineering and the Environment started their own business Zibit Datalab in February 2011, which specialises in data recovery from a wide variety of storage devices. This month (September) they launched a new service called Student Data Recovery, to help students who have saved coursework on a computer, but then found the work has been accidentally deleted.
Dominic and Chris use an advanced technique called ‘data carving’ which allows them to extract file contents and restore them to the original state.
Chris said: “The new academic term is quickly approaching and we know that the main priority for the majority of students is freshers’ week, but what if you lose your work before a deadline? Perhaps you have accidently broken your USB stick?
'Delete' doesn't mean deleted
“Data loss is all too common, but is fairly misunderstood. Deleting a file doesn’t mean it’s actually deleted. Whether you’re using a Mac or Windows, your operating system keeps a record of where your files are stored. When you delete a file your operating system purposely forgets where that file is located but in fact the contents remain stored.”
Based at Fort Dunlop in Birmingham, Zibit Datalab was founded because the two believed that they had identified a gap in the data recovery market. They discovered a significant number of companies both locally and nationally had an unclear pricing policy, often starting very low, then adding additionally costs or starting with a very high price and still adding extra costs on. This gave them the idea of setting up a company which offers a fixed price service. Despite the economic climate, Dominic and Chris have grown their client base and have built up contacts within the industry.
Associate Dean of the Faculty of Technology, Engineering and the Environment, Dr. Peter Rayson, said: “We are very proud of our students; they take full advantage of their learning opportunities with us on their programmes of study.
“Equally we are also proud of our staff who always go the extra mile to help students. In this case it is a testimony to the level of confidence our students now have in their skills and the entrepreneurship to spot a rising market in Cybersecurity of which our School of Computing, Telecommunications and Networks has a deep technical insight.”
The School of Computing, Telecommunications and Networks is one of the leading UK academies for Apple and Microsoft, having been awarded membership of Microsoft’s prestigious Developer Network Academic Alliance. For over a decade the School has been working with CISCO and is the leading training centre for Europe, the Middle East and Africa. In 2010 six of CISCO’s coveted graduate posts were given to graduates from the School. Other graduates have proceeded to work for companies such as IBM, Hewlett Packard, Capgemini and Siemens. The School has a number of specialist laboratories such as a Games lab, CISCO Networking labs, Electronics lab, Embedded lab and a forensics lab which boasts fingerprint readers and facial recognition software.