The University of Cambridge in England has opened an advanced engineering facility which it hopes will encourage innovation among its academics and students.
Funded by an £8m (A$16 m) donation from the James Dyson Foundation, the facility will support two centres.
The Dyson Centre for Engineering Design will be the focal point for teaching students about the design process, providing specialised printing machinery, scanners, lasers and routers. It provides space for over 1200 future engineers to conduct their project work.
An open plan design will encourage the sharing of ideas and a collaborative environment. Student led projects housed within the centre include solar powered electric racing cars, vehicles engineered for arctic ice, quad-rotor drones and helium balloon spaceflight systems.
A separate four-storey building, the James Dyson Building for Engineering, will house postgraduate researchers and support research in areas such as advanced materials, smart infrastructure, electric vehicles and efficient internal combustion systems.
The building itself includes smart features such as fibre-optic sensors in the foundation piles offering live data, about everything from temperature to strain.
The facility was opened this week by Sir James Dyson, the inventor of the cyclonic vacuum cleaner.
“Developing the intellectual property that will help Britain succeed in the global technology race depends on applying our brightest minds to ambitious and exciting research projects," said Dyson.
"I’m hopeful that this new space for Britain’s best engineers at the University of Cambridge will catalyse great technological breakthroughs that transform how we live.”
Cambridge is one of the oldest universities in the world with a strong reputation for engineering. Its faculty was ranked 3rd in the world this year by the QS World University Rankings, behind only Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Stanford University. Cambridge is known for its work into computational fluid dynamics, electrical engineering, and mechanics, materials and design.
“Collaboration is at the heart of solving global engineering challenges and the new James Dyson Building brings brilliant researchers from across disciplines together with industrial practitioners to serve our cities, transportation and energy systems with novel techniques," said Head of the Department of Engineering, Professor David Cardwell.
“The adjoining Dyson Centre for Engineering Design enables students to express their creative talents and test their engineering skills using high-tech and diverse machining and prototyping equipment. Here we will also welcome schoolchildren to see engineers at work and captivate the next generation of competent engineers. An updated and redesigned Engineering Library will guarantee flexible spaces for collaborative as well as silent work spaces for our students and researchers.”
[Sir James Dyson (right) inspects facilities in the building that bears his name.]
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