Sir James Dyson said: “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. 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.”
The Centre provides space for over 1200 engineers to conduct their project work, giving them access to specialised printing machinery, scanners, lasers and routers. 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, houses postgraduate researchers and supports their work in areas including advanced materials, smart infrastructure, electric vehicles and efficient internal combustion systems. The Building is equipped with testing laboratories housing fluid dynamics machinery, aerodynamics equipment and areas for aeroacoustics analysis.
Head of the Department of Engineering, Professor David Cardwell, said: “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.
“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,” he added.
The Department is located at the heart of the Cambridge cluster, Europe's largest technology cluster, which employs around 57,000 people in more than 1500 technology-based firms, which have combined annual revenue of over £13billion.
