WMG News - Latest news from WMG

A new innovation support programme aimed at helping small business growth has been launched by the SME team at WMG, University of Warwick. They have recently been awarded ERDF funding to offer two free days of innovation support to West Midlands SMEs, through a new Innovation Programme, which is designed to help SMEs transform existing products and services and launch new products and services that are market leading and able to adapt to changing market needs.

The Institution of Engineering and Technology (IET), one of the world’s largest multi-discipline professional societies for engineers and technicians, is all set to host the IET Wheatstone Lecture 2012. The topic is “Communicating person to person through the power of thought alone” and will be delivered by Christopher J. James, Professor of Healthcare Technology and Director of the Institute of Digital Healthcare, University of Warwick, UK. The purpose of this event is to demonstrate the technologies that are relevant to the measurement, sensors, instrumentation and NDT Network and also encourage young people to take up engineering by demonstrating the exciting projects that engineers work on.

As part of the lecture, Professor James will introduce how Brain-Computer Interfacing (BCI) can be used for capturing brain signals and translating them into commands that allow humans to control (just by thinking) devices such as computers, robots, rehabilitation technology and virtual reality environments. Whilst BCI is no longer a new thing and person-to-person communication via the nervous system has been shown in the past, this is the first time we are starting to see true brain-to-brain interfacing being demonstrated. The full implications of this are yet to be understood but there are some scenarios where brain-to-brain communication could be of huge benefit such as intelligence and gaming.

A £92 million National Automotive Innovation Campus (NAIC) is to be established at the University of Warwick. NAIC will be part-funded through the Government's UK Research Partnership Investment Fund (UKRPIF), which is administered by the Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE) and which supports university capital research projects. The Chancellor of the Exchequer, the Rt Hon George Osborne MP, has announced today, Monday 8th October, a further £200 million of public investment in the fund.

George Osborne said: "Today we deliver with some of our leading businesses and universities £1 billion of new science investment in the areas where we lead the world."

David Willetts, Minister for Universities and Science, said: “The UK has world-class companies and great universities. This new investment will get them working together to deliver innovation and growth."

This week, WMG was pleased to host a visit from Dean Professor Guo and a team from Inner Mongolia University (IMU), as a result of Strategic Partnership funding that has been awarded to WMG's Dr Jay Bal.

Professor Sujit Banerji, Dr Jay Bal and Dr Xiao Ma from WMG, along with Dean Professor Guo, from IMU, signed an outline collaboration agreement to provide IMU graduates with an annual executive training programme, as well as collaboration on Digital Economy research (with Professor Irene Ng and Jonnie Turpie).

WMG’s Chairman and founder, Professor Lord Bhattacharyya, welcomes Dr Vince Cable’s promise of a £1bn 'business bank'.

Professor Lord Bhattacharyya said:

“For two years now I've been fighting hard for a business bank, having seen how hard it has been for SME's to get capital.”

“I am absolutely delighted that Dr Vince Cable has made this announcement. Whilst details are sketchy, it is a wonderful start. This will really help SME's throughout the country."

It has been announced todaythat leading marketing academic and entrepreneur, Professor Irene Ng, has been appointed as Director of The International Institute for Product and Service Innovation (IIPSI). IIPSI is the newest building for WMG, at the University of Warwick. It is funded by the University of Warwick and the European Regional Development Fund and will translate WMG’s innovation into commercial outcomes within small businesses. This digital innovation space will enable businesses to access the very latest cutting edge product and service design technology, leading to the creation and testing of market leading products and services.

WMG’s Chairman and founder, Professor Lord Bhattacharyya has been involved in a series of high level discussions in Beijing including State Councillor Liu Yandong and Minister of Education, Mr Yuan Guiren building on his close involvement with China since 1984.

A week of highly successful meetings with the Deputy Administrator State Administration of Foreign Expert Affairs, the Beijing Deputy Mayor for Industry, the Chairman and leaders of enterprises in the Zhongguancun Development Group, the President of the Beijing Academy of Science and Technology and the Science and Technology Commission of the Beijing Municipal Government culminated in a very positive meeting with President Chen of the Chinese People’s Association for Friendship with Foreign Countries where Lord Bhattacharyya was asked to cooperate in various areas of the relationship between the two countries.

WMG at the University of Warwick is to play host to a new ‘UK Energy Storage R&D Centre’ for the advancement of electric and hybrid vehicle batteries.

Co-funded by Government (£9 million) and industry (£4 million), the £13 million centre will be created to capitalise on the growing electric and hybrid vehicle battery market, which has been estimated to be worth £250 million for the UK by 2020.

The Centre is the latest move by Government to secure future growth opportunities for the UK’s automotive sector, building on its £400m commitment over the next four years to supporting electric cars and other ultra-low carbon vehicles.

Warwick Racing, a team of final year mechanical, manufacturing, automotive and electronic engineering students competed with their single seater racing car in the annual IMechE Formula Student Competition at Silverstone this month.

The 2012 competition was the largest ever, with 134 teams from 34 different countries taking part. The Warwick team placed very highly in a number of events, achieving 3rd for their Business Presentation, 9th for Costing, and were nominated for the Airbus Teamwork Award. Overall they ranked 10th among UK teams. There was bitter disappointment however when a collision two laps before the end forced them to withdraw from the Endurance event which carried the major points.

However, the team weren't down for long as they have managed to secure another year’s sponsorship from Bosch Engineering worth €6000 and Bosch were able to directly recruit 3 (possibly 4) of the team for Graduate positions. The team’s professional approach also means that they are likely to maintain a number of other sponsorship agreements.

WMG was proud to be an official supporter of the Motorsport Industry Association's (MIA) Summer Reception at the House of Lords on 2 July.

The MIA is the world's leading trade association for the motorsport, performance engineering, services and tuning sectors and the annual Summer Reception features the presentation of the prestigious and unique Award for Outstanding Contribution to the Motorsport Industry.