WMG News - Latest news from WMG

Lord Baker was welcomed to WMG by Lord Bhattacharyya and saw at first hand the breadth and capabilities of our activities, with a tour of the International Digital Laboratory, where he had the opportunity to speak to leaders of research projects including Professor Vinesh Raja who gave a demonstration of virtual surgery which helps surgeons in simulating the technique for athroscopic operation planning.

A team of students from the University of Warwick have just come 7th overall in the UK and 22nd in the world in an international competition to build a “formula student” racing car.

In under 10 months this year’s University of Warwick Formula Student team of 4th year Engineering students from a range of disciplines; Manufacturing, Mechanical and Automotive designed, manufactured and assembled their W10 car to compete against 100 teams from 30 countries across the world.

An international partnership between IIT Kharagpur and WMG, University of Warwick, is helping drive significant expansion for IIT Kharagpur as it moves to support an Indian Government Initiative to increase the number of Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) by opening a number of new IITs each under the guidance of an existing one.

Under this scheme a new IIT at Bhubaneshwar is to be set up with the support of IIT Kharagpur – which was the first ever of India’s prestigious Indian Institutes of Technology. IIT Kharagpur’s close international partnership with the University of Warwick’s WMG is already providing significant help in setting up the new IIT.

University of Warwick WMG Research Engineer Stephen Lambert will unveil the WorldFirst Hybrid Westfield racing car at the Goodwood Festival of Speed this weekend introducing electric hybrid cars to club racing.

The WorldFirst Hybrid Westfield Racing car showcases an innovative drivetrain which is capable of propelling the vehicle from 0-60 miles per hour in under 4 seconds. This incredible acceleration is achieved through the use of an innovative four wheel drive system which increases the available traction. A formula one style “push to pass” button controls the power generated by the two 75kW motors which, in turn, use a formula one style inboard suspension to drive the front wheels independently of the 195bhp turbo charged engine, a first for Westfield Sports Cars.

Work has begun on a unique £2.28m Vehicle Energy Facility for the Midlands which will be the UK’s only purpose built hybrid powertrain testing facility not owned and operated by an individual automotive company. The facility is being built in WMG at the University of Warwick and will be ready for a formal launch just before Christmas.

The new labs, which are being funded by Advantage West Midlands (AWM), the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) and the University of Warwick as part of the Birmingham Science City initiative, will provide the region with a state of the art test and characterisation facility for hybrid vehicle powertrains.

A lab that gives engineers in Midlands manufacturing companies super powers has helped a Midlands company build a super bike that has finished 2^nd in the first ever Moto2 race in Qatar.

The bike’s builders have joined other engineers in Midlands manufacturing companies large and small who have effectively been granted the super powers of laser vision and x-ray eyes thanks to a £5 million lab launched today, Thursday 20^th May, at WMG (Warwick Manufacturing Group) at the University of Warwick.

University of Warwick students have won the RoboCup Rescue Championship in Germany. The students developed their rescue robot in a team project bringing together Engineering and Computer Science students at the University of Warwick which entered the 9th RoboCup German Open in Magdeburg (April 15-18 2010).

The Warwick student team won first place overall and best in class for mobility. The robots are designed to crawl over and through difficult terrain or such as destroyed buildings in search of trapped survivors. The German competition put the robot through its paces in a simulated disaster environment which requires robots to demonstrate their capabilities in mobility, sensory perception, planning, mapping, and operator interfaces, while searching for simulated victims in difficult environments.

University of Warwick students are poised to take their “rescue robot” to the RoboCup Rescue Championship in Germany next week. The students developed their robot in a team project bringing together Engineering and Computer Science students at the University of Warwick and they will soon be on their way to the 9th RoboCup German Open which will be held in Magdeburg from April 15-18.

The robots are designed to crawl over and through difficult terrain or such as destroyed buildings in search of trapped survivors. The German competition will put the robot through its paces in a simulated disaster environment which requires robots to demonstrate their capabilities in mobility, sensory perception, planning, mapping, and operator interfaces, while searching for simulated victims in difficult environments.

WMG and Eastern Mediterranean University (EMU) have met to discuss potential collaborative activities.

Discussions between Lord Bhattacharyya, Director of WMG and Prof Abdullah Oztoprak, EMU’s Rector led to a signing of a memorandum of understanding.

WMG were pleased to host a visit from Philip Rycroft (Director General, Innovation and Enterprise, and Chief Exec Better Regulation Executive) and Simon Edmonds (Director, Innovation) from the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills.

The visit was primarily to understand the diverse research and development that is undertaken across the Group with business and other organisations, as well as our seamless approach to research, application and training. Philip and Simon saw at first-hand the breadth and capabilities of our activities, with a tour of our facilities including the International Manufacturing Centre, the International Digital Laboratory and International Automotive Research Centre.