📋 Tender Overview
A 35 million state-of-the-art teaching and research facility which engages directly with industry and provides students with real-world experience on live engineering-related projects has been officially launched at the University of Central Lancashire UCLan.Based at the Universitys Preston campus the new Engineering Innovation Centre EIC will act as one of the driving forces behind the Lancashire Industrial Strategy as well as national industrial strategy addressing the need for innovation and producing the next generation of world-class engineers.Cutting-edge research and teaching facilities include an additive manufacturing lab 3D printing an advanced manufacturing workshop an intelligent systems facility a motorsports and air vehicles lab a high-performance computing lab a flight simulator suite as well as a fire oil and gas facility.To date the EIC is the largest single investment in Lancashires educational infrastructure establishing UCLan as one of the UKs leading universities for engineering innovation.Through courses shaped by industry demand and continuous collaboration the Centre aims to improve productivity across the North West helping to support the innovation needs of 1300 regional small and medium enterprises now and in the future.One teenager from Lancashire has already experienced how the EIC is helping to turn life changing ideas into reality. Burnley-based Krystyna Marshall 16 invented the designs for an exoskeleton to support a young family member with a life-altering spinal condition. Working in collaboration with Krystyna the University EIC team of academic staff and students have turned the exoskeleton designs into reality. The cost-effective 3D printed version of the exoskeleton is now being used as a proof of concept and could be developed for NHS use in the future.
