Building work to create hi-tech hub at University Campus Suffolk well underway
A £5.5m refurbishment of University Campus Suffolk’s (UCS) West Building is underway to create ‘The Atrium’.
The newly created facility will open this summer, ready for students in the autumn. It will house The Ipswich Waterfront Innovation Centre which has been made possible thanks to a £1.85m grant by Local Enterprise Partnership (LEP) as part of New Anglia LEP’s Growth Deal with the Government.
The Atrium, which forms part of the Ipswich Vision, will be known for bringing STEM subjects (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) together. Combined with the James Hehir Building on the Waterfront, The Atrium will further increase UCS’ provision in this growth sector.
The Innovation Centre will provide a space for SMEs and will also feature an “ideas room” which is being designed by BA (Hons) Interior Architecture and Design students at UCS. The “ideas room” will be a place conducive to encouraging inspiration and provoking new thinking, new ways of doing better for both businesses and students.
Chris Dashper, Head of Programmes at New Anglia LEP said “The Innovation Centre is the place where new ideas will be sparked, where businesses will be created and developed and entrepreneurs can collaborate. In just a few months this building will be buzzing with activity and become yet another important landmark on the fast-growing Waterfront development and another key piece of the Ipswich Vision regeneration of the whole town.”
The Atrium will be home to the following UCS’ degree programmes; BSc (Hons) Radiotherapy and Oncology, BSc (Hons) Diagnostic Radiography, BA (Hons) Computer Games Design, BSc (Hons) Computer Games Programming, BSc (Hons) Software Engineering, BSc (Hons) Network Engineering, BSc (Hons) Mobile and Web Engineering, and will provide labs for BSc (Hons) Psychology and BSc (Hons) Business Management and Information Technology.
Director of Computer Games and Creative Technologies at UCS, Rob Kurta, said “We’ve been able to see the work underway for the new games labs on the second floor looking out over the waterfront. They are looking really great. The new facilities will bring together all the equipment that we currently have on the campus into one place. It will mean there is a seamless integration between all the IT and creative digital courses that are provided at UCS.
It’ll be a huge boost for the students and staff as it’ll mean there will be a community of IT producers who can work together. We will have games designers and apps programmers talking and working with networking, security, data and software specialists. I think the results will astonish everyone.”
Director of Computing Systems and Information Engineering at UCS, Dr Nicholas Caldwell, added: “UCS now has the full range of creative and computing degrees on offer at its Ipswich hub. The Atrium will provide state-of-the-art computing facilities for our students and degree apprentices on all of our programmes, whether they are answering Big Data questions, creating dazzling web solutions, designing tomorrow’s wireless and mobile networks, or developing counterstrategies to the latest cyber security threats. It gives UCS a test-bed for 3-D additive manufacturing and an Internet-of-Things research lab to explore smart and digital solutions to the problems facing Ipswich and Suffolk. With the Innovation Centre generating new opportunities for students and staff to work collaboratively with local businesses and entrepreneurs on joint projects, there are no limits to what can be achieved.”
Course leader for BSc (Hons) Radiotherapy and Oncology at UCS, Caroline Doolan, said “The brand new equipment and teaching space being developed in the Atrium provides a really exciting opportunity to further enhance the education of the next generation of therapeutic radiographers, who will provide care for patients with cancer across East Anglia and beyond.”
