Perspectives Issue 2 / December 2016

MUEAVI The University’s investment in new facilities and infrastructure over a 25-year period also involves a new £9 million Multi-User Environment for Autonomous Vehicle Innovation (MUEAVI) road being built. Work is due to commence early 2017 on the mile of ‘smart’ roadway that will be used in the development of connected and autonomous vehicles, including the associated systems needed to integrate technologies into our day-to-day lives. The MUEAVI is being integrated into the heart of the Cranfield campus, providing a new arterial road and a pedestrian friendly boulevard, while also serving as a ‘living lab’ research environment. IMEC The £10 million Intelligent Mobility Engineering Centre (IMEC), due to open next summer, will enhance our position as one of the UK’s leading centres for education, training and research for the rapidly growing intelligent mobility and transport systems sector. Intelligent mobility focuses on using new technologies to better connect various modes of transport and people, making travel more effective. Professor Graham Braithwaite, our Director of Transport Systems, said: “We recognise the need for additional facilities to explore essential aspects of the future of transport systems such as safety and simulation, and the IMEC will enable us to share and develop our expertise in this area. The intelligent mobility market is expected to be worth around £900 billion over the next 10 years, so we are confident that the new Centre will have a positive impact nationally as an educational establishment and as an important facility for businesses.” Abel Building Adding to our growing portfolio of unique facilities is a state-of-the-art explosive chemistry facility at Shrivenham that will drive future research into energetic materials, an area in which we have world- leading expertise. Energetic materials are a range of substances that include explosives, propellants and pyrotechnics. We already have an enviable range of facilities for their analysis and characterisation, and testing and ageing, and the new facility will bring these together as well enabling us to widen our range of capabilities, such as the processing of pyrotechnic compositions. It has been named the Abel Building in honour of Sir Frederick Abel (1827-1902), the leading British authority on explosives who jointly invented cordite, which was adopted as the standard explosive of the British Army. Professor Jackie Akhavan, Head of the Centre for Defence Chemistry, said: “This facility demonstrates not only our commitment to our customers, but creates a centre for excellence for R&D in energetic materials. It’s part of Cranfield’s ambitious plans to invest in new facilities and infrastructure over a 25-year period.”

Sir Peter Gregson opening the Abel Building with guests from strategic partners including Hugh Bellars, Head of Weapons Engineering at the MOD’s Defence Equipment & Support, and Dr Norman Godfrey, Deputy Chief Scientist at AWE.

‘Topping out’ ceremonies – marking the highest point of the buildings being reached – have taken place in recent months for both the Aerospace Integration Research Centre (AIRC) and the Intelligent Mobility Engineering Centre (IMEC). These, along with other developments, showcase the continuing investment in our facilities University-wide.

Glasshouse Earlier this year, the Government announced a multimillion pound investment in three new agritech centres as part of its agritech strategy. As partners in two of these, Agri-EPI and CHAP, Cranfield is at the heart of the delivery of this agritech strategy. The Agri-EPI Centre (Agricultural Engineering Precision Innovation Centre) delivers research, development, demonstration and training on precision agriculture and engineering for the livestock, arable, horticulture and aquaculture sectors. The Crop Health and Protection (CHAP) centre will lead the way in developing solutions to the challenges facing world agriculture, in particular soils which underpin most agricultural businesses. Complementing our existing facilities and helping to position Cranfield as the leading soils research facility in Europe is a 9m tall glasshouse based on the Cranfield campus.

This provides LED grow-lights and control of temperature and humidity for year-round pilot-scale experiments on crop growth and development under different soil conditions. The extra height of the glasshouse is required to house a £1M sensor platform, including a hyperspectral camera and a 3D laser scanner for the development of new ways to phenotype crop growth or to detect stress and disease.

The IMEC will also provide a shared teaching space for our students, key business partners and other local educational institutions that are focused on transport engineering systems and autonomous vehicle technologies. The Centre will house simulation laboratories, student breakout spaces and deliver practical workshops; a large foyer on the ground floor will be used for exhibitions and teaching. The Centre is co-funded by the South East Midlands Local Enterprise Partnership (SEMLEP), Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE) and ourselves.

20 Perspectives Keeping staff informed December 2016