Work has been completed on an £11 million science building at Nottingham Trent University which includes a robot testing arena.
The Interdisciplinary Science and Technology Centre (ISTeC) has two floors of state-of-the-art laboratories for bioscience, computer science, mathematics, physics, chemistry, robotics, sport science and engineering.
The facility is based on the Clifton Campus – home to the university’s School of Science and Technology – and will be used by undergraduate and postgraduate students, as well as research scientists.
The university hopes it will lead to students getting involved in advanced technical, team-working and industry-relevant project work, better preparing them for the workplace.
It will bring STEM, or science, technology, engineering and mathematics, subjects together to support collaboration between different areas and between students and researchers.
Research laboratories inside include the robot arena, for researching humanoid and other robots, and testing suites for exercise and food and nutrition.
The development comes after the university won £5 million from the Higher Education Funding Council for England, in recognition of the importance of teaching and learning in relevant subjects.
Professor Mary O’Neill, the Dean of Nottingham Trent University’s School of Science and Technology, said: “This is an important development for Nottingham Trent University to integrate state-of-the-art facilities with project-based learning, so that we can continue to excite and challenge students and better prepare them for jobs in science and technology.”
Professor Yvonne Barnett, Pro Vice-Chancellor for Research, added: “This fantastic new multidisciplinary STEM facility will provide an excellent environment for our taught undergraduate and postgraduate students to undertake business and industry led research and development projects.
“This will add further capacity to the strong applied research base undertaken by our research students, research and technical staff and academic staff. We are delighted that HEFCE chose to invest in the further development of our STEM provision here at NTU.”
Earlier this year Nottingham Trent University was named Modern University of the Year in the Times and Sunday Times Good University Guide 2018.
