It’s not often that I’m genuinely surprised, or genuinely impressed, with a piece of technology. But on a trip to the Sandbox at the University of Central Lancashire I witnessed the best interactive demonstration I’ve ever seen.
Simon Robertshaw and his team in Preston have created an environment that has attracted businesses from all over Europe to … wait for it .. play with Lego.
I know, it sounds like it shouldn’t work, but it does. And frankly I shouldn’t sound impressed, but I am. That, and the interactive screen the width of a tennis court that participants can use to share ideas during training sessions.
It’s another example of neat ideas and world-class technology from the region’s universities.
I care passionately about the universities in the North West. This isn’t just because I had a life-changing three years in Manchester in the late 1980s. Nor is it because I have hopes and fears for my young sons and the directions they can take. And not just because I’m a taxpayer.
I believe universities can genuinely contribute to the wider economy of the region, and create a proper bond of trust between “town” and “gown”. I also believe that the orientation of universities is now a proper partnership with the real commercial needs of business.
Take Bolton University, which has played a leading role in the training of businesses – seeing that each institution is focused and not doing half a job that another is doing. Also, see how Liverpool John Moores University has an exemplary role in commercial engagement, second to none.
In this issue we have looked at many examples of universities collaborating with business and loads of opportunities for ideas to emerge from higher education in the future.
When the upturn comes, and it will, there is a golden chance for business here to be in better shape than when the credit crisis started, and a big part of that will be down to how business and academia work together.
Michael Taylor, editor
Also in: April 2009
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Navigating choppy waters
Large-scale private businesses are important for regional stability in the current climate. Rupert Cornford meets Michael Bibby, the head of Liverpool’s Bibby Line Group, to understand how it stays afloat.
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Sound of progress
It’s been five years since Alan Gilbert came to Manchester from Australia, just as the project to create the University of Manchester was forming. Michael Taylor asks “the President” how the grand plan is measuring up against his own targets.
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Boom and bust
Dave Goddard is in chipper mood. As the leader of Stockport Borough Council – with its four-star rating for the fourth year running – not even the recession can get him down