Recent News and Events
10/05/2011 - Sir James Dyson visits the Leonardo Centre
Sir James Dyson visited the department on May 10th with a team of three engineers. Sir James is the founder of Dyson Ltd which manufactures vacuum cleaners and many other domestic products. His helicopter landed at Birkdale School playing fields and he was whisked by University car to the Mappin Building for a tour of the Leonardo Centre Lab, Machines and Drives, and Magnetic Materials.
Sir James is an enthusiastic supporter of engineering and also research. He was very interested in both how we encourage school kids into engineering and how we get undergraduates to stay on and do research. He sees that many of his organisation’s products are based on university research. They also had some specific technical reasons for visiting; the product designs require high speed, light, and efficient operation, and this means they frequently have tribological issues to overcome.
Sir James visited the Leonardo Lab and spoke to several of the PhD students. He was genuinely impressed and excited by their knowledge and enthusiasm. He loved the new Leonardo Lab and likened it to an artist's studio!