Our voice of business this month is: Rob Lewis, Managing Director, Silverstone Sports Engineering Hub
Silverstone Sports Engineering Hub (SSEH) officially opened the Cycling Test Lab at Silverstone University Technical College (UTC) in June with a ribbon cutting ceremony carried out by Richard Harrington, Chief Executive Officer for Buckinghamshire Local Enterprise Partnership. The event, saw visitors from industry, cycling media and local government come together to view the test rigs in action and see how the project will benefit both the cycling industry and the students at Silverstone UTC.
The Cycling Test Lab, based at Silverstone UTC, is designed to help students develop their engineering skills and show the opportunities available within the sports engineering sector. This facility will act as an extension of the aerodynamic testing facilities and R&D tools already on offer at Silverstone Sports Engineering Hub.
The project received £800,000 of Local Growth Funding from the Bucks LEP. An allocation of £350,000 has been put towards the Cycling Test Lab at Silverstone University Technical College (UTC), providing students at the college with access to three specialist rigs which will allow them to apply their learning to real world applications. £450,000 has also been allocated towards a pedalling rig which will be housed at SSEH, with an initial version is due to be completed by the end of 2022.
As well as offering practical experience to the students of UTC, the rigs will allow SSEH to advance our research and development skills for sports engineering. Customers will book the rigs via SSEH and their testing will be carried out by the students, under the supervision of SSEH with the results fed into a specialist cloud software program. It’s great to bring together business and education in a way that will inspire the students and allow them to participate in real world engineering.
SSEH is based at Silverstone Park which sits within the Buckinghamshire Enterprise Zone, a partnership between the public and private sectors delivering significant commercial development for the wider benefit of the local and regional economies. It brings together representatives of the local authorities in Buckinghamshire, businesses, and other public sector agencies. SSEH received an initial £2m of investment from the Government’s Local Growth Fund when launched back in 2019.
SSEH is a leading R&D facility for sports engineering and athlete development, based in the UK. We offer impartial and confidential testing services, with customers ranging from elite athletes and teams to manufacturers from the sports performance market, covering a broad range of sports. Our facilities include a Sports Performance Wind Tunnel, Fabric Wind Tunnel, Performance Lab and the Cycling Test Lab. The ‘Hub’ brings together some of the industry’s leading companies into one community, offering unique opportunities for collaboration and state of the art R&D.
For further information on the Cycling Test Lab, or any of the other R&D services on offer at Silverstone Sports Engineering Hub, please visit: www.silverstonesportshub.co.uk
