VR and the future of motorsport

19 May 2010

The GBP11m NVision Centre at the University of Northampton, believed to be the most advanced virtual reality (VR) centre in the UK, will stage its first major open-day event on May 26. The theme of the day will be VR as an enabling technology for motorsport, and the demonstration will be played on a five sided ActiveCube and two ActiveWalls supplied by the VR specialist, Virtalis.

According to Stuart Wayne, NVision’s manager, the University sits in the middle of a motorsport hub in the East Midlands and has a key role to play in supporting the industry, particularly in assisting small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs). The presentations included how best to harness advanced visualisation for design, CFD analysis and reverse engineering.

Grants for the NVision Centre have been secured in the form of matched funding from the European Regional Development Fund, with further financial support from East Midlands Development Agency and Northamptonshire Enterprise. East Midlands SMEs can now benefit from an allocation of free access to the facility following the launch.

You can read a review of the Virtalis Technology Day, which took place at the University on May 18, as an appendix to our news report here