The opening of the MindSphere Lab follows a range of major collaborations between Siemens and the University including the EPSRC National Centre for Energy Systems Integration (CESI), the Whole Energy Systems Laboratory, and support for degrees and student experience.

This latest development will form part of Siemens’ MindSphere Innovation Network (MINe), extending the University’s work to harness data from a number of projects across sectors including infrastructure, manufacturing, water and energy.

Students, academics, industry partners and Siemens experts can use the laboratory to access MindSphere and harness the value of the data produced from the University and the various projects connected to the cloud-based platform from around the world.

The laboratory will interface with the University’s estate and cyber-physical research assets. It will then make this data available to improve teaching and research collaborations between academics and industry partners, to uncover new business models, create commercial opportunities through digitalisation, and build evidence for change in how we manage our built environment.

Based in the University’s award-winning Urban Sciences Building, a living laboratory on the Newcastle Helix (formerly Science Central) site, the software will connect in to the building’s network of sensors that provide more than 60 updates per second on occupancy, energy and water demand, lighting and temperature.

Transforming business operations

Professor Juergen Maier, CEO, Siemens UK, who led the Government’s Made Smarter Review, said: “Using digital technologies to transform business operations is key for the UK to drive competitiveness, improve national productivity and take advantage of the commercial opportunities offered by an increasingly digitalised industry.”

Teams from Siemens will be based on campus to help projects and engage communities by enabling Newcastle and other universities to become hubs for collaborating with local businesses.

“We believe this innovative network is helping universities, business and communities to translate research in to life-changing, real world impact. It is ideal that the latest hub on the MINe is here in a setting as advanced as the Urban Sciences Building and adjacent to the site for the National Innovation Centre for Data,” said Juergen Maier.

Professor John Fitzgerald, Head of Newcastle University’s School of Computing said: “This latest step in our strategic partnership with Siemens builds on our world-leading research in computing, cities and energy. The IoT is already advancing knowledge and may stimulate creative solutions to global problems. It’s vital that researchers, students and industry work together to explore and capitalise on the opportunities of the IoT.”