Sir George opens digital showpiece

The prestigious nerve centre of our DigitalCity project will be officially opened by Sir George Cox, a former chairman of the UK Design Council, on Tuesday 11 November, 2008.

The high-tech Phoenix Building is the latest showpiece development to be completed on the campus and is home to the Institute of Digital Innovation and a number of talented creative companies pushing at the frontiers of digital technology.

It also houses key university Research and Development centres and the DigitalCity Fellowship scheme.

Digital revolution The £12 million development is playing a key role in supporting the digital revolution that is helping to transform the economy of Middlesbrough, the wider Tees Valley and North East of England.

Sir George will tour the building and meet the team behind 13 Strides, a sporting web design company founded by former Team Great Britain athlete Anthony Borsumato, whose clients have included Olympic gold medallist Dame Kelly Holmes and Brendan Foster. Anthony set up the digital company with his cousin Kevin Allinson after they both graduated from Teesside with Master’s degrees in Multimedia Applications. The company is now based in one of the business suites in the Phoenix Building.

Sir George is also due to meet Professor Marc Cavazza from our award-winning School of Computing and find out more about his research team’s work at the frontiers of virtual reality for art and entertainment. He will also meet Professor Nashwan Dawood, whose Centre for Construction Innovation and Research is helping to lead a multi-million Euro energy conservation project.

Sir George will also visit the University of Teesside's D-Lab in the Phoenix Building, which is spearheading new developments in 3D virtual worlds and is currently creating a unique searchable online resource to help track the growing number of virtual world environments.

New TV and sound studio The tour begins at 9.45am with a visit to the University’s new TV and sound studio, complete with sophisticated visual special effects. Here Sir George will be able to see the state-of-the-art broadcast quality surround sound and broadcast definition video production facilities, which are among the best in the North East and he will be invited to be ‘transported to a virtual world’ as he stands in the middle of the studio. The facilities allow any kind of backdrop to be superimposed onto the digital screen.

Professor Graham Henderson, Vice Chancellor, said; ‘I am delighted that such an influential figure from the world of design has agreed to officially open our new Phoenix Building and that we have been able to create such an important new building to support the DigitalCity project, thanks to generous financial support from regional development agency One NorthEast and the European Union.’

Pioneering work with digital media Professor Cliff Hardcastle, Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Research and Enterprise) added: ‘Our Institute of Digital Innovation has been attracting considerable interest from around the world for its pioneering work with digital media and technology and the way it is helping revitalise the region’s economy. We’ve had a top level visit from European Commission officials who were very impressed by the DigitalCity concept and told us we had the potential to be European, if not world class, in our approach. And only last week we welcomed visitors from the State of Louisiana in the United States who are looking at doing something very similar on the other side of the Atlantic to help revitalise their economy.’

Dr Jim Terkeurst, Director of the Institute of Digital Innovation, said: ‘What's so exciting about the Phoenix Building is that we've got our DigitalCity fellows working alongside postgraduate students, world-class research centres and innovative digital businesses. Bringing all of these together has created a fantastic environment for stimulating digital innovation.’

---