Construction underway on £10.4m Visualisation Centre

Mr Richard Bailey of HBG Construction Limited, Professor Noel Lloyd and Mr David Neill, Programme Director on See3D mark the beginning of construction work

Mr Richard Bailey of HBG Construction Limited, Professor Noel Lloyd and Mr David Neill, Programme Director on See3D mark the beginning of construction work

19 September 2006

Building work on the new £10.4m Visualisation Centre on the Penglais campus is underway as contractors, HBG Construction Ltd – Western, complete the work of clearing the site this week.

The beginning of work on the project, which is being funded with £6million from the Welsh Assembly Government, including £4.4million from the European Union's Objective 1 programme, was marked by Vice Chancellor Professor Noel Lloyd who met with Mr Richard Bailey, Regional Director of HBG Construction Limited, and Mr David Neill, Programme Director, at the site of the new building.

Professor Noel Lloyd said:
“This new centre will provide a world-class virtual reality environment unequalled in the UK with the capacity to solve complex problems and improve the profitability of the business sector in Wales.”

Andrew Davies, Minister for Enterprise, Innovation and Networks, said he was pleased to see work underway for such an important project. “The Welsh Assembly Government are very pleased to be supporting the establishment of the Visualisation Centre which, alongside Technium CAST at Bangor, will place Wales at the forefront of the global visualisation sector.”

See3D
The Visualisation Centre is known as See3D and will operate as a department within the University at Aberystwyth, offering its services to commercial and other outside organisations as well as the University's own academic departments. The full time team of ten comprises experienced software developers as well as academic and commercial support managers. More information is available at www.see3d.co.uk or email info@see3d.co.uk.

Facilities at the centre will include:
• Domed 3-D reality theatre
• Fully immersive and interactive projection produced with Fakespace Powerwall displays 
• Powered by Silicon Graphics Inc Prism Extreme high powered computing equipment for processing large data sets
• Sun Microsystems high powered computing equipment, and workstations for a personal virtual reality experience
• Fully managed facilities including offices, workshops, and workstations for individuals and groups of Visualisation users

Additional funds for the project have been provided by industrial partners Silicon Graphics Inc and Sun Microsystems.