Established 1980 Phone +44 24 7652 4871 | Website www.wmg.warwick.ac.uk Founded 1980 | |
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Address University of Warwick, Coventry CV4 7AL, UK Director Kumar Bhattacharyya, Baron Bhattacharyya Campus Semi-rural (University of Warwick) Founder Kumar Bhattacharyya, Baron Bhattacharyya Similar Warwick Manufact Group Kn, Warwick Business School, Warwick Conferen, Westwood, Warwick SU Profiles | ||
University of warwick itour warwick manufacturing group
The Warwick Manufacturing Group (WMG) is an academic department at the University of Warwick, providing research, education and knowledge transfer in engineering, manufacturing and technology. The group provides taught and research degrees for postgraduate students at the University of Warwick campus in England, and at overseas centres in China, India, Singapore, Malaysia, Cyprus, Russia and Thailand.
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Warwick manufacturing group wmg university of warwick
History
The Warwick Manufacturing Group was founded in 1980 by Kumar Bhattacharyya to support the reinvigoration of UK manufacturing through research and knowledge transfer (Bhattacharyya, made a life peer in 2004, remains chairman of WMG). Its first venture was a part-time master's degree for senior industry staff; this considered technology and management as a unified whole, with modules taught at a purpose-built residential centre. While the course was initially criticised by academics, it proved popular with industry and companies began to send staff to WMG in greater numbers.
Bhattacharyya then decided to provide industry-related research services too, convincing the university to loan money for a centre where academics could collaborate with industrialists on the development of new products for the aerospace and automotive industries. The building was officially opened on 8 January 1990 by Margaret Thatcher and its success (and the income generated) allowed WMG to build two further buildings to enable expansion into other areas, including healthcare, construction, pharmaceuticals, mining, information technology and food and drink where learning from the manufacturing industry could be applied to similar processes and services.
In 2007, the group rebranded as WMG (instead of Warwick Manufacturing Group) to reflect its move to more diverse activities outside its manufacturing roots.
WMG is based in six buildings on the University of Warwick campus:
The group is leading the construction of the new National Automotive Innovation Centre on the University campus.
WMG has strong links in China, where WMG has been engaged since the 1980s, and in India, where it helped establish a technical university.
In 2011, WMG accounted for 30 per cent of the university's research activity and had over 2,500 postgraduate students, 650 studying full-time at Warwick. Just 20 of 450 staff and 10 per cent of its £120 million annual research budget was funded by the Higher Education Funding Council for England.
Research
Research is organised into a number of research groups covering design, materials, manufacturing, systems and business research. Areas of focus include business innovation, low carbon mobility and healthcare.
Further programmes focus on supporting Small to Medium Sized Enterprises through projects such as the National Business to Business Centre, WMCCM and IIPSI.
WMG is a partner in the Technology Strategy Board's High Value Manufacturing Catapult.
WMG is also home to the Institute of Digital Healthcare, a partnership with Warwick Medical School which aims to bring improvements to health and wellbeing through innovative digital technologies and services.
Past research programmes have included the Premium Automotive Research and Development (PARD) Programme, the Low Carbon Vehicle Technology Project (LCVTP), the Premium Vehicle Customer Interface Technologies (PVCIT) Centre and the Vehicle Energy Facility.
Education
WMG provides undergraduate engineering courses (in conjunction with the School of Engineering). However, its student population is mainly postgraduate students organised in the following way:
WMG is a key partner in the WMG Academy for Young Engineers in Coventry, a University Technical College sponsored by the University of Warwick.
In 2009, WMG was awarded the Queen's Anniversary Prize for Higher and Further Education, formally presented at a ceremony at Buckingham Palace on 19 February 2010.