Digital Innovation Zone

To meet the needs of an increasingly digitalised economy, the University of Sheffield and Siemens have built on their existing partnership and have developed the Digital Innovation Zone (DIZ). DIZ will accelerate digitalisation, increase digital skills, and promote innovative technology and knowledge sharing.

The DIZ, based in the Heart Space at the iconic Sir Fredrick Mappin Building, acts as a living lab to assist students to gain the digital skills they will need in an ever changing engineering landscape.

The University and Siemens have invested in this unique facility for engineering students, local companies, and to further develop partnerships and collaborations. This new space will house a number of digital demonstrators and student-accessible workstations that will showcase the potential of live stream data analytics and visualisation applications, Computer Aided Design (CAD) software, Edge Computing, Digital Simulation, and a Digital Twin of the Diamond Pilot Plant - the only one of its kind in any UK university.

What are the opportunities?

An ongoing programme of activities is being developed to exploit IoT in research, teaching and for digitising the Sheffield City Region:

• Students will gain access to data from live assets and a physical working space that allows them to collaborate, create and be inspired.
• Academics will be able to work with businesses alongside Siemens, their partners and customers, to generate insights in data analytics, visualisation and cyber security.
• Sheffield City Region businesses will be able to develop diverse and innovative digital solutions to their industry challenges through collaborations with students and academics.