AI-enabled engineering lab boosts regional business development with new funding

The Heart of the South West LEP has announced £118k funding for the Centre for Future Clean Mobility, to develop a new AI engineering lab.

The ACE-Lab (AI-enabled Co-design in Engineering Laboratory), is managed by the University of Exeter’s Centre for Future Clean Mobility at Exeter Science Park. The ‘innovative’ project will offer a unique blend of human-AI interaction for designing novel products, systems, and services.

ACE-Lab will actively engage in collaborations with small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in the region, establishing strong industry connections. The lab is equipped to offer expertise in optimising a diverse range of solutions needed by local businesses.

Karl Tucker, Chair of the Heart of the South West LEP, commented: “This funding extension is a significant step toward advancing scientific excellence in the South West. Projects like ACE-Lab underpin our region’s technological capabilities, ultimately driving economic growth, jobs and innovation.”

The University of Exeter is a ‘leader’ in AI-enabled Human-in-the-loop machine learning. This facility would give it an edge over competitors, offering dedicated powerful computers and visualisation equipment, industrial engineering hardware systems, and access to industry engineering experts to help train the AI systems.

Director of the Centre for Future Clean Mobility, Professor Christopher Smith, added: “The ACE-Lab will enable us to achieve a much greater level of digital activity in the modelling, simulation and optimisation of clean mobility solutions for individual transport assets (vessels, vehicles and fleets).

“The new lab will combine state-of-the-art computation for AI and machine learning, virtual reality, augmented reality, 3D sensing and printing capability with our expertise in world-leading optimisation and machine learning research, to transform the capability of clean mobility for businesses in the South West.”