University of Birmingham Partners with Siemens

The University of Birmingham partnered with Siemens to combine various technologies to help change users’ behaviour to transform the university’s Edgbaston and Dubai campuses into the world’s smartest global campus. This would create a ‘Living Lab’ where research, teaching and learning all benefit from access to new data and connectivity.

The ‘Living Lab’ will capture data from the university’s building technologies, estates infrastructure and energy plants and use it for innovation, R&D activities, as well as teaching. Scrutinizing energy demand and production, from systems to individual consumers/producers (prosumers), with live data from across the sites provides a unique opportunity for applied learning for students and creates a platform for cutting-edge research.

Siemens will sponsor a team of PhD studentships at the university based in the UK and Dubai. Their research projects will be co-designed by Siemens and the university to address important challenges in data, technology, urban systems and the net zero goal. This year, the University of Birmingham will become the first university in the world to roll out IoT technology at scale. Starting in autumn 2021, the first phase of this major energy efficiency project will include the roll out of 23,000 Enlighted IoT sensors across the university estate.

“As one of the largest universities in the UK, with a global community of more than 38,000 students, the university is already an energy prosumer and these technologies will be further optimized in the system we are now working on together,“ said Matthias Rebellius, managing board member of Siemens and CEO of Smart Infrastructure. “Partnerships like this are extremely important for gathering new insights, testing and developing new technologies and creating efficient and sustainable energy infrastructure. The university’s campus in Dubai will be a global example of sustainability at the rescheduled Dubai Expo 2020.“

Professor Tim Jones, Provost and Vice-Principal of the University of Birmingham, explained the university’s ambitious vision: “Our goal is to deliver the campus of the future, using cutting-edge technologies to make our campuses in Edgbaston and Dubai the smartest globally. This will enhance our student experience, create new research and innovation opportunities, whilst significantly reducing our carbon footprint. As we approach COP26 in Glasgow this autumn, it is clear we are into the ‘decade of delivery’ for NetZero targets. University-industry strategic partnerships, such as ours with Siemens, are important for helping to identify pathways for turning targets into reality.“