The City of Liverpool College has
partnered with international engineering enterprise Laing O’Rourke and The
Clatterbridge Cancer Centre, one of the country’s leading cancer centres. The
partnership has been designed to inspire students with the digital technologies
used to develop the brand-new cancer centre and promote the modern careers now
available in the construction industry.

‘Project Innovation’ will see
students of The City of Liverpool College’s Computer Science Digital courses
collaborate with Laing O’Rourke to develop both augmented reality (AR) and
virtual reality (VR) applications.

For the first project, students will
create an augmented reality interactive app, which is designed to help speed up
maintenance requirements at the cancer centre. The AR app would allow staff to
see all of the machinery in any given room along with their maintenance
requirements. This will in turn be linked to a database which could ultimately
order and schedule maintenance automatically, dramatically speeding up the
process and saving precious time. 

The virtual reality app will form the
second project and would be designed for staff to have the ability to see
maintenance requirements and interact with objects, while being fully immersed
in the building from elsewhere, allowing them to navigate around the building
and stripping back the walls for a ‘behind the scenes’ view.

Estefania Alves, digital engineer at
Laing O’Rourke, said:

“Construction is a progressive
industry, constantly adopting new technology and digital methodologies to
enhance efficiency, to reduce construction time, waste, cost and to create a
safer workplace throughout the whole project lifecycle.  For the industry
to keep innovating it is vital that skills and experience is brought in from other
creative industries.

“Working with The City of Liverpool
College allows us to bring a fresh perspective to developing these vital tools,
while supporting the future workforce to develop their skills.�

The partnership will provide students
with experience and unique insight into the construction industry , as well as
having the opportunity to provide support to the brand new The Clatterbridge
Cancer Centre.

Students will work closely with
programmers and coders from Laing O’Rourke’s digital engineering department as
well as Clatterbridge to develop the apps, with the aim of the project creating
a lasting legacy by providing students with the chance to work on a real
industry project.

Elaine Bowker, principal of The City
of Liverpool College, said:

“The partnerships that we
have across The City of Liverpool College are designed to provide our students
with unique opportunities real world experience. We are passionate about
ensuring that we are at the cutting edge of emerging technologies and providing
our students with the skills they need to enter the world of work.

“For our students to be
given the chance to work with a multinational organisation such as Laing
O’Rourke and develop a truly innovative tool for The Clatterbridge Cancer
Centre is an opportunity like no other. We look forward to seeing the results
of this partnership come to fruition.�

Once developed, the apps will be
piloted for The Clatterbridge Cancer Centre and, if successful, will be rolled
out on a wider scale.