Babbage Building: where engineering meets design

The £63 million Babbage Building creates a state-of-the-art space to inspire the engineering and design pioneers of the future
Exterior of Babbage Building
 

We can solve problems when disciplines come together

Housing contemporary specialist equipment and laboratories, this facility brings engineering, science and the arts together, enabling holistic and creative approaches to problem-solving to address some of the world’s biggest issues, such as climate change and healthcare.
Through exemplary social, research and teaching spaces, it allows a new depth of collaboration across related subject areas, facilitating brilliant minds coming together and solving real-world issues.
Students using equipment in the STEAM laboratory, Babbage

Outstanding facilities to support your learning

Students in the STEAM laboratory, Babbage
STEAM laboratories
Offering active learning spaces for students to work together and learn the fundamental principles of engineering systems
Sub-sonic wind tunnel, Energy and Sustainability Laboratory, Babbage Building
Energy and Sustainability Laboratory
Offering students, researchers and businesses access to a 180kph sub-sonic wind tunnel, rolling road dynamometer, and numerous other experimental equipment
Hexapod
Heavy Structures and Geotechnics Laboratory
Providing engineering students with a hands-on experience of the structural testing of large engineering components, fabricated from a range of engineering materials
Student in the Wood Fabrication Facility, Babbage Building
Wood Fabrication Facility
Our specialist open-access Wood Fabrication Facility enables students to realise their designs in three dimensions
Immersive Visualisation Suite, Babbage Building
Immersive Visualisation Suite
Providing a hybrid, virtual reality enabled visualisation system that will support a diversity of users from across the University and the wider industrial community

DigiFab Laboratory
The DigiFab Laboratory offers engineering students a hands-on introduction to digitally driven manufacturing processes, enabling them to fabricate functionally robust components from a range of thermoplastic materials.
This lab complements the manufacturing processes available in the Precision Manufacturing Laboratory. Together, these labs provide students with the ability to fabricate engineering components to a high level of precision for use in other specialist and experimental labs in the Babbage Building.

Materials Analysis and Characterisation Laboratory
The Materials Analysis and Characterisation Laboratory provides engineering students with a hands-on experience of materials characterisation and analysis techniques using industry-standard equipment and testing methods.
This lab allows students to learn about the micro-structure of technical materials and understand its influence on the overall mechanical properties of the material, which are measured through standardised coupon and small component testing.

Composites Engineering Laboratory
The Composites Engineering Laboratory provides engineering students with a hands-on experience of manufacturing and evaluating engineering components with thermoset composite materials using industry-standard equipment and testing methods.
This lab also provides a facility for the development of novel composite materials and small-scale components for student projects and research purposes.

Autonomous Systems Test Laboratory
The Autonomous Systems Test Laboratory supports teaching, learning and research in robotic vehicles and control systems.
This lab supports students to operate and evaluate individual robotic systems working under remote control or autonomously, or several robotic systems operating simultaneously as a single integrated autonomous system.
The lab is integrated with other campus facilities, such as the Immersive Visualisation Suite, by the mutual exchange of live data.

Engineering Computing Laboratories
The Engineering Computing Laboratories provide engineering students with access to specialist software for Computer-Aided Design (CAD) and Computer-Aided Engineering (CAE).
This lab enables engineering students to develop essential digital design skills, as well as an understanding of physics-based, numerical simulation software. Mastery of these tools will enhance students academically and greatly improve their professional employment prospects.

Precision Manufacturing Laboratory
The Precision Manufacturing Laboratory provides engineering students with a hands-on introduction to manufacturing processes and enables them to fabricate components in a range of engineering materials using forming, shaping, joining and machining processes.
Students have direct access to Computer Numerically Controlled (CNC) machines, tools and support from our skilled manufacturing technicians. This enables students to fabricate engineering components to a high level of precision for use in other specialist and experimental labs in the Babbage Building.

Nanomaterials and Devices Laboratory
The Nanomaterials and Devices Laboratory provides a ‘clean room’-based laboratory for leading-edge research in nano-spintronics, computer memory and data storage technology, nano-functional materials, and biosensors.
This lab includes a range of thin film deposition, micro fabrication facilities, and magneto-transport as well as nano-scale metrological characterisation instrumentations.
This lab is fully equipped for the exploration of leading-edge science and technology, with a wide range of applications in sectors such as communications, defence, aerospace, security, and photonic surgery to medical and analytical instrumentation. 

Digital Design Fabrication
Blending modern digital design fabrication processes with traditional manufacturing techniques, our Digital Fabrication facility offers students the chance to get hands-on with different materials and techniques.
For example, the facility has a CAD-CAM suite with high-spec computers, digital scanning facilities, laser cutters and CNC routers and milling machines. Our expert technicians have a wealth of industry experience and offer advice and support to students when developing projects, from concept to final outcome.
As specialists, they help students to build their knowledge of professional design manufacturing processes and broaden their skillset and employability, which is vital for employment in professional practices.

Metal Fabrication
Our specialist open-access Metal Fabrication facility enables students to be exploratory and experimental, placing making at the core of their practice. Here they can discover hot and cold working and understand how metal as a material is applied and performs.
Cold working involves joining and shaping metal using cutting, drilling, folding, bending, turning and milling, using a variety of hand tools. Guided by experienced technicians, students can manipulate materials using heat via our in-house forge and welding equipment.
For those looking to advance their skill sets, students can learn how traditional craftsman skills can be applied to modern practices. 

Lily, BA Product Design - standing in front of machinery in the Babbage Building
A great collaborative space
BA (Hons) Product and Furniture Design student Lily shows us how the new Metal Fabrication facility will enhance and enrich her practice.

The Babbage Building's superb spaces and facilities will encourage the creation and exchange of ideas between students across all disciplines, reflecting 21st-century working practices and the expectations of today's employers. This major investment to develop first-class teaching spaces, research facilities and laboratories reflects the successes of our STEM community; it will strengthen our relationships with industrial partners and will support the University in its mission to advance knowledge and transform lives.

Professor Alex Belton 
Head of School and substantive Professor of Mathematics, School of Engineering, Computing and Mathematics

Plymouth is undergoing something of a creative revolution. It is bringing design and digital innovation to the fore and ensuring the city’s creative sector can offer new opportunities, spaces and skills. This new facility will enhance the University’s place at the forefront of that, and mean we can continue to attract and nurture the design stars of the future.

Professor Chris Bennewith
Executive Dean for the Faculty of Arts, Humanities and Business
 

A building in motion

During the construction of the Babbage Building, our civil and coastal engineering students gained unique access to the site as part of a their second-year module on Construction Management.
Not only did the in-depth tour of the building development provide our students with the opportunity to experience a real working construction site, but it also offered them a sneak-peak into what would become their exciting new learning environment.
 
 
Babbage Building