University of Sydney’s School of Electrical and Information Engineering opened the ABB Technology Centre at its university campus in February.
ABB Australia CEO, John Gaskell announced the centre complete and fully operational to a crowd of guests, engineers and industry representatives.
“The opening of the ABB Technology Centre marks a major step forward in an Australian-first project to close the gap between academia and industry,” Mr Gaskell said. “The centre integrates many professional functions to facilitate learning, industry training and continuous interaction between students, academia and industry.”
EnergyAustralia chair of power engineering, Professor Vassilios Agelidis, championed the vision of an integrated teaching approach.
“The ABB Technology Centre was a concept born to highlight the breadth of talent of Australia’s young engineers and act as a beacon for the way in which electrical engineering will be taught. We have now seen this dream come to reality with the opening of the centre,” Professor Vassilios said.
Australian Industry Group CEO, Heather Ridout was a special guest and spoke about the impact the centre would have on the wider community.
“The investment that ABB has made in the technology centre will bring benefits way beyond the company itself. The technology centre will bring benefit to the university, the industry as a whole, the economy and the broader community,” she said.
The centre houses 15 different technology demonstrations, including low and medium voltage switchgear, an AC and DC variable speed drive system, substation automation systems, instrument and distribution transformers, process control system and an industrial robot amongst others.
“Engineers of tomorrow will now not only have the finest theoretical instruction, they will also be able to gain first-hand experience on state-of-the-art equipment as used in the industries that they will work in on completion of their studies,” Mr Gaskell said.
