The University's Board of Visitors approved an educational and research collaboration last week with British company Rolls Royce to build a Commonwealth Center for Advanced Manufacturing.
The new facility, discussed and approved by the Board during Thursday's Finance Committee meeting, will be used for building advanced jet engines for commercial and military aircraft. The commonwealth learned it had been awarded this opportunity in November 2007.
University students and faculty will have a major role in the production of the technology for these new engines, Engineering Dean James Aylor said, adding that "in addition to the production facility, there will be two research centers: one on advanced manufacturing and another on aerospace propulsion."
Leonard Sandridge, executive vice president and chief operating officer, said the opportunity was sought after by a number of states, including South Carolina.
According to Aylor, Rolls Royce announced the competition in late January 2007.
"The State of Virginia Economic Development Partnership along with U.Va. and VT worked for most of the year to present our case," Aylor said, explaining that previous relationships between the University and Rolls Royce over the years encouraged the commonwealth's involvement in the competition for the collaboration.
According to Aylor, "this new partnership has already opened up other opportunities for U.Va. engineering to partner with suppliers of Rolls Royce and other aerospace companies, because Rolls Royce is such a major player in the jet engine business."
Engineering students also benefit from these new facilities, Sandridge and Aylor noted.
"These production facilities will offer high tech jobs for our engineering graduates," Aylor said.
According to Sandridge, the new partnership is "a good example of how the University interacts with industry and how we really work with the commonwealth to promote economic growth"
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