Scotland launches electronics design centre

The University of Glasgow is smashing a champagne bottle off the side of a new electronics design centre today. The £5m facility is funded by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) and has been designed to fill a gap in British electronics research. The university says it will be at the forefront of …

[sue]

Love Glasgow.....But..

Glasgow has so much to offer, that's a given, and let's face it, a shed load of inventors, artists, architects etc, came/come from here and/or Scotland in general so something like this centre is to be applauded most vigorously.

I had to laugh at the: "The university says it will be at the forefront of breakthroughs in drug development, communications systems and homeland security", as it conjured up an image of a spotty teen shouting Eureka! down his newly designed 'ochaye fone' as he finally gets the latest recreational drug recipe right, then runs off to thwart all known and unknown threats to our 'Homeland' being the superhero type of course.

[Anonymous Coward]

Nice...

Though it's a pity that Scotland doesn't have an electronics industry anymore. After the regional assistance grants ran-out the Americunts moved all those manufacturing jobs to China...

[MGJ]

Really

"Scotland doesn't have an electronics industry anymore"

So Wolfson, Agilent, ADI, Microlinear etc are all just a figment of my imagination?

Smart display technology in Dumbarton, spin offs from Heriot Watt etc, the Alba centre

Nah, lets just take an easy pop at the Government

[Michael]

No electronics industry?

Sorry? I'm afraid that is just shite. Yes the electronics industry isn't as large as we'd like, especially as many of the design jobs in Scotland have been lost when American firms closed their offices here to move jobs back to the states and elsewhere. However, there are plenty of Scottish based electronics companies and large organisations with a presence here; Nalatech, Alpha-data, Nat Semi, Thales and IBM can be added to the list above. Added to that there is a mass of smaller companies providing design services and their own products.

There are several places to get PCB boards built, populated and prototypes designed and tested. I've worked on several designs which have been for foreign based businesses . Yes you're unlikely to come to Scotland to manufacture in huge volumes, but you'll find plenty of people coming to get the designs done for them. And plenty of original systems and designs being implemented too.

[Ian Chard]

Too late...

...for Cadence, which built an ambitious design centre in Livingston, but couldn't get enough design engineers to sustain itself.

[Anonymous Coward]

Well...

...obviously I'm wrong. The 2000 electronics jobs lost in the Scottish Borders must just have been a figment of my imagination.

Perhaps the future is so bright I will have to wear those sunglasses after all, (thats one for all the other ex-Viasystems workers out there).

[Iain]

Sure...

...there have been a number of high profile electronics closures in Scotland (Motorolla, NEC) in the past few years, but it's just plain wrong to say that there's no electronics industry; take a drive across the central belt one day for proof.

Lucy - not sure anyone in Glasgow drinks Champagne - pretty sure that was a bottle of Buckfast being smashed across the side of the new electronics design centre.

[T. O'Hara]

All

Not happy with running down the small but vibrant electronics industry in Scotland we have to run down our image as well. For all you cynics out there we do have an electronics industry and only a minority commonly known as Non Educated DelinquintS drink Buckfast.

And that's from someone who had their job hijacked for transport to the US but managed to stay in the industry in one of those few companies left.

[Dave]

@MGJ

Who cares about facts where there's a chance for an easy pop at the Government. after all, they've never let facts get in the way of a good war...

[PaddyR]

just a wee note

when we rebuild the Golgafrinchams ships, there will be no-one left in the UK

[Anonymous Coward]

4 years instead of 3...

Thing is chaps that foreign companies LOVE Glasgow and Strathclyde universities.

Why? Well you see (for example) most US companies don't believe you can DO an electrical/electronic degree of worth in less time than four years. The old argument used to be about the standard of Highers vs A-Levels - can't even use that one now as A-level maths = remedial first year maths in English unis.

Now you can argue it all you like but facts speak - engineering graduates from there get cherry-picked (and have done for 25+ years) by foreign companies so perhaps there is some merit in the proposal.

My personal opinion is that its bollocks but that's just me being a cynic :-)

[james craik]

Alive and well!

Hi All,

As somebody that's involved in Electronic component sales in scotland, let me reassure you that Scotland has a thriving Electronics Industry.

I've had the pleasure of dealing with some of the afore mentioned Multinational companies and since they have moved their production off shore, i've found a lot of new and exciting prospects within Scotland that are desiging and developing new products and more importantly building in Scotland. The volumes might not be high but the expertise is still there and Scotland is very competitive when it come box build and pcba in the right volumes.

ps

T O'Hara (ex-spirent?), where are you now?