The Durham Institute of Research, Development and Invention (DIRDI) has been awarded a grant from Durham University’s Enterprise Education Fund, in partnership with Dr. Oliver Vogt, Department of Engineering, Durham University. This grant will help kick start a week-long, annual event engaging Engineering, Computer Science, Physics and Mathematics students in “Exploring Entrepreneurial Opportunities Using Drones (EEOPS-D)”.
This drone technology development ‘hackathon’ will be hosted by DIRDI at the North East Technology Park (NETPark), Sedgefield, County Durham, and aims to solve real-world challenges, while increasing students’ technological, entrepreneurial and commercial skills.
DIRDI is a scientific research institute established by Coltraco Ultrasonics in partnership with Durham University and based at NETPark: Research collaboration at the forefront of new partnership – Durham University.The product of 3 years work between Durham University, a world renowned centre of research excellence, and Coltraco Ultrasonics, the global leader in our fields of contents monitoring of gaseous extinguishing systems and watertight/airtight integrity monitoring, DIRDI is a research institute comprising undergraduates, postgraduates, academic staff at Durham University, and Coltraco R&D professionals.
DIRDI brings together academics and industry professionals across disciplines, primarily Physicists, Engineers, Mathematicians, and Computer Scientists. In doing so, it offers an opportunity for some of the UK’s finest minds to grapple with complex problems, some of which are abstract problems of the sort Newton wrestled with, specifically fundamental questions regarding the nature of the universe.
Others are applied problems of a more ‘Edisonian’ nature, concerned with the application of fundamental physical principles to the design and development of new technologies. Core research specialities include acoustics, electromagnetism, and information engineering.
Unlike typical research institutes, DIRDI is primarily commercially-funded. Through the rapid commercialisation of promising R&D lines, the freedom to explore fundamental science is sustained. Without the inhibitors of prescribed grant-seeking processes and the pressure to produce publishable results, DIRDI members are encouraged to pursue blue-skies, curiosity-driven research with the utmost scientific integrity.
It is the faith that such research will drive world-changing, prosperity-generating innovation that enables DIRDI’s freedom of research. In the years to come DIRDI aspires to grow, nurturing its members throughout their academic and commercial careers, identifying and supporting the ‘Newtons’ and Nobel Prize winners of the future, and delivering a critical mass of new research and scholarship.
