School of ACE: Facilities and Workshops
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We have invested around £1m into ACE, putting creativity and collaboration at the heart of our teaching facilities.
New renovations to the AVA Building and Knowledge Dock on our Docklands Campus give students access to industry standard equipment and completely transform their educational experience.
An experienced Technical team support staff and students guiding them as they explore a world of making, introducing them to a whole range of materials and processes some rooted in tradition and others at the cutting edge of technology.
We live in an exciting era when the dialogue between craft skills and technology will lead to many new ways of making. At the University of East London, we encourage this fusion of tradition and innovation, constantly looking for new ways to make it real.
Our Facilities
Our Analogue Darkroom offers a range of processes split into four main areas: Film Processing, Scanning Lab, Alternative Printing & Deep Tank Film Processing, and Analogue Black & White Printing.
The Film Processing lab offers Black and White film processing from 35mm up to 5x4 sheet film. All Chemicals are made to working solution by the Darkroom Technician; once you have been inducted into this part of the Darkroom, you can have open access to this area (as long as there isn’t a workshop happening in the Darkroom), with last film at 4pm to ensure you finish processing before the Darkroom closes.
The Film Processing area also includes a film loading room; a film drying cabinet; both resin- and fibre-based paper dryers; paper drying racks; a large lightbox and a paper trimmer.
The Analogue Black & White Printing area has 15 enlargers for black and white photographic printing; you will need to have had an induction to use this workshop. You will need to request when booking an enlarger kit which size negative you are using: 35mm, 6x4.5, 6x6, 6x7 or 5x4", and printing chemicals will be made to working solution each day during term time.
Our Scanning Lab offers an Epson V750 Flatbed Scanner, offering scanning of 35mm, slides, 120mm and 5x4" film. There is also a Hasselblad X1 flextight Drum scanner, offering scans of 16mm, 35mm, 120mm, 5x4" film and unmounted slides.
Our newly renovated workshop boasts modern, multifunctional teaching and research buildings that support hands-on learning.
Our advanced Manufacturing Technology Workshop has recently been refurbished and is home to our HAAS CNC Mill machine; the Ford Motor engine for the potential research and automotive-related research activities; and the Westcut Plasma Laser cutter.
Our HAAS CNC machines, hot processing facility (Plasma Laser Cutter), and the Ford engine enable our students to participate in the projects such as IMechE Design Engineering Challenges and the Formula car- Student Design, car part assembling, and testing competitions.
The newly developed workshop is a user-friendly project engineering space that enables all students to develop and hone their Mechanical and Manufacturing Engineering skills so that efficient engineering solutions made be conceptualised, prototyped, and manufactured.
A wide range of research- and project-related resources are available to allow students to complete projects across their Bachelor's, Master and Ph.D. Degrees, and they are equipped with CAD/CAM software such as Advanced Creo 3D Design and assembly Manufacturing, Fusion 360 Engineering, Solidworks, and Autodesk Revit software.
The Civil Engineering Lab is dedicated to practises of concrete and material technology, as well as Model Structures and Heavy Structures.
Our modern, well-equipped laboratories are open to students all day Monday to Friday, and include dedicated structures, soil mechanics, hydraulics, highways and surveying labs.
Located in Knowledge Dock, our equipment also incorporates specialist testing rigs, moulds, mixers and tooling apparatus.
Our computing facilities are distributed into ten labs across Knowledge Dock and the AVA Building.
More than 350 computers are available to ACE students, and our facilities support robotic programming for human-machine interaction research.
The computers are equipped with a plethora of software, including: 3Dstudio MAX; Access; Adobe Suite; AutoCAD; Autodesk Civil; Autodesk Maya; Azure Tools; Bentley; BonitaSoft; Eclipse; Extra; Filezilla; GNU GCC and GFortran; GNU Octave; Matlab and all tools; MS Visual Studio; MSSQL Server; Net Developers tools; OPNet; Revit 2020; Rhino 6; RStudio; Simulia Abaqus; Sketchup; Solidworks; Vmware Workstation; Weka tool; and Yworks.
The hydraulics laboratory contains numerous valuable tools for hydraulics and water management engineering.
These include flumes; large and small water benches; and large and small scale-fixed and tilting flumes, demonstrating a selection of the available models including dams, syphons and weirs for teaching and research purposes.
A hydraulic jump is also present in an Armfield S16, which is capable of demonstrating open and closed flow channel experiments.
The Immersive Space is a large lighting studio, offering specialist, movable green-screen set-ups with a range of fixed lighting in the space. There are also a black curtain and colorama backdrops available.
This space is recommended for a wide range of photography and video shoots, but not for audio capture, due to the dynamic nature of the AVA building.
All students and staff will need to have had an induction to use this facility by a member of the technical team, if possible organised as part of a group induction by a module or programme leader.
The Immersive Space is available between 9.30am and 12.30pm and 1pm-4pm Monday-Friday, as well as 4.30pm-8pm on Monday-Thursday.
There are also three other lighting studios set up at Docklands Campus, including a Photography Lighting studio, a TV Studio and a Moving Image Studio, all with lighting set-ups fully suited to photographing products or models and for video/audio pieces.
Check back soon for further information!
The hydraulics laboratory contains numerous valuable tools for hydraulics and water management engineering.
These include flumes; large and small water benches; and large and small scale-fixed and tilting flumes, demonstrating a selection of the available models including dams, syphons and weirs for teaching and research purposes.
A hydraulic jump is also present in an Armfield S16, which is capable of demonstrating open and closed flow channel experiments.
Our Mechanical Workshops have recently been refurbished and are home to our manual milling machines and lathes.
Our Mechanical Workshops are also home to our HAAS CNC machines, hot processing facility (e.g. Plasma Laser Cutter) and general engineering facilities, to enable our students to participate in the projects such as IMechE Design Engineering Challenge and the Formula Student competition.
Newly developed, the Mechanical Engineering Suite is a user-friendly project engineering space that enables all students to develop and hone their Engineering design skills, so that efficient engineering solutions made be conceptualised, prototyped, and manufactured.
A wide range of teaching-, research- and project-related resources are available to allow students to complete projects across their degrees and include CAD/CAM software.
Mechanical Workshops Facilities include:
HASS CNC Mini Mill Machine; Manual Lathe engineering machine; Manual Mill engineering machine; CAD-CAM Engineering facilities; CNC – Digital Manufacturing programme writing facility; Digital Manufacturing package such as Creo 3.0 & Fusion 360 software; Plasma Laser Cutter Machine and General Engineering equipment such as Grinders, Pillar drills, Bandsaw.
The Printmaking Workshop provides support to all AVA Students across the subject areas, from Foundation to Doctorate.
The Print Room is a creative traditional workshop where you learn to be an artisan craft person with old and new technical skills. We show you the process that fits your work, enabling you to learn the craft, be creative and push the boundaries that you see for yourself. There are no rules that can’t be broken within the printmaking process, enabling you to fulfil your ambition and creativity within the confines of the workshop.
The Print Room has a wide range of equipment which includes: Two Etching Presses; Beaver Press; Off-Set Litho Press; Four Screen Beds; and a Large Exposure Unit.
The workshop is divided into two areas: oil-based and water-based printing.
We offer diverse techniques. These include Intaglio, Photo Etching, Lino, Monoprint, Dry Point, Wood Block, Screen Printing, Photocopy Transfer, and Embossing.
Facilities are open Monday to Friday, 10am to 1pm and 2pm to 5pm. Students must complete an Induction in the relevant print technique before using any equipment in the workspace.
RisoEast has two RP3700 and NEW SF9350 Edition II Risograph Printers and 16 different colour drums to pick from: Black, Grey, Red, Blue, Yellow, Green, Teal, Purple, Burgundy, Florescent Pink, Florescent Orange, Flat Gold, along with new colours Aqua, Mint, Coral & Metallic Gold.
RisoEast also has a paper guillotine, folding machine and twin head stapler for standard and loop stapling with bookbinding support planned for the future.
All Bookings are done via email to Riso Tech; please check Track My Future for contact details. All Printing should be agreed and booked with Riso Tech prior to payment.
In Civil Engineering, Surveying is the art of determining the relative positions of points on, above or beneath the surface of the earth by means of direct or indirect measurements of distance, direction and elevation.
In our Surveying Laboratory, we have a broad range of high-end equipment such as the laser C10 scanner that is also used for tunnel engineering and other general surveying purposes. There are also many different types of the latest totals station such as Leica TS06, 02, 407, 411, Builder.
We also have a range of historical surveying equipment that was widely used in the 60s for display.
Our broad range of levels offer both manual and digital, which is what most students start from.
The Woodwork Workshop is situated in the AVA building between the Fine Art and Architecture studios, providing support to all student’s levels across the creative subject areas of Art, Design and Architecture.
The workshop is equipped with the machinery needed to create most woodworking projects including a large Table saw, four Bandsaws, two disc sanders, Spindle sander, Radial arm saw, Router table, Lathe, Planar and Thicknesser, and a CNC machine.
Once inducted into the safe working practices and health and safety procedures of the workshop, under supervision, students are free to use the workshop as needed.
Common practices include creating site models, stretcher making, mould making, Furniture, product design, sculpture.
The wood workshop, like all ACE workshops, work closely with the other technical departments and workshops to promote multi-disciplined learning and to ensure our students are informed of new technologies and the best working methods available.
Staff
- Dr Garry Doherty - Woodwork Workshop
- Mr Daryl Brown - Woodwork and Sculpture Workshop
- Mr Chris Donovan - Civil Engineering Workshop
- Dr Saeed Javid - Mechanical Engineering and Advanced Manufacturing Technology
- Mr Craig Madden - Analogue Dark Room, Lighting Studio and Practice and Riso East Print Studio.
- Mr Glen Marston - Printmaking Workshop.
- Mr Masum Zain Miah - Geotechnical Laboratory, Hydraulics laboratory and Surveying Lab.
- Mr David Morgan - Woodwork Workshop
- Mr Paul Nichols - Digital Fabrication Lab (dFUEL)
- Dr Mark Sowden - Sculpture Workshop
- Mrs Barbara Zandavali - Digital Fabrication Lab (dFUEL)
- Mrs Gaynor Zealey - Printmaking Workshop
Location
AVA and Knowledge Dock Building.
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