Collaborate to Innovate 2020
Category sponsors
Aerospace & Defence: High Value Manufacturing Catapult
The High Value Manufacturing Catapult is delighted to sponsor the Collaborate to Innovate
Awards for 2020. Transformational innovation happens when the right knowledge, skills,
and equipment come together. Because they’re rarely found all in one place, collaboration
is a necessary ingredient when companies or Governments want to achieve the best results.
It’s at the heart of everything we do within the HVM Catapult and we are proud to celebrate
examples of great collaboration wherever they occur.
Manufacturing technology Yamazaki Mazak
Collaboration and innovation are the keys to productivity, competitiveness and continued
success for UK industry. Our own experience, working closely with customers and supply
partners in the development of new machining and automation technologies, is proof that
true innovation, which pushes the boundaries of what is possible, cannot be achieved in
isolation – only with partnership and collaboration.
Mazak is proud to sponsor the Manufacturing Technology Award and its celebration of
those companies who have placed technological innovation at the heart of both their own
organisations and their customer and supply partner relationships – in the process creating a
culture in which collaboration and innovation can truly prosper.”
Data & Connectivity: Babcock International Group
Babcock International is proud to support this year’s C2I awards. Engineering is embedded
in our DNA and technology underpins everything we do, and so does the way we collaborate
with our customers. With our engineering expertise spanning across our four sectors we
have the ability to identify and integrate technology into our through-life support. That’s why
we are a partner trusted to deliver.
collaborations that led to the development
of the incandescent bulb.
Fast forward to the 21st century, where
digital technologies are viewed, by many,
as the lightbulb moment of our times.
Robotics, autonomous systems, artifi cial
intelligence (AI), quantum computing:
individually and cumulatively, they are
being seen as a potential panacea for all
society’s ills. Some people are beginning to
think that technology can solve everything
instantly – you’ll hand your data to an
intelligent autonomous system and it will
deliver a defi nitive, single answer. The
late, great Douglas Adams said that the
ultimate answer to life, the universe and
everything was 42: but, as he very wisely
pointed out, we need to know what the
question is fi rst.
Defi ning the questions si ing behind
our problems can be challenging, and
that is where the key ‘thinking’ element
of future thinking comes in. Technologies
might help us to answer our questions
but, no ma er how advanced they are,
they can’t (yet!) apply the creative thinking
behind the ‘why’. Why is it important
that we solve this particular problem,
or develop this specifi c technological
solution? The answer to that question, I
believe, must tie back to our desire to make
the world a be er place, to help us live
healthy, secure, sustainable lives. We need
to think beyond the seed we’re planting
and to picture the fully-grown tree, asking
ourselves whether our innovations have
the potential to deliver important benefi ts
to future societies.
That’s why, for this year’s Collaborate
to Innovate, we’re sponsoring the ‘Future
Thinking Award’, which will be presented
to the entry that, in the judges’ opinion, not
only demonstrates the most innovative
use of AI, autonomy or digital technologies,
but also has the greatest potential to
deliver societal good in the future. From
working in Frazer-Nash, and alongside
many of the collaborators on the judging
panel, I have seen fi rst-hand the benefi ts
of fostering creative thinking amongst
technical teams. I hope it will lead to
something that, like the lightbulb, might
need to be refi ned and developed over
time, but will have the potential to make
a real diff erence and off er real benefi ts to
the world. We’re looking forward to seeing
your entries.
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