Students design smart home tech with Wondrwall

Now in their sixth year, the Business Insider awards celebrate the local manufacturing sector, and this category showcases a special collaboration between a manufacturing company and a third party – such as a university, colleges or charity. The winners, who will go through to the national finals of Made in the UK, will be announced at a special ceremony at the Lowry Hotel on 10 May.    

The University of Salford is nominated for its exceptional partnership with Wondrwall which fits the University’s key strategy of working to give students real life experiences with industry.    

Wondrwall has pioneered the first intelligent living system that transforms how people interact with their homes. It automatically controls heating, lighting, security and safety with voice control and cleverly adapts its home supervision by understanding how people live and behave.    

Protoype design    

The collaboration covered both an industry live brief for design students who were asked to come up with a new innovative prototype of a smart light switch, with increased personalisation and added functionality of the smart home device, and a Dragon’s Den-style pitch.

“The fact we can offer students this type of real-life opportunity is what makes Salford different” - Dr Maria Stukoff

Wondrwall is now working with a select group of students to develop chosen prototypes further. These students will gain invaluable industry work experience and possibly a job with the company in the future.      

“The fact we can offer students this type of real-life opportunity is what makes Salford different,” said Dr Maria Stukoff, Director of the Maker Space. “This is a prime example of our strategy in action whereby an initial contact with an industry partner can develop over time to become an exceptional partnership, bringing together industry, staff and students to collaborate and co-create.    

Mark Lufkin, Chief Commercial Officer of Wondrwall said: “The students have been a big help, as we did not have the resources ourselves to do a redesign and it has allowed us to address new customers and segments.    

'Smart factory'    

“Part of the feedback we get is that the our design looks nice, but do we have anything else? Having new designs has allowed us to address different customers and target some of the premium house builders.”    

Follow the Morson Maker Space on Twitter @makeinsalford. For enquiries email makerspace@salford.ac.uk