At Imperial, we have spent years thinking about how to turn great ideas into businesses. We know one thing for sure: ideas get better when they are shared, discussed, and tested by a wide range of experts. That’s why, alongside our specialist departments, we have designed the White City Campus with College-wide research projects in mind. These initiatives connect Imperial’s academics and researchers with public and private sector partners, and are quickly turning into clusters of expertise – in life sciences, medical research, security and defence, public health, clean energy, AI & robotics, and FinTech.

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DigiFAB

 

The new Institute for Digital Molecular Design and Fabrication (DigiFAB) at Imperial College London is akey priority of its Academic Strategy and a flagship project working across all faculties and departments.  The Institute’s vision is to transform chemical design and manufacturing by moving away from slow, labour-intensive manual methods, towards highly automated, data-driven approaches that capitalise upon advances driven by the Fourth Industrial Revolution.  The Institute capitalises on expertise and infrastructure already existing in College and not available in concert elsewhere, spanning molecular synthesis through to artificial intelligence, robotics, automation, sensor technologies, and big data. DigiFAB acts as a catalyst for the cross-faculty convergence of expertise in chemistry, medicine, engineering, computing, statistics, mathematics, automation, robotics, artificial intelligence and machine learning, as well as involving expertise from the Imperial College Business School. Thus, DigiFAB provides a single-entry point into the digital molecular design and fabrication expertise and facilities at the College.

 

Imperial X

 

Imperial X is a campus-wide artificial intelligence project. At Imperial, we have long-standing excellence in AI, machine learning, data sciences, and related fields. Now, our I-X team has taken over two floors of the I-HUB at White City, bringing together 500+ researchers from our Faculties of Engineering, Natural Sciences, Medicine, and Imperial College Business School to create a mixed campus. The ultimate vision for I-X is to deliver transformational research, teaching, and innovation and become a testbed for emerging tech. A number of startups have already grown out of this work, including Deep.Meta, which uses machine learning to spot problems in metal production, and Magic Pony, a company that improves the quality of low-resolution images and videos (acquired by Twitter for $150 million in 2016).

 

 

The Institute for Security Science and Technology

 

The Institute for Security Science and Technology is Imperial's hub for security and defence research and education. The institute works with government and private sector partners to explore space, cybersecurity, quantum computing, and other technology, working towards a more secure and resilient world. This work has grown into a cluster of like-minded innovators at White City, and the campus is now home to NATO’s Defence Innovation Accelerator for the North Atlantic (DIANA) among other leading companies.

 

The Institute for Deep Tech Entrepreneurship

 

The Institute for Deep Tech Entrepreneurship is Imperial’s cross-departmental project to advance fundamental science and engineering (referred to collectively as “Deep Tech”). The institute prioritises high-risk ventures with long timelines that might otherwise be a poor match for investment. Imperial’s unique funding model has been the key to our success in areas like quantum computing, advanced materials and synthetic biology