Bradford College

Visitors Wowed By Academy

Schools from across the country are flocking to visit the WOW Academy to experience the cutting-edge state of the art technology available within the centre. The WOW Academy is a unique educational training facility aimed at inspiring young people and employees to develop an interest in digital and creative media using state of the art technology.

Equipment includes a motion capturing suite, 3-D film cameras and virtual technology software.  What’s more London based schools are unable to find this kind of experience in the field of digital and creative media any closer to the capital!

This is not the first trip to the WOW Academy from visitors from further afield. The Academy attracts thousands of visitors every year, including a visit by six NASA astronauts who brought all the excitement of space to Bradford when they touched down in Centenary Square. The aim of their visit was to boost learning in Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths (STEM) subjects through the use of state of the art gadgets.

During a recent visit, London based school children enjoyed a variety of different activities during a trip to the WOW Academy, including the creation of their own computer game and short 3D film, to learning about animated technologies.  They also got the opportunity to operate animation software used by Pixar to create films such as The Incredibles, Monsters, Inc. and Toy Story.

Tahir Hameed, Project Manager, Innovative Technologies Centre said:  “It’s a great honour for the WOW Academy and on behalf of Bradford College to attract schools from across the region as well as nationally to get the full benefit out of the activities offered, which are rare to find elsewhere in the country. The feedback we’ve received has been very encouraging, with many schools intending to arrange further visits in the near future.”

Tahir continued:  “Schools have come all the way from London to take part in the activities offered by the WOW Academy.  This has meant a lot to us.  It’s been an excellent opportunity to demonstrate and deliver a lot more than the expectations of the participants. We’ve arranged activities for more than 30 schools in the region.  We’ve also had more than a 1000 students participate in the hands on activities offered such as: 3D Animation, Games Development, Image Manipulation, Filming and other 3D Technologies!”

Teachers and pupils expressed their delight at visiting the centre, remarking that the WOW Academy had lived up to its name! Commenting on the Academy a spokesperson from London based Albany School said:  “The trip was successful. It was a pleasure to note that our students were happy they attended.  It is clear that all of our students have something positive to add to their portfolios following the opportunity to experience the cutting-edge state of the art technology.”

Hashim Hashim, Head of Innovations added:  “We’re really pleased we’ve been given the opportunity to make a difference to young people’s lives.  By introducing them to such technologies we’ve been able to motivate and inspire. We believe that education should be fun, exciting and interesting and the feedback we’ve received from all our visitors confirms this to be the case. We would like to see more schools visiting from further afield and also welcome international visitors!”