Laser engravings inspire U. of Manchester students

Manchester, UK - A graphic design motif at the University of Manchester's new £24 million Alan Gilbert Learning Commons building features oak panels laser-engraved with inspirational quotes from iconic figures associated with the university and city, including alumni and Nobel Prize winners. The panels now serve as eye-catching feature walls in the café, computer suite and staircase area of the Commons, which opened on Oct. 1.

Cutting Technologies (Barnsley, South Yorkshire) engraved the oak panels, which were installed by joinery firm RW Joinery. The quotes reflect some of the university's historic achievements, such as Ernest Rutherford's work on splitting the atom and building the world's first modern computer.

Rutherford was Physics professor at Manchester from 1907-1919, where he accomplished his atom splitting and discovery of the proton. (While there he also worked alongside luminaries Niels Bohr, H. G. Moseley, and Hans Wilhelm Geiger.) The Small-Scale Experimental Machine (SSEM, nicknamed "The Baby") was created at the U. of Manchester and executed its first program in June 1948.