Liverpool city centre facility, a £15m collaboration between the University of Liverpool and Liverpool John Moores University, has appointed Daniel Watson and James Nixon

Liverpool innovation hub Sensor City has hired two highly experienced engineers to boost its team of in-house experts.

And the city centre facility, a £15m collaboration between the University of Liverpool and Liverpool John Moores University, has appointed Daniel Watson as head of engineering, while James Nixon joins as a prototype engineer.

Sensor City is also employing eight student interns to work in its laboratories and directly with its member companies.Three of the interns are from Liverpool John Moores University, four from the University of Liverpool and one from the NHS Leadership Academy.

Read more: International innovators take up residence at Sensor City

The hub specialises in research into the use of sensors and the Fourth Industrial Revolution (Industry 4.0) and a number of innovative early-stage and start-up businesses have already taken up residence.

Daniel Watson

A former CTO of GasX and lab engineer at Barclays Eagle Labs, Daniel Watson has extensive multidisciplinary knowledge in mechanical engineering, digital manufacturing, design and CAD.

As head of engineering at Sensor City, he will lead the technical team in harnessing more than £1m of laboratory equipment to give SMEs, start-ups and larger companies the tools to go from novel concept to working prototype with speed and accuracy.  

“It’s an exciting time for sensor technology,” said Daniel. “We’re seeing more sensors in more things – think street furniture and housing infrastructure – and as resilience builds, we’ll start to see even greater integration.

“As this happens, the Sensor City technical offering will continue to grow and provide unrivalled skills and expertise to SMEs and large organisations looking to explore what sensor and IoT technology could mean to their business.”

James Nixon

James Nixon has spent the last two years working at the Liverpool John Moores University Design School as a digital fabrication technician. This role will see him deploy his expertise to bring the ideas of the tenants and the wider tech community to life, quickly and effectively.

“I am a maker at heart and so having the opportunity to build in a real state-of-the-art workshop is fantastic,” James said. “What I’m looking forward to most is working with a wide range of companies and sectors to help businesses to move from idea to prototype as quickly as possible.”

Joanne Phoenix, interim executive director at Sensor City, added: “We are thrilled to see Daniel make the move to head of engineering and welcome James to the team.

“They both bring with them an eclectic mix of experience which, when working in tangent, will really help businesses think outside of the box when it comes to the unique projects they are undertaking.”