Inventor James Dyson donates $8M for student incubator

Sir James Dyson’s brand is all about excellence in design. So it’s no surprise that he’s decided to donate $8m to construct the Dyson building at London’s Royal College of Art where he once studied. The Dyson building will house a student incubator where students work on physical products –ones you can hold in your hands. That sets it apart from the mobile/web/cloud app incubators that are so prevalent (and in The Accelerator Gazette’s opinion, overdone) elsewhere.

In an interview with fastcodesign.com, Dyson said:

“Talented young minds want to be the next Mark Zuckerberg or Larry Page. But with the world abuzz with digital, we are losing sight of real engineering. Hardware is profitable. Don’t be fooled, Apple’s success as a technology company is built on hardware. The current fixation with digital is misplaced. Long-term it is unlikely to generate jobs, growth, and exports. Instead, we need to encourage more young engineers to commercialize their technologies.”

Amen, Sir James. Thanks for trying to restore some balance regarding what incubators and accelerators ought be focussing on.

Fast Company’s Co.Design: Why James Dyson Invested $8,000,000 In A Student Incubator