Norscot Joinery, in partnership with the University of Strathclyde, received the award for Innovation of the Year at the Scottish Knowledge Exchange Awards 2018, which took place on Thursday 22nd February in Edinburgh.
(Pictured from left to right: Farhad Chamo, Farzad Pour Rahimian, Peter Body and Stephen Oliver.)
Norscot have been recognised for the research and development of virtual show home software which is currently a work in progress. The creation of this software will allow consumers to view their new home in a virtual environment during the design process. Norscot have found through customer feedback that physically seeing their new-build before finalising decisions is something consumers want and this new software is a more feasible option than building an actual show home.
“The idea is very simple but is taking a small army of very clever and supportive people to bring it to fruition. I thank them all for the progress to date, which has exceeded expectations.” Peter Body, Chairman of Norscot.
Norscot were introduced to Interface, the organisation which links businesses with academia, by HIE (Highlands and Islands Enterprise). In turn, Interface introduced us to the University of Strathclyde. “I offer special thanks to Claire Farquhar at Highlands & Islands Enterprise and Shaie MacDonald at Interface. When the idea was first muted, their vision and encouragement was instrumental in getting it off the ground.” Peter continued.
Farzad Pour Rahimian, Stephen Oliver and Farhad Chamo from the University of Strathclyde joined Peter at the awards ceremony. The event was well organised and culminated in a fantastic result for Norscot. Norscot are grateful that the full potential of this project has been recognised and will continue working on the software with added enthusiasm due to this accomplishment.