Petronas and Group Lotus educational partners.

I was browsing the web. I found an old Lotus Engineering article.
http://www.autoworld.com.my/v2/news/nb_details.asp?awReviewID=551&awCatID=RT.ATC.CAR.NW

The article was written in 2001. At this time the University of Petronas had an agreement with Lotus.

UTP and LotusIn a related developed Universiti Teknologi Petronas (UTP) and Lotus have joined forces in an industrial partnership that will spearhead a new technology transfer relationship between the two organisations.

The partnership between UTP (one of the leading academic and technology institutions in the ASEAN region) and Lotus, will include the following:

- Joint research programmes such as Advanced combustion, Optical diagnostics and Active valvetrain;
- Industrial placements at Lotus for UTP students and staff;
- Technical papers, presentations and journal publications;
- Advanced engineering lecture programme by Lotus;

"By pooling resources from Lotus and UTP, we have a great opportunity to stretch the boundaries of research for the car of the future. I can see the scope within these two skilled teams to research into safer, more efficient and more advanced vehicles to take the car not just 5 years ahead but well into the next decade and beyond," said Mr Wood.

Mr Wood is in Malaysia as part of a team visiting local universities and presenting the ‘Lotus Engineering Roadshow’. The event was also presented at Proton’s premises in Shah Alam today and attended by Lord Sainsbury, the British Minister of Science & Technology, who also took the opportunity to visit the factory.

Picture copied from article: autoworld.com.my
Simon Wood on left, Lord Sainsbury and Tengku Mahaleel (Proton CEO at the time).



I visited UTP some years ago and met with it's CEO. I didn't know that there was official co-operation between Lotus and Petronas.

Petronas and DRB-Hicom both have private Universities. Petronas have a huge Motorsport budget.

They could make my vision a reality.  I hope they do!