DETI | Engineering Our Future

Building a Greener Future: UWE Bristol Brings Together Sustainability Researchers

engineering | 19 May 2025

In April, UWE Bristol welcomed early career researchers from across the UK for a vibrant day of collaboration and knowledge-sharing at the 3rd Sustainability Multidisciplinary Meet-Up: SHAPEing Net Zero. Hosted at the Bristol Business School and organised by Dr Jill Zhao from the School of Architecture and Environment, the event explored how research and innovation can drive an inclusive, just, and technologically enabled response to the climate crisis.

The event brought together early career researchers from over 30 universities to connect across disciplines and explore themes ranging from climate justice and community-led decarbonisation, to big data, retrofit, wellbeing, and the power of storytelling.

Spotlight on sustainable engineering and community engagement

One of the UWE researchers presenting at the event was Sarah Behenna, Project Coordinator in the School of Engineering and Science Communication Unit. She shared work from the award-winning public engagement programmes led by Dr Laura Fogg-Rogers and Dr Laura Hobbs, focused on engaging underrepresented children and young people in sustainability through the use of Minecraft.

Sarah’s presentation, titled “Empowering Youth: Communicating Sustainability and Green Skills through Minecraft”, explored how the platform is being used to introduce young people to engineering principles, sustainable development goals, and green career pathways. By designing their own sustainable communities in-game, participants gain hands-on experience of building a better future—while having fun and learning STEM skills in the process.

Forging partnerships and new ideas

Also attending from UWE Bristol was Dr Iwona Gajda, Associate Professor of Environmental Engineering and a mentor on the Women Like Me/Women in Industry programme. Dr Gajda joined discussions on interdisciplinary approaches to climate action, bringing her expertise in circular economy and environmental systems.

A key strength of the event was the space it created for building new relationships and sparking collaborative ideas. During the day, Sarah connected with several researchers, including Dr Lui Tam from Cardiff University, and together they began developing a potential future grant bid – demonstrating the immediate impact of cross-institutional and cross-disciplinary networking in driving forward collaborative research.

Looking ahead

Events like SHAPEing Net Zero underline the importance of empowering the next generation of researchers to lead change across academic, policy and community settings. With sustainability, equity and engagement at the heart of its ethos, the British Academy and UWE Bristol is proud to support early career researchers as they shape a more just and resilient future.

A big thank you to Dr Jill Zhao for her vision and dedication in creating and delivering such a valuable and inspiring event.

School of Engineering outreach activities featured in UWE Bristol’s Sustainability Report for 2021-22

katcorbett | 13 August 20237 April 2025

UWE Bristol declared a Climate and Ecological Emergency in 2020 and has since made a number of commitments in its 2030 Strategy towards tackling the environmental crisis. These include being carbon neutral by 2030, reduce water and energy use, cut waste and single-use plastic, support biodiversity, sustainable travel, and climate related research, and work with students to address climate change and environmental challenges through teaching, learning and curricula. UWE Bristol regularly publishes reports where it shares the progress in achieving these sustainability goals.

UWE Bristol’s School of Engineering outreach team are pleased to be featured multiple times in the university’s latest Sustainability Report!

We Make Our Future Planetarium Shows

The We Make Our Future Planetarium show features prominently in the report’s section about Research and Knowledge Exchange for Sustainable Development.

We Make Our Future sets out the idea that to achieve net zero and a low carbon global economy, everything we make, and use will need to be completely re-imagined and re-engineered. It aims to show that the digital revolution is boosting the potential for engineers’ design thinking to optimise not only the development process but also the potential for collaborative citizen engagement.

The show has been designed with planetarium experts Explorer Dome and was part of the DETI Inspire programme. The show was featured at COP26 in Glasgow in 2021 and has since been touring schools around the west of England thanks to funding from the Royal Academy of Engineering.

Whilst there are currently no funded shows available, schools can still book them directly through Explorer Dome. More information about the show, and how to book it is available on our Digital Trailblazers webpages.

Dissemination activities for education for sustainable development

With the publication of the Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) Guidance by Advance HE and the Quality Assurance Agency (QAA) in 2021–22, Education for Sustainable Development received significant – and well-deserved – national attention.

Venkat Bakthavatchaalam, Laura Fogg-Rogers and Georgina Gough from the School of Engineering actively supported the dissemination of this document with a presentation at the 2022 Dresden Nexus Conference on the topic of Development and evaluation of a successful method to embed Sustainable Development Goals in engineering curriculum.

Another dissemination activity featured in the report is the Digital Engineering Technology and Innovation (DETI) Inspire outreach programme, which engaged children in primary and secondary education across the West of England, with a focus on disadvantaged areas.

Using curriculum-linked engineering outreach and careers support, it connected children with real-life, diverse engineering role models to widen participation and aspirations for STEM careers.

The Inspire programme was led by Dr Laura Fogg-Rogers, Senior Lecturer and Researcher at UWE Bristol, with support from Graphic Science, the STEM Ambassador hub of the West of England, and in collaboration with the Wessex Inspiration Network and Future Quest, leaders for Higher Education outreach into secondary schools of the region.

UWE team at Somerscience festival 2023, inspiring families with health science and engineering

joshuawarren | 5 May 20235 May 2023

This week, a multi-department team from UWE formed part of the Somerscience Festival, in Bruton. The festival, organised by the Somerscience Trust, invited local families and children to engage with STEM and get involved with lots of fun activities.

The Somerscience Trust is a charitable incorporated organisation set up to advance the education of the public in Somerset in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) and to promote public engagement in all aspects of STEM developments.

Healthcare, science and engineering colleagues provided knowledge, inspiration and engagement to the event on the 1st May Bank Holiday. Including the DETI Inspire team’s The West in Minecraft outreach activity, as well as radiography simulations, medical quizzes, and a shocking electro-shock game!

UWE student ambassadors from STEM and healthcare courses also joined on the day and helped inspire the next generation, as well as practice their own communication skills.

Victoria Davenport of the Biological and Biomedical Sciences department said of the event: ‘We created a great hive of activity across the day & somehow (maybe helped by chocolate munchie cake) kept up the energy til the end, which was no small feat! Hats off to you all for a fab job, well done! ‘

Programme to inspire next generation of engineers reaches more than 20,000 pupils

louisacockbill | 23 March 202321 March 2023

A programme designed to inspire a future generation to take up roles in green engineering has been completed, with more than 20,000 local school children benefitting.

Using curriculum-linked engineering outreach and careers support, the DETI Inspire programme connected primary and secondary school pupils with real-life, diverse engineering role models to widen aspirations for green STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths) careers.

During the two-year programme, a team of UWE Bristol engineering staff working on the programme engaged children in primary and secondary education across the West of England, with a focus on disadvantaged areas. The team directly engaged over 20,206 children, 469 teachers, and 218 schools, with over 117,000 total children reached through additional indirect dissemination efforts.

Along the way, children were able to have conversations with real-life engineers through Q&A sessions, card games and skill shares. 483 engineers were part of the outreach, as well as at least 17 industry partners and three charities.

Projects included creating a digital version of West of England landmarks in the popular block-building video game Minecraft, as well as an ‘Engineering Curiosity’ Top Trumps-style card game based on real-life engineers in the region.

Altogether, 1,473 student feedback responses were collected during the workshops. When asked to describe their level of interest in engineering before and after the session, ‘Very Interested’ in engineering responses increased 39 per cent and ‘Interested’ increased by 11 per cent.

Dr Laura Fogg-Rogers, UWE Bristol Associate Professor for Engineering in Society, said “We were thrilled with the success of this programme and to engage with so many young people and budding engineers. Inspiring a future generation of engineers has never been more important, as we seek urgent solutions to the climate crisis. The West of England is leading the way developing sustainability solutions with academia and industry collaborating to reach Net Zero by 2030. These green jobs are vital to our regional economy as well as the future security of our world.”

DETI Inspire built on the success of previous projects founded and launched by UWE Bristol, including Curiosity Connections – the network for inspirational primary STEM education in the West of England, and Women Like Me – a tiered mentoring project for women engineers.

The programme is managed by UWE Bristol’s School of Engineering in partnership with the University’s Science Communication Unit, with funding from the initiative for Digital Engineering Technology & Innovation (DETI). The project is run in collaboration with the West of England STEM Ambassador Hub, operated by Graphic Science.

DETI is a strategic programme of the West of England Combined Authority (WECA), delivered by the National Composites Centre, in partnership with Centre for Modelling and Simulation, Digital Catapult, UWE Bristol, University of Bristol and University of Bath. Industry partners include Airbus, GKN Aerospace, Rolls-Royce, and CFMS, with contributions from UWE Bristol, Digital Catapult and Siemens. DETI is funded by £5m from WECA, with co-investment from the High Value Manufacturing Catapult and industry.

An event will be held at the National Composites Centre on 23 March to celebrate the DETI programme. A final report about the DETI Inspire programme can be accessed here.

Dr Fogg-Rogers said: “DETI Inspire will continue to deliver activities to schools across the West of England Combined Authority, providing much needed coordination for digital engineering and green career progression. We will champion green jobs and STEM careers to ensure the development of this vital industry for the West of England, ensuring we work towards our goal of Net Zero 2030.”

Over a thousand local children inspired to engineer a sustainable future

louisacockbill | 16 March 202316 March 2023

The “We Make Our Future” planetarium show has been touring local West of England schools, encouraging children to think positively about the Climate Crisis and use human ingenuity to engineer a more sustainable future.

With generous funding from the Royal Academy of Engineering’s Ingenious grant scheme, the show has inspired approximately 1,550 children in the last three months!

All those children attend local schools in areas of socioeconomic deprivation, with 80% of them reporting that the show helped them to find out how engineering can help the world.

95% of teachers say they’d recommend the show to others.

“The show was interactive and interesting, the children were engaged and could not wait to ask questions,” said a teacher from Four Acres Academy.

“[The show] Really engaged the children and gave them a better understanding of what they can do to make a difference,” said a teacher from Fonthill Primary.

Crawl through the tunnel and enter another dimension!

Engineering ‘We Make our Future’

The show was originally created in 2021 by Explorer Dome (a hands-on science company who travel the country to provide children a taster for science in their inflatable planetariums) in collaboration with UWE – with support from the Digital Engineering and Technology Innovation (DETI) programme.

The new funding from the Royal Academy of Engineers, has not only enabled Explorer Dome to visit more schools, but also enhanced children’s exposure to regional sustainability ambassadors – to raise aspirations and exposure of green engineering careers.

To showcase more ambassadors the UWE and Explorer Dome team have been:

Training – UWE arranged for the Explorer Dome team to train a diverse group of engineers in public engagement skills, in September at UWE’s Engineering building – you can read more about this event on the blog.

Role modelling – UWE and Explorer Dome are doing film shoots with engineers at sustainability focused engineering companies across Bristol – including at clean energy companies, Thrive Renewables and Belltown Power, and indoor farming technology company, LettUS Grow. These films will be shown during We Make Our Future shows to inspire children with the vast range of real-life, local green engineering role-models. See below, one of the films of engineer Olivia.

Green Skills – meanwhile the UWE team have arranged Green Skills career fairs at local schools, to further expose children to different companies and the people in them who work in sustainability. In particular, children at Hans Price Academy in November were challenged to rethink what “green skills” are – it’s not necessarily about having lots of local animal habitat knowledge, but about utilising whatever skills you have – from numbers to creativity – to build a sustainable future. You can read more about this initiative here.

180 pupils from Hans Price also got to go into the dome and see the We Make Our Future shows during this Eco-Week at their School.

“Brilliant content, good pace & good interaction from students,” said a Hans Price teacher.

The Future of ‘We Make Our Future’

A further three schools are booked to see ‘We Make our Future’ in April and May, including a school for deaf children. And Explorer Dome are booked in for a day full of shows at UWE’s Engineering Family Fun Day on 1st July – more details to follow on this soon!

UWE are following up with schools who have had the shows already to signpost more educational materials and offer the UWE Inspire range of free workshops, some of which involve taking local STEM Ambassadors into schools. Seven schools are booked in to take part in these workshops in April/May.

Want to get a better glimpse into the We Make Our Future show – take a look at the video below:

Demystifying Digital Engineering

louisacockbill | 1 March 20231 March 2023

The National Composites Centre (NCC) and the Digital Engineering Technology & Innovation (DETI) partners: CFMS, Digital Catapult, Universities of the West of England, Bristol & Bath, will be holding an event focused on ‘Demystifying Digital Engineering’, taking place at the NCC, Bristol, 23rd March, 2-4.30pm.

As a research, innovation, and skills initiative, DETI has been helping companies to identify and develop the tools, technologies and processes to accelerate digital engineering capabilities and the skills needed to embed digital.

Guests will have the opportunity to view and interact with a range of digital technology and skills demonstrators that accelerate engineering transformation, identifying efficiencies in product, process and technology development, inspiring the next generation of engineers to engage with digital.

Demonstrations will cover digital learning factories, AR/VR in composite production, AI/simulation in the design process, haptics robotics, through to digital skills for workforce development and STEM activities to inspire the next generation of digital engineers.

Places are limited, to request a place at the event or for more information, please email: events@nccuk.com

Reposted from https://www.nccuk.com/events/demystifying-digital-engineering/

Local secondary pupils visit UWE to discuss sustainability and green skills

joshuawarren | 14 February 202314 February 2023

UWE’s School of Engineering recently welcomed 80 young people from a local secondary school to discuss the challenges faced to reach net-zero by 2030, and the green skills and solutions needed to overcome them.

Students from Bristol Brunel Academy engaged with several activities focussing on sustainability, including an interactive planetarium show, presenter-led workshops and an employer and careers fair. The day was hosted by UWE Bristol’s DETI Inspire team, and was a great success, with students coming away feeling more confident about climate action, and more knowledgeable about the green skills required to enter the sustainable future when they leave school.

The Eco-day formed part of the Inspire Sustainability project, funded as part of the Green Futures project from the West of England Combined Authority. Through meeting all our real life role models working on sustainability solutions, it’s hoped young people will gain a greater awareness of the diverse green jobs available in the West.

The ‘We Make Our Future’ planetarium show

During the day, the students had the opportunity to be a part of a fully interactive presenter-led planetarium show, from science communicators ‘Explorer Dome’. In the show, named ‘We Make Our Future’, the students were taken on a journey through human engineering, from Stonehenge, to space travel, before being challenged to consider engineering’s role in finding solutions to the climate crisis.

DETI Inspire team delivering sustainable solutions workshop at UWE

The students also took art in workshops from the DETI Inspire team, debating targets for net-zero, including UWE’s own energy targets, all by the year 2030. Then the students discussed the different solutions to the challenges faced when reaching for those targets. Such as insulating new homes and retrofitting older ones, city planning focussing on low-carbon transport, ways to hold their schools to account for their eco-choices, and the many green skills and careers that would come from the push for net-zero.

To learn more about the sessions, the plans for future Eco-weeks, and to book the DETI Inspire team for future STEM and sustainability outreach, please contact the team at the engineeringourfuture@uwe.ac.uk inbox. You can also download the lesson plans and materials from the sessions at the link below: https://www.digitaltrailblazers.net/resources

Over 1200 students discuss solutions and skills to reach net-zero in School Eco-Week events

joshuawarren | 20 January 202323 January 2023

Three secondary schools in the West have recently held Inspire Sustainability Eco-Weeks, with their students learning about the challenges that we face in order to reach net-zero by 2030, and the green skills and solutions needed in order to overcome them.

Bristol Brunel Academy, Digitech Studio School and Hans Price Academy have held events including career stands with prospective employers from the area, where students challenged them on their green credentials; sessions from the DETI Inspire team debating sustainable solutions from real engineers in the area; and interactive hook-a-duck stands encouraging students to identify their own green skills and apply them to the net-zero challenge.

The Eco Weeks form part of the Inspire Sustainability project, funded as part of the Green Futures project from the West of England Combined Authority. Through meeting all our real life role models working on sustainability solutions, it’s hoped young people will gain a greater awareness of the diverse green jobs available in the West.

In the DETI Inspire sessions, students debated targets for net-zero, including lowering waste by 65%, and Bristol City Council’s promise to reduce traffic by 40%, all by the year 2030. Then the students of various age groups, discussed the different solutions to the challenges faced when reaching for those targets. Such as insulating new homes and retrofitting older ones, city planning focussing on low-carbon transport, ways to hold their schools to account for their eco-choices, and the many green skills and careers that would come from the push for net-zero.

Across the week, the DETI Inspire team delivered a whole-school assembly, multiple live school online broadcasts tuned into by whole year groups, 15 fully facilitated sessions, and hosted an employer careers fair.

In total the team directly delivered to over 1200 young people, with future events and engagements also being planned. Many of the students reached have formed school eco-clubs, where they work together with the school to become more sustainable. Many of the students have taken inspiration from the sessions, and brought real solutions for sustainability to the school’s leadership. It’s really great to see that the students are turning to climate action and developing their green skills, and actively making a difference in their school.

Women in Engineering Mentoring & Outreach Programme – get involved now!

louisacockbill | 4 January 20234 January 2023

‘Women Like Me’ is a peer mentoring and outreach project in the Bristol and Bath area aimed at boosting female representation at all levels in engineering. Senior women engineers are paired with junior women engineers and their mentoring journeys supported through various events. At the same time training and opportunities are provided for junior engineers to undertake engineering education outreach in local schools.

The programme has run with great success since 2018, and for 2023 we’re excited to be adding a new element to our mentoring support package!

In addition to our face-to-face networking and training events, this year we will be providing online mentoring support. Alexandra Knight, an award-winning engineer and presenter, who empowers women in STEM to be confident visible role models through her company STEMazing, will be heading up these online sessions, with particular emphasis on developing our Senior Engineers’ mentoring skills.

Who can take part?

If you have 5 years (or more) experience working in engineering – you’re a Senior Woman Engineer! – please sign up to be a Mentor here.

Junior women engineers are those with less experience than this, and can include apprentices, trainees, undergraduate and postgraduate students and postdoctoral researchers – with less than 5 years experience in engineering. Please sign up to be a Mentee here.

Date for the diary!

Please sign up in January, as we’ll collect all enrolments and pair you up mentor-to-mentee in early February before our kick off event on 23^rd Feb…

Women Like Me – 23^rd February, 4 – 6pm at UWE Bristol (Frenchay campus in Filton).

This event will introduce you to the Women Like Me programme, with some top tips and discussion about mentoring and outreach. And hopefully include getting to meet your new mentee/mentor for the first time (!) as well as the rest of this years cohort.

Those are the core details, but if you’d like to find out more about the programme – including why we think women mentoring is important, more detailed plans for this year, expectations from mentor/mentees, past successes etc – please read below.

Alexandra Knight gave a talk at the end of the 2022 programme

Why is this important?

Only 12% of engineers in the UK are women. In order to support female engineers, more girls need to connect with engineering as a career, with positive female role models, and more women need to be supported to make a difference in the workplace.

Women Like Me is addressing this by pairing together women engineers to provide career and public engagement mentoring. Participating engineers deliver engineering engagement activities in local schools and at local public events, providing positive role models for young girls. Through this approach, the project impacts the workplace today and the future of the engineering profession.

What will it involve?

Introductions – We offer various networking and training opportunities to all participants, this year the first session will be held face-to-face on 23rd Feb.

Goal setting – On 9th March, there’ll be an online goal setting session for mentors and mentees. Alexandra Knight (from STEMazing) will lead mentoring pairs through focused discussions to get their mentoring relationships off to a great start.

Mentor only coaching – This year will be a great opportunity for mentors to develop themselves as well as their mentees, with Alex leading four subsequent online ‘mentoring circle’ meetings for mentoring coaching and peer support. These sessions will be spread throughout the year and will be private sessions for mentors-only.

Mentoring meet-ups – We expect mentors and mentees to meet at least twice during the year – although we’d encourage more, if that’s possible for both parties. These meetings or conversations can take whatever form best suits each pair – something to discuss in your initial meetings in Feb/March.

Mentees public engagement – Junior engineers will receive training in public engagement (Senior Engineers can also take part!) and we ask them to then undertake at least three engineering outreach activities with local schools and public events. Coordination of activity is provided and supported by UWE – we’ll send you opportunities over email and support you in these sessions.

Log your activities – we then ask mentors to log their mentoring meet-ups, and the mentees to log their public engagement – this helps us to track how the programme is going.

More Women Like Me Info

This project was first launched in 2018 and is based in the Science Communication Unit and School of Engineering at UWE Bristol. The project is organised by Dr Louisa Cockbill and Ana Bristow, and was initiated by Dr Laura Fogg Rogers and Dr Laura Hobbs. It is supported by the initiative for Digital Engineering Technology & Innovation (DETI).

You can read about the successes of the project in previous years and access the 2018-2019 project report. A paper in the Journal of Science Communication, Fogg-Rogers and Hobbs (2019) places Women Like Me in the context of recruitment and retention of women in engineering.

For any further information please email engineeringourfuture@uwe.ac.uk or follow us on Twitter for updates.

How do I sign up?

If you’ve not already done this on the links above, here they are again! To take part in the project this year, interested participants should complete the appropriate online survey:

Senior Engineers (over 5 years experience) please complete this survey

Junior Engineers (less than 5 years experience) please complete this survey

The project coordinators will then be in touch in February to introduce you to your mentor/mentee.

UWE and Aerospace Bristol host local schools for a free STEM day trip!

stephmartin | 27 October 20221 November 2022

The DETI Inspire team at UWE Bristol are collaborating with Air League, the UK’s leading aviation and aerospace charity, who are generously supporting the free delivery of Aerospace Engineering days out for 16 classes from schools in the South West. So far, 243 kids have experienced Bristol’s excellent aviation history at Aerospace Bristol, before streaming into UWE’s new School of Engineering building to explore the future of sustainable flight using a virtual gaming platform.

This new scheme is part of Air League’s continuing mission to inspire young people to pursue a career in aviation. They’ve been able to offer this amazing opportunity for local schools by partnering up with Aston Martin Bristol, who are funding the delivery of Air League’s Inspired Engineering initiative for 2022. This funding has enabled Air League to offer the free day out, as they are paying for transportation costs, entry into Aerospace Bristol and a bespoke workshop at UWE Bristol, all at no cost to the schools.

Throughout the day, different careers relating to the aerospace industry are discussed to give students a flavour of what a future career could look like. The goal is to inspire children from all different backgrounds to start thinking about careers in STEM, particularly engineering, and give them an idea of the future roles they can hold. The initiative also aims to emphasise the green skills that they will need in the sustainable workforce of the future.

Josh Warren from the DETI Inspire running an AirLeague funded Minecraft session on the future of flight in UWE Engineering’s dedicated outreach classroom

The DETI Inspire team used their regional links to recruit primary schools to the programme, with Air League organising all transportation for classes, including the transfer between Aerospace Bristol and UWE Bristol’s Frenchay campus halfway through the day. Coach costs often prohibit schools from arranging trips out for their pupils, even to relatively local educational destinations, so this funding has been really appreciated by schools, particularly those from areas of socio-economic deprivation who have been a priority to secure sessions for.

Each trip begins with a visit to Aerospace Bristol to explore the history of air travel and aerospace design. The children get to explore the amazing exhibits, with a frequently reported favourite being a tour inside a Concorde aircraft!

This is then followed by a visit to UWE’s School of Engineering, where students explore the future of flight on the popular game, Minecraft. The kids enter the virtual Filton runway, built by DETI Inspire collaborator Atkins, where they are encouraged to let their imaginations run wild to think up ways in which air travel can become more sustainable.

The young people have used Minecraft to digitally engineer biofuel stations for planes, where the crops used are grown on site; as well as prototypes for solar powered planes and flying electric cars!

Two examples of KS2 pupil designs in the Filton Minecraft world – an aeroplane with solar panels and a biofuel station

The programme has been extremely popular, with every session booked out by mid-October. While the children’s enthusiasm speaks for itself throughout the day, there’s also been fantastic feedback from teachers:

“We would like to say a huge thank you for this opportunity. It was a fantastic day and the children were really excited by all that they got to do!”

“Overall, a fantastic opportunity for the children and one they would not get often.”

We have received a lot of enquiries from schools who would love to participate in our aerospace days out, so we are hoping to continue this initiative into 2023 to reach more students in the South West and inspire them into careers in STEM.

DETI Inspire use the West in Minecraft and subsequent worlds developed with the support of Atkins, a member of the SNC-Lavalin Group, and Science Hunters through Building to Break Barriers (funded by a Royal Academy of Engineering Ingenious grant)