Category: Engineering in the Community

Opportunity for students to support East Bristol campaign for better air with repair skills

Author engineering | Posted on

The MAKERS project is giving students the opportunity to use their repair and making skills to support the Easton based Baggator Youth Group and “Residents Against Dirty Energy” (RADE) Bristol campaign for better air.

The group uses sensors to measure traffic and air pollution in their area to support their campaign efforts. Air pollution data can be accessed on the Luftdaten pages, whilst life traffic data is available on the Telraam pages.

As the project has been running for a while, many of the sensors don’t work as well as they used to. UWE students are invited to support RADE to help fix the faulty sensors, helping the group to improve the quality of the collected data, which plays a key role in their campaign efforts.

The group will be running two sensor repair sessions on Saturday, February 24th at St Mark’s Baptist Church in Easton. Session 1 will take place from 10.30am – 12.00pm session 2 is from 1-2.30pm. Students can attend either one or both sessions, depending on their availability.

The session will be led by a technician from the School of Engineering who will guide participants through the repairs, so no previous experience is required.

This is a great opportunity to learn some practical repair skills of electronics, whilst connecting with and supporting the community of East Bristol in their efforts to improve the air quality for its residents. There will be food provided on the day, and travel costs can be reimbursed.

Students can sign up via the Sign-up form, or email kat.corbett@uwe.ac.uk with any questions.

Students and community repairers explore 3D printing of spare parts

Author katcorbett | Posted on

Students and community repair volunteers recently had the opportunity to explore a novel way to create spare plastic parts for repair: 3D design and 3D printing.

This idea first occurred when coming across a number of snapped plastic parts as part of UWE Bristol’s Repair Café. The traditional way of using glue and epoxy resins was not always suitable or strong enough, and after a first successful trial of fixing a Soda Stream by replacing a broken seal  with a new 3D printed version, the team behind the MAKERS project decided to explore 3D printing for repair more.

MAKERS (Making and Knowledge Exchange for Repair and Sustainability) aims to improve belonging for diverse engineering students at UWE Bristol, through developing connections with local Maker and Repair communities in the West of England.

Students and MAKERS community partners were invited to take part in a 3D design workshop led by Dr Joe Butchers, lecturer in Engineering Principles, to explore how the freely available and easy to use platform Tinkercad could be used, even by those with no relevant previous experience to create spare parts.

After practicing on some initial simple shapes and design, the group got to work on some broken sample parts, which had been sent in by members of the public to create a new part. As part of this, they successfully created a new plastic bracket for a 40-year-old baby cot.

3D printed replacement cot catch and the original, broken version

The session was a great way to explore how 3D printing could be made more accessible to the wider repair community, and the team are now looking to run another one soon, giving the amount of interest from the repair community and students to learn more, and to work through some of the other broken items that were offered by members of the public to be fixed.

The team are exploring routes to run a workshop again and seeking funding for future training.

Free engineering consultancy for local community organisations

Author engineering | Posted on

The School of Engineering at UWE Bristol are seeking to partner with local community organisations with project ideas relevant to engineering students studying the Professionalism for Engineers module.

We welcome project proposals from community, voluntary and social enterprise sectors.

The project is an opportunity for organisations to receive free engineering consultancy from a small team of students (3-6 people), who will be learning skills in team-working, client liaison and applications of engineering as part of the module. The scheme is open for applications until 30 November 2023 with projects completed from February to April 2024.

Projects could be researching and scoping opportunities or issues on behalf of your organisation, planning or providing designs and proposals, or in some cases students may be able to produce an item or intervention for the organisation. Examples of projects might include: auditing and developing concepts for a new engineering project in your area, such as sustainable outdoor space and clean heating solutions; researching community problems and engineering solutions; or adapted infrastructure to meet the needs of a community group. You can find examples of completed projects from 2019 on the blog.

For further information and to apply, please download the Organisation Brief below and return the form within to engineeringourfuture@uwe.ac.uk

Download the Organisation Brief

New Repair Café at School of Engineering brings together students and wider community

Author engineering | Posted on

UWE Bristol’s Repair Café has gotten off to a great start on its very first session on October 11th 2023!

We had a fantastic team of 14 helpers, which included students, community volunteers, technicians, and other UWE staff, helping with repair and general organising.

There was a lot of demand for repair amongst the UWE community: people brought in old toys, soda streams, lawn mowers, lamps, trousers, skirts, dresses, and much more!

In total, our repairers managed to work on 16 items, of which 10 were fixed, 3 are still outstanding (waiting for spare parts, or ran out of time to finish), and 3 could not be repaired.

So far, the repairers helped save 11kg of waste from going to landfill, and 67kg of CO2 emissions, which is the equivalent of manufacturing 1 sofa, or watching TV for 116 days!

All repair data is collected in support of the work of the Restart project. Our latest repair information can be accessed on their webpages. We are able to run the Repair Café through the MAKERS project, funded by the Royal Academy of Engineering.

Radio mentions

We are delighted to have had two mentions on BBC Radio Bristol to mark the launch of the Repair Café. First, project lead Dr Laura Fogg-Rogers was interviewed by Paris Troy as part of the station’s morning show to talk about the Repair Café and the wider repair movement.

Listen here

We also had BBC Radio Bristol’s Steve Yabsley attend the Repair Café in person, where he interviewed many of the people who helped or had their items fixed.

catch up here

Upcoming Repair Cafes and how to get involved

The next Repair Café will take place on November 8th 2023 at the School of Engineering from 12.15 – 1.45pm.

The November Repair Café will also receive additional support from UWE Bristol’s Fashion Technical team who will be running a MEND session with information below.

You can just drop in on the day, or email kat.corbett@uwe.ac.uk if you have any questions.

UWE Bristol to launch new Repair Café at the School of Engineering

Author katcorbett | Posted on

The Royal Academy of Engineering funded MAKERS project is moving into its next phase, with the UWE Bristol Repair Café set to launch in October.

Students, staff, and members of the public are invited to come along to the sessions with their broken items to get them fixed by a team of student and community repair volunteers. These items can include electricals and small appliances, clothes, and anything else that can be glued, soldered, or stitched (there won’t be any capacity to fix tablets, laptops, or mobile phones, though the technical repair company Fix My Crack, which runs a pop-up on campus will be able to help with those). Repairers of electrical and electronic items will receive guidance and support from the school’s skilled technicians, ensuring all repairs are done in a safe manner, and to a high standard. There will also be food and refreshments on offer for them.

UWE Bristol’s Repair Café runs every second Wednesday of the month, 12.15 – 1.45pm in the Atrium of Z Block (School of Engineering)

  • Upcoming dates are:
  • 11th October 2023
  • 8th November 2023
  • 13th December 2023
  • 10th January 2024
  • 14th February 2024
  • 13th March 2024
  • 10th April 2024

More information can be found here.

How to get involved as a repair volunteer

Students and community partners from the wider Bristol Repair Café network are invited to get involved as repair volunteers in the monthly sessions. Please email kat.corbett@uwe.ac.uk for more information and to register your interest, or just drop in on the day of the session at 11.45am.

Other ways to get involved in MAKERS

The Repair Café and Repair Skills workshops are only some of the activities in the pipeline for the MAKERS project. People interested in getting involved in future activities can find out more and register their interest via the MAKERS Sway site.

School of Engineering marks the launch of the new climate education course with a celebration of climate action

Author katcorbett | Posted on

To mark the start of the academic year, and the launch of the new climate education course, the School of Engineering is inviting students, staff and members of the public to explore an array of activities dedicated to climate action.

All activities will take place on September 20th in the Atrium of Z Block (the engineering building). Further details can be found below.

Repair Skills Workshops

As a pre-launch of the university’s new monthly repair café, which is due to  kick off in October, the School of Engineering’s technicians are offering two repair skills workshops to interested students and community members. Up to ten participants can get hands on repairing items, whilst more can follow the sessions as audience members, as repairs will be live streamed to a screen in the area. All tools, safety equipment and items to repair will be provided.

The sessions will take place at

  • 11.30am – 12.30pm
  • 2.30pm – 3.30pm.

People looking to get involved with the repairs can email kat.corbett@uwe.ac.uk to secure a space, which also includes some food and refreshments.

Those who want to watch the sessions as audience members can just drop in on the day.

More information can be found here.

We Make Our Future planetarium show

Previously featured at COP26 in Glasgow, the mesmerising “We Make our Future” show is all about engineering and sustainability!

Using full-dome digital projections, you will be taken on a trip to engineering marvels from history, followed by an exploration of the pros and cons of modern life.

Industry, technology, and invention have progressed civilisation, but how has this impacted the planet? What is climate change? And what can we do to engineer our way out of the climate emergency? These are all questions the show addresses, showing how you can be a positive sustainability influencer in your community.

The show will inspire you to think scientifically so you can positively approach the Net Zero challenge!

Session times are:

  • 11 – 11.30am
  • 11.45 – 12.15pm
  • 12.30 – 1.00pm
  • 1.45 – 2.15pm
  • 2.30 – 3.00pm
  • 3.30 – 4.00pm
  • 4.15 – 4.45pm

For more information about this event, please contact: kat.corbett@uwe.ac.uk or laura.foggrogers@uwe.ac.uk.

Unleadership for climate action – free creative development activities

Unleadership seeks to disrupt traditional leadership expectations, and to reveal alternative possibilities. The team behind the Unleadership movement have characterised these practices as paying it forward with kindness, confidently collaborating and connecting, catching the wave (taking timely action) and living with the unknown (embracing imperfection).

This is a great opportunity to learn more about theire movement for change – craft and reflect upon personal climate commitments and how they connect with others, build a sense of one’s own values and how they can support climate action and more! People are invited to contribute to the creation of a shared artefact during the day to symbolise the collective commitments to climate action.

This event will be running from 11am – 5pm. For more information about this event, please contact: kay.galpin@uwe.ac.uk.

Repair Acts information stand

Repair Acts is a pluralistic, artist-led research programme that is housed at the School of Art and Design and Digital Cultures Research Centre at UWE.

Repair Acts explores repair, care, maintenance, and healing cultures. This is done by creating contexts for dialogue around restorative futures through making and building art works, carrying out desk and applied based research, designing, and developing art exhibitions, workshops, and conversational spaces.

Working deeply at a local level, within landscapes and infrastructures and in association with communities, governing bodies, craft, artisan, skilled trades, and other professions, they connect local wisdom to global flows, through policy, law, legalisation, and international partnership.

People are invited to find out more about Repair Acts and their current activities, learn about histories of repair economies in Bristol, contribute their repair stories to the “People’s Archive of Everyday Repair” and add their views to the Repair Declaration for Bristol.

This event will be running from 10am – 5pm. For more information about this event, please contact: Teresa.dillon@uwe.ac.uk.uk.

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

Author katcorbett | Posted on

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.

School of Engineering’s Family Fun Day attracts 800 visitors

Author katcorbett | Posted on

UWE Bristol’s School of Engineering opened its doors for another Family Fun Day earlier this month: families from Bristol and beyond got to enjoy a range of fun science and engineering-based activities at this free event.

They explored different aspects of engineering such as coding and robotics through LEGO Mindstorms and Pepper the humanoid robot, digital engineering through Minecraft, designing the best wind turbine blades, exploring crowd-driven music programming, and the inner workings of machines and household items in the tinker zone.

Another highlight was the free We Make Our Future planetarium show: the show is co-developed with the Explorer Dome team and celebrates the ingenuity of human engineering, whilst also addressing current issues around Climate Change. It introduces Digital Engineering as a relevant and attainable aspiration for all young people, with the aim of inspiring the next generation of engineers.

Visitors also got to enjoy an exhibition of children’s engineering designs and inventions for the Leaders Award Competition, a nationwide scheme that encourages children to solve problems using engineering thinking.

This annual event is a great opportunity to inspire children to think like engineers and introduce them to technology that they may not have been able to interact with otherwise in a fun and engaging way.

The day was very well attended with around 800 visitors. The feedback was overwhelmingly positive with children expressing how keen they were on coming back, and grown-ups feeling equally inspired by the activities, stating how it made them re-consider their conceptions about the role of engineering in shaping the world around us for the better.

We would like to thank all the staff, students, and helpers involved for making it an amazing day, not to forget the children and their families who attended, for contributing so much enthusiasm, curiosity, and great energy!

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

Author joshuawarren | Posted on

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! ‘

Free event on collaborating with communities using data and AI to create more inclusive cultures

Author katcorbett | Posted on

The UWE Bristol Turing Network is collaborating with Bristol University’s Jean Golding Institute to create a family-friendly public event at the Bristol Beacon on 8th June, which forms part of Bristol Data Week. The public is invited to join the conversation around ChatGPT, protecting vulnerable communities, and creating a sustainable future.

Data is all around us, from our smartphones to our supermarkets, but how can we use it for good? How do we use ChatGPT and AI to create a fairer future for all? How can data from the past shape our future? This is an opportunity for members of the public to join the Jean Golding Institute and UWE Bristol’s Turing Network to connect, collaborate, and create with data and AI.

This is an great opportunity to explore alongside scientists and local representatives how communities could use data and AI like ChatGPT to tackle key issues including inclusivity, protecting the vulnerable, and climate change.

The event will also delve into the latest advances in Data-intensive research, and Artificial Intelligence, with inspiring speakers and interactive exhibitions.

There will be plenty of opportunity to network, socialise and interact with the Bristol data and AI community and the event also offers a complimentary lunch.

Find out more and book your free space via the website

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