Inspire Sustainability team at Wiltshire STEAM2024 Festival

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Last week saw a huge number of young students from local schools engage with fun and engaging ‘STEAM’ activities at an event hosted at Trowbridge townhall by Wiltshire Council. (https://www.wiltshire.gov.uk/)

STEAM subjects (science, technology, engineering, arts, and maths) are an influence on every aspect of our daily lives, and the industries will continue to grow as we aim to move to a more sustainable future. For the young people whose future careers will be deep rooted in these skills and subjects, the Wiltshire STEAM event was an opportunity to come and experience some of the potential jobs, industries, and inspiring technology they could grow to be a part of.

UWE Bristol’s Inspire Sustainability team also attended the event, and held a stall showcasing the range of STEAM workshops and sessions that are available for the schools to book. These included the unique ‘The West in Minecraft’ worlds, which invited the young people to design and build solutions to problems in a virtual Bristol and Bath. Also, the ‘Engineering Curiosity’ top trumps cards that show real-life diverse engineers from the area. To find out more about these school workshops and what’s on offer, please visit digitaltrailblazers.net/resources or email engineeringourfuture@uwe.ac.uk

There was a whole host of amazing activities for the young people to be inspired by at the event, including a huge working robot used in film and TV that tracked their movements, driving simulators, and first aid training. There really was something for everyone!

Feedback from the young people showed that it was a really worth-while event and successful in inspiring them with the STEAM subjects.

“I liked being able to make the kazoo and bring it home”

“I loved finding out about new jobs and how everything worked”

“My jumping bean family will be with me forever!”

“I found it really interesting with all the stuff they had.  The robot was really cool”

“I think STEAM was really fun and cool and I learned a lot of good things”

“I think the thing I enjoyed most was the cyber security because it was fun cracking the code”

“I thought STEAM was really fun.  The thing I enjoyed most was the one where you had to drive the car”

“Steam was good.  I enjoyed the small controller robot”

“I like Steam because I liked doing all the activities.  I liked doing the art and craft”

“I really liked steam it was fun.  I would definitely go again.  My favourite part was putting on the space suit”

“I liked the dinosaur stall because it was interesting”

“I liked the experiment with the air and the cup”

“It was nice, awesome, amazing, astonishing, outstanding”

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

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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.

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.

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.

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

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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’s Family Fun Day attracts 800 visitors

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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

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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

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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

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

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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

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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.

Children described the show as…

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.

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:

Come along and be inspired by children’s inventions – 6th April

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On Thursday 6th April – pop along to GKN Aerospace Global Technology Centre for an hour (or as long as you want) to take a look at some of the intriguing inventions school children have been coming up with.

Children all over the country are currently furiously scribbling designs – all intended to solve some of the world’s most pressing issues. They are entering those ideas into the Leaders Award – and thousands of those entries will turn up at GKN (one of the Leaders Awards partners in the South West) for grading by our lovely local engineers.

Grading isn’t an onerous process – quite the opposite – you’ll simply be flicking through some drawings and putting the most interesting/credible ideas through to be shortlisted. Whilst being looked after by the lovely Leaders Award and GKN teams.

Every year grading participants really enjoy the experience and leave feeling inspired and intrigued by ideas such as, solar powered blankets or a variable light braking system on cars.

When: Thursday 6th April – drop in sessions – come along whenever suits you

Location: GKN Aerospace Global Technology Centre, Taurus Road, Patchway, Bristol, Patchway, England – BS34 6FB

Contact:  sign up here – as the team would like to know how many people to expect

You can see the Leaders Award process below – all starting with the challenge “If you were an engineer, what would you do?” Step 6 – grading is where you would be helping out.

Something inspirational from last year’s event

For engineer Darren Kewley, from the MOD, he returns year after year to these grading days to hear the stories.”I think my favourite part is seeing their personal stories come through – the real world problems they face and seeing them apply engineering to fix those problems.”

One example that particularly struck him – “One child explained how their Gran was in hospital and it broke their heart to see the problems she was facing. They explained in the letter that they hadn’t known what to do, but after hearing about this competition, realised that engineering could help.”

The kids taking part in this competition have got it – Engineering solves problems and can help make the world a better place!

Please come along to help the children taking part in this project!

Demystifying Digital Engineering

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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/

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