Passionate about engineering? FameLab needs you!

Next month marks the start of FameLab heats and the team are looking for engineers to take part. FameLab, run by Cheltenham Festivals, challenges engineers and scientists to explain an aspect of their work in just 3 minutes and it’s not as easy as it sounds. It is however a great opportunity to improve your communications skills and get advice and training from experts in the field. And with heats across the UK, as well as online video entry, there’s no excuse not to take part.

More info in the poster below and as well as on the FameLab UK website.

Engagement training and busking for engineers

One of our Ingenious projects – Ingenious busking – is looking for engineers to take part in free(!) public engagement training. We’ve had a peek at some of the work these guys have done in the past and it’s definitely something to think about getting involved in. More info from the Ingenious busking team below:

 

Do you love Engineering? Do you wish everyone appreciated how important it is? Do you think there are misconceptions about engineering and wish you could help change its image? If you answered YES to at least one of these questions, this call is for you – join Ingenious Busking.

Ingenious Busking wants to get the public thinking about what engineering really is through short street theatre shows. Themes include: how engineering builds the world around us (visible and invisible), its impact in our lives and crucially, what is the essence of being an engineer.

Training

We are recruiting Engineers to train with us and join the team. The intensive two day weekend courses are open to all professional engineers:

• Weekend training course in Manchester or Birmingham 30 Nov – 1 Dec 2013
• Weekend training course in Bristol or Bath 7 – 8 Dec 2013

Throughout the two days you will learn techniques used to engage difficult audiences, learn the INGENIOUS BUSKING Engineering performance routines and be supported in trying these out in the street. No previous experience required. And, you will gain practical communication techniques which can be used in your career.

About us

The coaches Dr Sara Santos (founder of Maths Busking; a mathematician) and Dr Ken Farquhar (founder of the Inspirational Science Theatre Company; a physicist, chemist and juggler) have vast experience supporting Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics professionals developing skills to engage street passers-by with informative, inspirational and amusing short performances. See them in action here.

How to apply

Registration and the courses are FREE. Space is limited so if you are interested please register at: www.ingeniousbusking.com

Otherwise contact us on ingenious@mathsbusking.com.

Ingenious grant scheme open

We’re currently looking for projects to fund through the next round of the Royal Academy of Engineer’s Ingenious grant scheme.

If you have an imaginative idea that helps engineers to communicate their expertise and passion for engineering to a wider audience – we want to hear from you. You could be an engineer interested in running your own project, or a science and engineering communicator keen to explore ways to provide public engagement training and opportunities.

Ingenious offers funding from £3,000 to £30,000 for projects that start in May 2014. We’re accepting applications from now until 30 September 2014.

For more information on Ingenious, including lists of previously funded projects and the grant application procedure please visit the Royal Academy of Engineering website.

Poster design guide

Ingenious project, Strictly Engineering, challenged engineers from across the UK to turn their work into an exciting, eye-catching poster with the support of graphic designers and public engagement specialists.

The British Science Association have put together a poster design practical guide based on the project’s outcomes, giving tips on how to design a striking poster and how to use design techniques to communicate science and engineering.

To read and download their free design resource simply visit the British Science Association website.

Want to share your love of engineering with the wider world?

You might have heard mutterings about an engineering comedy on its way to London in September. Well the news is true – Matt Parker and Timandra Harkness have just finished a two-week stint at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival with their show Humans V Nature, and they’re now winging their way back to London for a show on Thursday 27 September.

The comedy is being supported by the Royal Academy of Engineering and tickets are on sale now from Eventbrite. What’s more for engineers interested in developing their own engagement skills Matt and Timandra will be running some training earlier on that day.

If you’re interested in applying for a space on the training day there’s more information below. Free lunch, improved communication skills and some laughs along the way – who could say no?

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The Royal Academy of Engineering is offering training to engineers who would like to improve the way they engage the public with their work.

Run by expert science communicators and performers Matt Parker and Timandra Harkness, participants will learn about giving great talks and outreach hints and tricks.

Participants will then get the chance to see Matt and Timandra’s new engineering comedy, Humans V Nature, which is supported by the Royal Academy of Engineering.

When:         10.00-17.00 Thursday 27 September 2012, followed by Humans V Nature at 19.30.

Where:        The Royal Academy of Engineering, 3 Carlton House Terrace, London SW1Y 5DG

Who:           Training is open to early-career engineers working in industry or academia. Applicants should have an interest in public engagement but are not required to have had direct outreach experience.

Cost:           £40 (subsidised). Includes a day’s training, lunch and evening meal, entrance to the comedy performance and one night’s accommodation if required.

How to apply

Interested engineers should complete the application form at the following link and email completed forms to manisha.lalloo@raeng.org.uk by noon Friday 7 September 2012.

 Ingenious training application form (word doc)

Successful applicants will be notified by 12 September 2012.

Robots playing football – who can resist?

Anyone going to the Royal Society’s Summer Exhibition this week should head over to the University of Edinburgh’s robotic soccer stand to meet the little guys in person. It’s Ingenious funded don’t you know?

Only for adults

The trainers don’t just look cool, they also help the robot to grip and stay upright

Yesterday I went on a walk around the Discover zone here at Cheltenham Science Festival. Today it’s the turn of Area 42.

Situated in a tent out the back of the town hall Area 42 is essentially the Discover Zone for adults. The stands here cover a range of science including the aurora, medical devices and some pretty horrible looking rotten fish.

Slightly less engineering in here than in Discover but I did manage to spot some very cute robots over at the Plymouth University stand, which were doing an impressive array of flips and handstands. The demonstrators from the uni were telling me about some of the competitions they were planning to enter the robots in – which will involve them having to negotiate around obstacles unaided.

In fact there’s a chance the team may come up against the robots being developed by the University of Edinburgh, who have recently been awarded an Ingenious grant. The Edinburgh team are also heading to the Royal Society Summer Exhibition this July, so for anyone who can’t make it to Area 42, you can catch up with some different, but probably equally exciting, robots there.

In the discover zone

I’ve just been having a wonder around the Discover zone, which, it turns out, is full of lots of engineering fun.

The lovely people over at the University of Southampton stand, for example, are looking into the science of bubbles. With the help of a big water tank, and some stethoscopes, they’re showing that bubbles can make a big difference to the types of sounds you hear underwater. Creating big bubbles in the water, for example makes everything more bassy (if that’s a word?) as the bubbles trap lower notes with longer wavelengths. For little bubbles the effect is reversed, and higher notes are trapped within.

The guy I was talking to actually works on airplane noises, trying to determine how to ensure the sounds they produce are pleasing to our ears, but he told me that by monitoring underwater sounds we can tell if nearby objects are friend or foe, simply depending on the size of bubbles they produce.

And Southampton wasn’t the only stand looking into engineering. GCHQ is challenging visitors to crack their cryptic codes, while another stand in the zone is dedicated to a materials version of monopoly. So whether you’re a child or not the zone’s well worth dropping into.

Heated discussions

Event number two for us at Cheltenham Science Festival yesterday was ‘Can we keep warm and still save the world’, a look at the ways we can keep our homes toasty and warm in an efficient way.

Joining engineer Roger Kemp was presenter Robert Llewellyn, who made his trip to the festival in an electric car powered by the solar panels on his house, giving us all something to aspire to. But as we found out during the discussions, becoming as green as Robert is not easy.

Roger explained that we’re facing what he liked to call a ‘trilemma’ – in this case trying to fulfill the climate change act, ensure affordability and energy security. While using renewables to power the heating in our homes is part of the solution to keeping warm and staying green, it’s not enough by itself and will become expensive, especially as we don’t often want to heat our homes the whole year round. The key is also to ensure our houses are well-equipped for the job, with adequate insulation, heating solutions and efficient design. But as many of the homes which will be use in 2050 have already been built, retrofitting may be the order of the day, and it’s not one size fits all.

For example Robert has insulated his house to within an inch of its life, filling his roof with so much insulation that there’s pretty much no empty space left. But as one audience member pointed out, with some older buildings, filling cavities leads to rot or damp. And, asked another, what happens if you don’t own the home you live in – how can you convince your landlord, who may not pay the heating bills, to invest in insulating your home?

As already mentioned in the wind debate, Roger stressed the importance of energy storage, especially if we face a future where our energy may be dependent on weather. He also highlighted the importance of developing a skilled workforce who are able to install technologies such as heat pumps as well as understand and decide in which situations and homes they should or should not be used.

But, when quizzed about keeping energy prices low, he stated there’s no such thing as fuel poverty, just poverty. And rather than thinking about reducing energy prices we should instead be looking to support those on low incomes in other ways, so they are able to better afford heating their homes through our cold winters (and summers).

All in all it was another great discussion. And for anyone looking for more info Roger has written a report about all the above points and more with the Academy which is up on the website for anyone to download and read.

An ill wind?

Day number one in Cheltenham and it’s certainly been a busy one – for the Academy at least. We’ve had not one, but two events this afternoon and if I say so myself they’ve both gone rather well, with loads of debate and discussion from the speakers and the audience.

Up first was our wind debate with engineer Andrew Garrad and environmentalist Jonathon Porritt arguing for the motion ‘Should Britain be a fan of wind energy’. Andrew and Jonathon stressed that, while they were proponents of wind energy, they saw wind as being part of the energy mix along with other renewables such as tidal, solar and hydroelectric. For Jonathon, Britain has no other choice but to be a fan of wind energy, as we try to move towards a future of energy efficiency and decarbonisation.

Taking the stand against the motion were energy policy analyst John Constable and writer and independent political researcher Ben Pile. Ben felt that we should have more democratisation in energy policy, and that wind power won’t lead to cheap, abundant energy, instead costing us more and delivering less. John argued that we’re simply not ready for wind power, which is currently technically primitive and very expensive.

Chairing the event, Vivienne Parry took to the audience to find out their thoughts on the topic, which were many and varied. Among the questions asked were how to incorporate wind with other energy sources, for those times when the weather isn’t so compliant. While speakers agreed that other energy sources will still be needed they pointed out that the holy grail would be to solve the energy storage problem.

All of the speakers agreed that energy is a political topic and in his introduction Andrew Garrad stated that security of supply is a big concern. He said that he felt wind could be a very British energy source, with wind turbines being developed, constructed and producing energy in and for the UK. Although some turbines now call for rare earth components such a neodymium, which have to be sourced from overseas, Andrew said that we don’t necessarily have to continue with these designs. But perhaps his killer argument was that a wind turbine with a design lifetime of about 15-20 years needs to run for only 9 months to recover the carbon costs taken to make it.

I’m afraid there was a LOT more discussion about the topic, particularly regarding subsidies and the need to redesign the grid to cope, but this is just a very quick run-down on the points I was able to note down. For anybody interested in a more complete version, a video of the event will be going up on the Academy website fairly soon.

I was planning to talk about our second event ‘Can we keep warm and still save the world’ too, but I’ll hold onto that for another post for fear of going on too long. But I’ll just end with two of the points made by John and Andrew when summing up at the end of tour wind debate today. We need to develop renewables under real world conditions, but we also need to start thinking about energy in a different way, as this could be the beginning of a whole new era.