PGRS from CDT Sustainable Infrastructure Systems and CDT Sustainable Infrastructure for Cities lead outreach activities at this year’s very successful Science and Engineering Day at the University of Southampton on 7th May 2022. Over 3000 people attended this event a Highfield and Boldrewood Campuses.
CDT Activities included: The Marble Run with ICER, Mars Bar Bridge Building with Civil engineering, TRACE-P “My Plastic World” art exhibition with artist Susannah Pal and TRACE-E concert with Robin Browning.
These outreach projects were very engaging and interactive, attracting a good audience all day and lots of opportunities for our PGRS to talk to the public about their research work and issues affecting the world around us.
Marble Run & Blockbusters with ICER
The Marble Run models the migration of fish along a river and shows a number of obstacles and dangers that the fish need to navigate to reach the spawning grounds safely. From man-made structures such as weirs or Hydro electric dams to invasive species and other predators the run shows how many fish might make it through. Using the classic Blockbusters game format Amelia asked fish and river based questions with correct answers winning a hexagon for the board.
Mars Bar Bridge Building
3 PGRS with civil engineering backgrounds were working on this challenge: Hamish Moodley, Rebecca Presswood and Ana Skarova. To build a bridge to hold as many Mars Bars as possible with 4 sheets of A4 paper and 1m of Sellotape. The winning bridge held 62 Mars bars.
TRACE-P “My Plastic World” with Susannah Pal
This exhibition was the culmination of a 3 month Impact Accelerator project with Prof Ian Williams and Susannah Pal. CDT SIS PGR Toby Roberts was the research assistant for this project , acting as a liaison between artist and researchers.
TRACE-E Music @ Turner Sims Concert Hall
Transitioning to a Circular Economy for Electronic Waste aims to prompt behaviour change and communicate the message of environmental science in a new way through music, dance and spoken word. The circular economy aims to re-use, recycle and repurpose waste.