Schools Outreach
Giving youngsters the opportunity to explore science and engineering, to help them see if this excites them and is a possible career ahead, is one of my main missions.
I work on a number of initiatives, including national competitions, residential courses at Southampton, exhibitions and lectures at science festivals, in schools and at airshows.
Future Flight
Future Flight is a UK competition for 11-18 year olds to design environmentally-friendly airliners online. You can use the website at www.futureflight.org to completely design a plane, and then see if it is cheap, clean and quiet. Compete with others worldwide for some great prizes.
There are lots of reebies, and resources for teachers too. So check out the website to get designing.
Smallpeice Trust - Supercomputers in Engineering
In July each year we welcome 20 17-year olds on our Supercomputing in Engineering. The aim of this course is to show how computers are used in the design of aircraft, cars, ships, and other engineering systems.
Its aimed at people who are interested in computing, but may not necessarily want to do a degree in Computer Science. our goal is to show that there are many, many opportunities for computer-literate people in engineering.
You can register for the course here, but it fills up fast! read about the experience here. Microsoft, who sponsor this course, made a marketing video about the High Performance Computing software that we used.
Greenpower electric car racing
Southampton is the official technical sponsor to Greenpower. This great racing series is for youngsters to design and race their own battery-powered race cars. Races are held on real tracks around the UK.
We've put together a website on car aerodynamics, which is one of my research interests. Check it out here, it's useful for other competitions too, such as F1 in Schools, Formula Gravity, and others.
If you want to experience the thrill and excitment of designing and racing your own green race car, then check out their website.
Headstart Courses - Design Triathlon
We run the Headstart Design Triathlon every Summer for around 40 students to find out more about Aeronautics & Astronautics, Mechanical Engineering, and Ship Science at Southampton.
Participants spend the week designing a glider, speedboat and electric race car, with competitions in each. It culminates in race day, in front of their parents, to see which team is the best.
This course has won a couple of national awards, and is great fun. So if you want to come along to find out more, check out the Headstart website.
Bioengineering, Sustainable Energy and Marine Residential Courses
We also run several other fun and exciting courses at Southampton, organised by my colleagues. These are all great, and cover different topics and age groups:
- Headstart Marine Enginerering and Ship Science (Year 12)
- Headstart Sustainable Energy Technologies (Year 12)
- Smallpeice Trust Marine Technology Experience (Year 9)
- Smallpeice Trust Biomedical Engineering (Year 11)
BLOODHOUND SSC - the 1000mph car
I am a member of the education team for the BLOODHOUND SSC engineering adventure. Our aim is to inspire youngsters to take up science, engineering and mathematics to do amazing things. We're doing this by trying to break the world land speed record; designing, building and running a supersonic car at 1000mph. Find out more on how to join this incredible adventure at www.BLOODHOUNDSSC.com
See a movie of it @ http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/7685049.stm
