News

“This is by far the best science engagement activity I’ve been involved with, and I rank it as amongst the most rewarding and fulfilling activities of my professional career” – Tom Hartley, University of York “It was a great experience and I got really addicted!… I would thoroughly recommend it to anyone” – Probash Chowdhury, GlaxoSmithKline “I am now excited about my work again! I also FINALLY managed to explain my work to my Dad in a way that he understood” – Liv Hibbert, Oxford University We are looking for Engineers who want to inspire the next generation and be inspired by them. What? The quotes above tell you how scientists in I’m a Scientist, Get me out of here! view the event. Now we’re able to give Engineers the opportunity to take part in I’m an Engineer, Get me out of here! in March 2012. This free online engagement event … Continue reading →

I work out how to make super tall buildings and football stadiums stand up I’m working on producing a very small rocket engine for miniaturized spacecraft! I’m helping design the cockpit for a 1,000mph car What do these people have in common? They are all engineers who might take part in the High Performance Zone in I’m an Engineer in March next year. We’ve been listening to teachers and engineers to get a sense of what zones you’d like us to run. We’ve decided to run: High Performance Zone – 5 engineers working on projects that push engineering to the limits Energy Zone – 5 engineers who work out how to use and deliver energy more efficiently than ever Health Zone – 5 engineers keeping us alive and well Possible contenders for the Energy Zone include: I study how to reduce the amount of energy that industry uses to produce … Continue reading →

Hi I’m Gareth. I’ve designed the ‘I’m a Scientist’ and the ‘I’m an Engineer’ (so far) websites. On ‘I’m an Engineer’ we’ve got the basic design and colour ways in place but what we’re missing is the icons and graphics that make the site seem much more relevant to engineering. I’m a designer not an engineer so I’m looking for some suggestions from the engineering community about what things sum up or represent engineering to you. With I’m a Scientist we choose a conical flask and Van der Graaf generator symbols amongst others. Each zone also has a logo and you can see the most recent ones on the I’m a Scientist home page. What are the equivalents for engineering? Please don’t send designs I’m just looking to pick your brains and gather your comments on what sums up engineering for you. If you can help please leave a comment … Continue reading →

We can only run these events through co-operation with the Teaching and Engineering communities. That’s why we want to share our plan of action in the run up to the first set of events in March 2012. The plan is not comprehensive so please ask any questions in the comments section and we’ll try to answer them in future news posts. The action plan breaks down into five main sections: Planning, Recruitment, Event, Evaluation, Sustainability. Planning – October/November 1. Zone Selection The first thing we need to do is define the event. We will be running six zones in March. All will be themed. That means the engineers in those zones will need to have some connection to the theme. For example in the Transport Zone we could have engineers building oil pipelines, marine engineers in shipbuilding, or software engineers working on flight systems. It’s fairly general. A nuclear power … Continue reading →

I’m an Engineer, Get me out of here! is running for the first time in March 2012. As with I’m a Scientist we split the event into zones. Each zone has 5 engineers and around 400 students in 20 classes. We have our own ideas for the zones for I’m an Engineer but it’s important that teachers and people in the engineering industry tell us what they think will, and what won’t, work. We don’t have all the answers so please let us know what you think about the zone ideas we’ve come up with. We’re avoiding zones themed by type of engineer, such as an Electrical, Civil or Chemical engineering zone. Instead we would like to run zones themed around areas in which an electrical engineer, a civil engineer and a chemical engineer all work. Such as a Transport, Food or Building zone. Some of the zone ideas we’ve come … Continue reading →