Explore and discover at Southampton Science and Engineering Festival

The festival, which is part of British Science Week, includes two free public open days – Science and Engineering Day on Saturday 14 March and Ocean and Earth Day on Saturday 25 April.

Science and Engineering Day takes place at the Highfield Campus from 10.30am to 4.30pm (last admission 4pm) with fascinating exhibitions, interactive displays, talks and shows. This stimulating and fun day is free and there will be lots to see and get involved in for all ages including wearable technologies, the health of your home, landslides, the secrets of animal bones, virtual musical instruments, stem cells, knee replacement, memory loss, immune cells and much more.

This year, there are a number of brand new activities and incredible facilities open in Engineering and the Environment including:

Activity	Building
Stem cells and scaffolding – building replacement body parts in the lab	40
BioBlitz: making species count	40
Wildern School Science and Engineering Competition Winner	40
Examining blood flow in the brain	85
Understanding partial knee replacement	85
Hearing loss: how it affects you	85
Feel the Noise : Haptic, Non-haptic and Touchless Performance	85
Hands On Sound : Motion-capture for audio processing	85
Mechatronics Demo and Hands-On Activities	85
Science Busking with Lloyd's Register	85
The Annual Mars Bar Bridge Building Challenge (Hands on construction activity for children)	67
Wearable technology	67
Can bubbles help us predict the weather?	67
Bioenery, Bioresources and the Bioeconomy	67
Ultrasonic levitation	67
Fatigue of Metals	67
3D Printing	67
Headfirst to success – engineering in performance sport Professor Stephen Turnock, Director PSEL, UoS	67
Personal Audio demonstration	15
Sounds Amazing!	15
Demonstration of A Tunable Energy Harvester	53
Formula Student - race car demonstration and meet the Team	Hampton car park
RJ Mitchell Wind tunnel tours	17
Be a wind tunnel engineer	17
Railway research	21

Visitors will also be able to enjoy over 80 shows, tours and hands-on activities from across the University, including Festival favourites such as Southampton Astrodome, the Light Express Laser Show, and Ian B Dunne’s ‘Science Magic...Magic Science’.

2015 is also the centenary of Einstein's Theory of General Relativity, so there will be specific mathematics activities related to this, including a lecture on the Science of Stephen Hawking.

Ocean and Earth Day is being held in collaboration with the National Oceanography Centre Southampton, based at Dock Gate 4 from 10.30am to 4pm (last admission 3.30pm). The oceans are the key to the long-term health of our beautiful blue planet. They continue to surprise and amaze us as you can explore this mysterious realm from the coast to the deep ocean. Visitors can see examples of the technology needed to explore the deepest oceans - have a go at driving a mini Remotely Operated Vehicle (ROV) and see how 3D printing and laser cutting is used to create and develop parts for these specialist vehicles.

There will also be fossil plaster cast making, panning for gold and marine animals from the research aquarium that you’ll be surprised to find come from UK waters.

Professor William Powrie, Dean of Engineering and the Environment, comments: “The University of Southampton undertakes world-leading science and engineering research and teaching, which contribute to understanding in a wide range of areas, including global communications, sustainable energy, medicine and more. One of the aims of the Science and Engineering Festival is to inspire interest in these fascinating subjects and demonstrate just how exciting they can be.

“I really hope that these events spark enthusiasm and prove influential in persuading many of the young people visiting to choose science or engineering as a career.”

For more information on the Southampton Science and Engineering Festival, please visit www.southampton.ac.uk/scienceweek