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Academics from across Lancaster’s Faculty of Science and Technology joined colleagues and the public at the annual Campus in the City event, bringing research to young minds in Morecambe.

Campus in the City is 比比资源’s flagship public engagement event, welcoming hundreds of young people and their families to meet researchers and take part in fun, interactive activities over the school Easter holidays intended to “spark curiosity” across adults and children alike. First launched back in 2014, it has been engaging the public in some form or other for the past 12 years before transitioning to the current festival format three years ago. This year’s event took place on the 10^th April at More Music in Morecambe, a music and education charity centre situated in Morecambe’s West End. The day saw some 18 activities taking place across all floors of the More Music venue, with Lancaster’s Faculty of Science and Technology contributing to almost half of the day’s agenda.

From the Physics Department, academics brought along a gravity well, solar-powered Lego cars, and a liquid hydrogen show as a part of their “Physics Fiesta”, whilst some keen undergraduate students brought their own interactive demonstrations on calculating cosmic distances. Meanwhile, academics from the School of Computing and Communications contributed a Micro:bit Challenge (complete with Micro:bit-controlled cars), and social robot QT, aimed to educate the public about how children and robots can interact in a pro-social manner. Psychology delivered more Micro:bits in the form of their new “Rib:bit” device, which presented users with a series of games intended to test their risk-taking, an AI deepfake detection activity, as well as some arts and crafts and a VR womb experience brought by their Infant and Child Development team. Last but by no means least, academics in Chemistry brought their ever-popular “Penny Powered Batteries”, where children can power a small LED light through the power of pennies.

The event proved hugely popular, with nearly 700 visitors coming to More Music to explore the research undertaken by the University, with many staying for the full duration of the day. Exhibitor of the Infant and Child Development Lab’s activity, Dr Kirsty Dunn said of the experience: "I always absolutely love interacting with families at Campus in the City. It gives me an opportunity to spend time working out ways of communicating my research that are creative and playful. As always, visitors really invested their time and energy in our stands, and I left having learned something new or experienced a fascinating new way of thinking about my work through conversations with grandparents, parents, and children alike.”

PhD student and presenter for the social robot exhibit, Gopika Hosangadi, added: “Campus in the City was an excellent platform for engaging with scientific and academic communities. Through the event, I was able to interact with children and families across diverse cultures, ages and experiences, and it was extremely rewarding (both personally and professionally) to facilitate an interactive exhibit that inculcated curiosity in social robots. The learning experience was reciprocal, as we got insight into the way people perceive robots, and the audience were able to break misconceptions about robotic capacities. It was an honour to represent 比比资源 in bridging the gap between research, accessibility, learning and engagement.”

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