Malvern Festival of Innovation 10th Anniversary!
Next-Generation Innovators
On Tuesday 5th October, Malvern Panalyticals’ STEM outreach team attended the Next Generation Innovators event. After being limited to online STEM events for over 18 months, it was the teams’ pleasure to join other local companies in showcasing creative science, technology, and entrepreneurship for middle and senior school students (aged 11 to 14) from around the region.
Activities
A key driver to engage students in Science and Technology is hands-on activities that can really show them how it works. Malvern Panalytical had several activities including laser and electronics mazes where participants would add mirrors, beam splitters or bridges to create a working circuit, just like can be seen inside our Zetasizer Advance.
Another activity was Lewis’ number identification, showing students how a trained machine learning algorithm could accurately interpret which number was written on an iPad.
Finally, we had the paper boat race where surface tension was demonstrated to students using fairy liquid. This certainly prompted a competitive streak in students as they battled with their friends to create the most aerodynamic design.
The Festival Gala Dinner
As a sponsor of the Festival of Innovation members of the STEM outreach team were invited to attend the gala dinner held at The Mount Pleasant Hotel. Following a delicious three-course meal we welcomed after-dinner speaker Beatrice Freeman. The night was full of stimulating conversations and laughter as we learned of Beatrice’s previous five careers and the trials and tribulations she faced on her way to becoming a leading authority on business networking.
The evening was a great wrap-up to a fantastic week of varied engagement with STEM across the region with a big thank you owed to Adrian Burden for hosting throughout the week.
Further reading