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will visible light

10:00- 16:00 
The Hub
 ALL AGES 


Event summary: In the future, WiFi will not be able to support internet connections at home because too many devices are connecting, reducing speeds. A complementary technology known as visible light communications (or LiFi) is being developed at UCL that solves this problem by embedding information into light emitted by standard LEDs faster than the eye can see. Everyone will have access to a personal gigabit-per-second link.

No Booking Required 

picture hanging
10:00 – 16:00
The Hub 
ALL AGES


How badly can you hang a picture: while looping the string attached to the frame around 2 nails so the picture stays on the wall, can you arrange it so that it falls as soon as either nail does? What if there are 3 nails? Given 3 strings with their ends fixed on two boards, rotate one board 360°. Can you untangle the strings by only ever moving the outer two around the boards? What if we rotated 720°?

No Booking Required 

life course golf course
10:00 – 16:00
The Hub 
ALL AGES


Join the golf pros and their esteemed research caddies to navigate your way through life’s twists and turns. This collaboration between fanSHEN and the MRC Unit of Lifelong Health & Ageing at UCL mixes cohort studies with mini golf.

Booking Not Required 

QTC app
10:00  – 16:00
The Hub 
AGES 12+


Hand-on chemical experiment to detect and quantify target chemicals in food using your smartphone.

No Booking Required 


labathon
10:00 – 16:00
The Hub 
ALL AGES
 

Gain insight into the real world of “doing science”! Take part in the Labathon – a competition-style event where you’ll learn that doing experiments is fun! We’ll show you the essential manual skills used by scientists in the lab every day.

No Booking Required

flies and dementia
10:00 – 16:00
The Hub
ALL AGES


A number of hands on activities showcasing how fruit-flies are used in dementia research and find out just how similar we are to flies. You will learn how to tell the difference between males and female flies, have a look at fly brains, and check if you can tell which flies are healthier.

No Booking Required 

anti waffle podcast that talks about research without any gobbledygook
10:00 – 16:00
The Hub 
Adults 

Are you a researcher at UCL? Do you want to share your work with the wider world? Then come and record a mini-podcast and discuss your research with us. We’ll be making sound bites throughout the day, which we can then edit and release to promote your research.

No Booking Required

theres an app for that how digital technologies
10:00 – 16:00
The Hub 
AGE 12+


Come and meet Dr. Patty Kostkova (from UCL's IRDR Centre for Digital Public Health in Emergencies) and her team share more about how we can use social media platforms, such as Twitter and Facebook, to track the spread of harmful disease (even before the hospitals know about it!) and see some science in action as we demo some of the smartphone apps we have built.

No Booking Required

why doesn't my brain work
10:00 – 16:00
The Hub 
AGE 12+


The MRC Prion Unit at UCL will hold a stand with several interactive, object based learning activities in which participants will learn about the structure and function of proteins and experience some symptoms and impacts of dementia when the proteins cease to function correctly.

No Booking Required

fantasy frontbench
10:00 – 16:00
The Hub 
AGE 12+


Ever wondered what it would be like to run the country? With Fantasy Frontbench you don’t have to! Play the part of Prime Minister and select your dream cabinet based on the issues that matter most to you. From climate change, to healthcare funding, to tuition fees, see how similar your views are to those of MPs and learn more about the process of politics and policy-making in the UK.

No Booking Required

menace the machine educable noughts and crosses engine
10:00 – 16:00
The Hub 
AGES 12+


In 1961 Donald Michie built a matchbox machine that can learn to play noughts and crosses. He called it MENACE: the Machine Educable Noughts and Crosses Engine. We will spend one day playing against our copy of MENACE. Come along and help it learn to beat us!

No Booking Required

chemical oscillations in geology
10:00 – 16:00
The Hub 
ALL AGES


This exhibit will feature demonstrations of chemically-oscillating reactions and their application in the field of geology. Different solutions will be mixed in a glass Petri dish, which will create the characteristic patterns of the Belousov-Zhabotinsky reaction. Visitors will be able to see the patterns change in front of them. A simple description of how this works will then be discussed and the patterns and chemistry will be compared to natural objects in geology and biology. A range of beautiful geological specimens such as fossil-bearing concretions, agate geodes, botryoidal minerals, and microscopic objects. Guests will be able to see various geological objects with an enduring enigmatic origin in the context of the B-Z reaction, which can potentially explain them. 

No Booking Required

the wondnerful world of microbes
10:00 – 16:00
The Hub 
ALL AGES


Come see and smell the wonderful world of microbes! You will be fascinated by all the things these invisible creatures do from making food and medicine to recycling dead stuff to making you sick!

No Booking Required

clamorglitter
10:00 – 16:00
Student Centre
ALL AGES


Love glitter but hate litter? That's ok as we will have biodegradable glitter available for everyone this year at the festival.

No Booking Required

how clean is your phone
10:00 – 16:00
The Hub
ALL AGES


Ever wondered if your phone is covered in microbes? Now’s your chance to find out. We’ll measure how dirty your phone is so you can see how you compare to others on our real-time “dirtiness” chart. You will also be able to see what kinds of bacteria are on your phone.

No Booking Required

developing global citizens
10:00 – 16:00
The Hub
ALL AGES


Find out about UCL’s work to develop students as global citizens. See some of the project work done by students on understanding and tackling some of the world’s greatest challenges. Come and take our quiz: Are you a global citizen?

No Booking Required

neurology crafts
10:00 – 16:00
The Hub
ALL AGES


Build your own brain and find out more about how it all fits together.

No Booking Required

meet jeremy bentham
10:00 – 16:00
South Cloisters
ALL AGES


Jeremy Bentham was a philosopher and jurist whose doctrine of Utilitarianism has inspired many great thinkers. When he died in 1832 he left his body to be publicly dissected by his friend, Dr Thomas Southwood Smith, and asked that it be preserved as an 'auto-icon.' Jeremy the auto-icon came to the College in 1850, and has been cared for by UCL ever since.

No Booking Required

people power renewables roadshow
10:00 – 16:00 
The Hub and Quad 
ALL AGES


Self-watering plants, thermo-electric hand generators, solar tea shop? The renewables roadshow will have it all!
PPL PWR is an educational collective that runs workshops, puts on demonstrations and gives talks at festivals and other events. This year, PPL PWR is delighted to be welcomed back to its second year at “It’s All Academic” Festival, to offer an immersive exhibition demonstrating the latest in renewable energy technology, the internet of things (IoT) devices and sustainable thinking. Through the collectives’ demos, talks and workshops, you’re sure to go away feeling buzzed about all things sustainable!

No Booking Required

sea hero quest
10:00 – 16:00
The Hub 
ALL AGES


Play Sea Hero Quest – a game invested by UCL scientists to help fight dementia by understanding more about how the brain navigates.

No Booking Required

ucl mechanical engineering
10:00 – 16:00
The Hub 

ALL AGES

Get hands on with displays from the UCL Mechanical Engineering team. Immerse yourself in a range of activities from demos, racing prototypes and VR designs to get an up close and personal insight into UCL Mechanical Engineering today.

No Booking Required

a snapshot of UCL innovation enterprise entrepreneurship
10:00 – 16:00
The Hub
Adults 


Hear from a range of today's UCL's talented entrepreneurs. What inspires them, where they are on their journey and the challenges they are facing.

No Booking Required 

 

learning from the voice and from the hands  how multimodal language helps us link the world
How Multimodal Language Helps Us Link Words To The World

10:00 – 16:00
The Hub
ALL AGES


In face-to-face communication, people produce visual cues such as hand gestures to accompany speech. Find out how researchers are investigating how these visual cues, as well as cues in speech itself, help children and adults to learn and process the meanings of words.

No Booking Required

ucell
10:00 – 16:00
Main Quad
AGE 12+

Ucell will offer an interactive demonstration of fuel cells and batteries using a 3 kW stack to power a popcorn machine, a Toyota Mirai and some hydrogen fuel cell vehicle demonstration kits that the audience can build and race. We can also power a thermal camera using the fuel cell stack which can be used for live photograph printing for the audience to take home.

No Booking Required

ucl student led volunteering
10:00 – 16:00
The Hub 
ALL AGES


We will be showcasing some of the activities that are delivered by students as part of the UCL Student-Led Volunteering Programme, which has been run by the Volunteering Service for the last 17 years. UCL Alumni will have the chance to participate in a range of fun and interactive activities for both adults and children and find out about how this programme has grown and how UCL students are currently engaged with the local community.

No Booking Required

THE LIVES OF STARS
10:00 – 16:00 
The Hub 
ALL AGES


A description of how stars form, live and die. It will have our iconic Hertzsprung Russell Diagram, where the audience can classify stars according to their luminosity and colour and even more, to predict their future.

No Booking Required

transforming UCL
10:00 – 16:00
The Hub 
Adults 

Transforming UCL is currently over half way into the largest capital programme in UCL’s history with an investment of £1.25 billion to refurbish and develop its iconic buildings. Come to find out more as we continue to build now and for the future.

No Booking Required

Mazeum – It’s a museum…but also a maze!
10:00am-16:00pm 
The Hub 
Adults


Ever got lost in a museum? Would you be able to find your way to your favourite painting in a gallery? Come and play our virtual reality game, to discover how we navigate in museums!

No Booking Required
 

connecting communicating
10:00am – 16:00pm 
The Hub 
ALL AGES 


Imagine touching at a distance… What would it feel like? What would it mean? Who and what could touch or be touched? Based on three years of innovative social research, InTouch will help you immerse yourself in the world of digital touch, from distance communication to using digital devices to manage complex emotions. Join us for an interactive talk of ‘Connecting, Communicating, Feeling through Digital Touch’, and visit our stand to try out emerging touch technologies and envisage their future.

No Booking Required