Julia Linke, PhD student at UCL CNIE, visits Dubai Expo 2020 (held in 2022)

In February 2022 one of the CNIE PhD students, Julia Linke, visited the  Expo 2020 exhibition that took place in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. Julia is a Cohort 25 student on the Engineering Leaders Scheme under the Royal Academy of Engineering (RAEng), until December 2023, and was able to undertake the journey as a scholar on this scheme. 

Expo is a world exhibition that happens every 5 years over 6 months, organized by the Bureau International des Expositions. The purpose is to facilitate a global gathering of nations to support solving challenges that humanity faces in present times. Expo sites serve as large-scale platforms that enable different entities such as governments, various organizations and citizens to engage, collaborate and enter communication to achieve progress and learn from each other.

In Dubai, during Expo 2020, 192 countries presented their exhibitions around 3 major themes: Opportunity, Mobility and Sustainability. Several exhibitions presented solutions that would fall under Nature-Inspired Engineering approaches.