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Six Days to Save the World: Engineering Innovation with the Festival of Engineering
Meet the UCL Change Builders helping to drive progress for our community of colleagues, students and partners.
21 January 2025
Celebrating 150 years of engineering education
It’s not every day that schoolchildren, policymakers, and industry leaders gather to experience space rover exploration, live chats with astronauts, baking demonstrations and robotic dogs all in one week.
But that’s exactly what happened at UCL’s Festival of Engineering, a celebration of 150 years of groundbreaking engineering education that has transformed the way participants see the world – and themselves.
“We had this objective to try and inspire young people to be more involved in engineering – to understand the variety of things that engineers do and the kind of problems they tackle”, says Chris Neil, Associate Director (Data, Insight and Programme Management), who co-organised the event.
“It's quite easy to only think of an engineer as someone that comes and fixes your washing machine or your internet, but in reality, engineers are also developing devices that you'll get treated with when you go to a hospital, building the infrastructure for the cities that you're working in… there's a lot that engineers are doing that isn’t always visible, and that’s something we really wanted to highlight”.
Pictured, left to right: Jane Bolger, Professor Elpida Makrygianni, Chris Neil and Simon Juliet
Held across six London boroughs and even featuring a live link to the International Space Station (ISS), the Festival showcased the incredible breadth of engineering research and impact, with over 150 activities and events set up to provide hands-on opportunities for participants to try, learn, and be amazed.
“We had a number of different targets”, reflects Festival co-organiser Professor Clare Elwell, Vice Dean for Impact (Faculty of Engineering Sciences). “We wanted to acknowledge what a milestone 150 years of engineering education was, but we also wanted to look to the future and inspire and motivate the next generation”.
“Showcasing the creative, environmental and humanitarian nature and impact of engineering was really important [to us]” adds Professor Elpida Makrygianni MBE, Head of Education Engagement (UCL Engineering). “Because our key themes were health, climate change, data-empowered societies and reducing inequalities, young people had the opportunity to find out how they could be involved in a variety of areas, contributing to solving global challenges facing our society – and our planet”.
Pictured: Professor Elpida Makrygianni
Engineering for all
One of the Festival’s most memorable moments was the live linkup with the ISS, which took place on the fourth day. Against the odds, a connection was established with astronaut Mike Barratt, who answered audience questions while performing somersaults in zero gravity.
Later that day, the Bloomsbury Theatre hosted ‘The Wonders’, a blend of entertainment and cutting-edge research led by Dr Helen Czerski and Professor Mark Miodownik.
Pictured: some of the UCL colleagues who worked on the Festival
“It was great to work with talented researchers from all across engineering”, reflects Mykal Riley (Communications, Marketing and Events Manager, UCL Mechanical Engineering), who lead on the organisation of the show.
Across the week, over 364 staff and students collaborated with 21 external companies and five partner organisations, including NASA.
“We were delivering a type of public engagement that’s often really tricky to do” says Claudia Roland, Senior Events Manager (Office of the Vice-President for External Engagement). “It was just a really brilliant event in terms of what it achieved and how it was received".
A people-powered achievement
Guests have hailed the Festival, which took place from 15–20 July 2024, as a huge success.
"The Festival provided a fantastic platform for our students to explore [UCL’s] campus and engage with a local university” remarks Sarah Spiro, (Teacher, Phoenix College at the Phoenix Autist Trust).
"Our students had an incredible experience” agrees Carlos Aristizabal Cardenas (Head of Science, Newham Collegiate Sixth Form). “The robotics lab inspired many to solidify their plans for an engineering career!".
Pictured: Emily O'Farrell
But delivering a festival of its magnitude had been no simple feat.
“Some stuff came up at us unexpectedly from left field,” recalls Clare.
Last-minute changes to venues posed logistical challenges, particularly when exact details like plug socket locations and table counts weren’t immediately available.
“About eight weeks ahead of the event, we suddenly didn't have any spaces at all” remembers Chris.
“[At that point] we were wondering – could we still deliver it?”.
Pictured, left to right: Leah Lovett and Zoe Laughlin
Thanks to a combination of expertise and collaboration however, the team managed to pull through.
“It was a constant process of us checking on each other”, says John Whitmore CIWFM, Facilities Manager at Campus Experience and Infrastructure. “We had to think about the amount of space being used, how we were going to sort of create a natural flow around the buildings and appropriate time slots for all of the deliveries of the equipment we hired”.
Over 350 colleagues from all across UCL were involved in the Festival’s delivery – from security staff and fire safety teams, to central events colleagues and logistics.
“I can’t say enough about the performance of our security team and logistics colleagues on the day” reflects John. “It was a tremendous collaborative effort”.
A legacy of inspiration
After six days of action-packed events, the Festival of Engineeering came to a close on Saturday 20 July, ending with an interactive show presented by aerospace engineer and judge of Netflix's Baking Impossible Andrew Smyth.
“The Festival was a really extraordinary project to be part of” reflects Monique Bhaker (Office of the Vice-President for External Engagement), who worked as an Event Manager for the industry evening and the public exhibition. “It was truly inspiring to witness the collaboration of so many teams at UCL and the cutting-edge research being conducted within the Faculty”.
Pictured: Monique Bhaker
All in all, over 7000 people attended the event across its six-day runtime.
“We were [somewhat] a victim of our own success” jokes Clare; “We did not expect the sheer number of people that ended up attending”.
While the Festival of Engineering might have finished, its impact is far from over.
“Lots of people have been asking – when's the next festival?”, says Clare. “There are so many more people that have become engaged with engagement”.
Pictured: Professor Nigel Titchener-Hooker
The team are currently working on supporting a number of initiatives which were inspired by or launched at the Festival. The Ocean Health Challenge, for example – a programme teaching schoolchildren to tackle ocean pollution with engineering solutions – has already engaged nearly 700 schools nationwide.
Besides collaborating with the UCL 200 team on UCL’s upcoming bicentenary celebrations, the team are also supporting an augmented reality app that tells the story of engineering on walks around campus.
“We had key targets that we wanted to hit and I honestly do think that we did hit them” reflects Clare. “We have shown people what engineering is. We have inspired the next generation. We have showcased how we work across different boundaries. And we have introduced people to the breadth of diversity and engineering. I think that the fact that we've achieved all that… is just really positive”.
Professor Nigel Titchener-Hooker (Executive Dean of Engineering Sciences, 2016–24) added:
“Engineering is all about designing and making a better future for all in society and for our planet. So the festival was so much more than a simple celebration of 150 years of UCL innovation in education, research, and innovation with impact – it was conceived to stimulate aspiring generations to engage and to be enthralled by the potential of all that engineers can deliver for our future. The legacy is significant and far-reaching, and incredibly exciting. Watch this space!”.
Photography credit: Ondre Roach