Engineering's family day inspires budding young scientists

The Faculty of Engineering held their second annual Bring Your Child to Work Day this week.

On Tuesday 4 August 68 children and 45 parents and carers attended a packed morning of activities delivered by the Departments of Mechanical and Chemical Engineering, the Science Museum and the company Octopus Parties.

Alongside face-painting and games children had the opportunity to learn more about forces through tug-of-war and closer looks at the Leaning Tower of Pisa and the highland games. practicals demonstrated how different materials change under load as well as the different forms of carbon dioxide.

Zahid Durrani, a senior lecturer in the Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering was one of the parents whose children took part: “The whole day was very well organised, lots of fun! My son had a great time. It’s very nice indeed to see such an event in College, it creates an excellent, very welcoming environment.”

The Faculty event was set up to support its working families and give them the opportunity to showcase some of the College’s work to their young audiences.  As well as experience of a university campus the enthusiastic budding scientists even received their own labcoats.

Parent Matthew Greetham, Senior Teaching Fellow in the Department of Civil Engineering said: “The range of activities was great, from the explanation of forces and then hands-on making to seeing the type of work done in the university labs.  Each activity built on the other and my sons came away really enthused about Imperial College and engineering.  The gifts were really appreciated especially the lab coats from Mechanical Engineering – they didn’t take them off until bed time.  My sons now think I work somewhere ‘really cool’.”

Photos by Thomas Angus