The 2023 Great Exhibition Road Festival took place on 17-18 June, and several members of our department took part in activities and exhibits.
The Science and Engineering Research for Cultural Heritage (SERCH) network put on an exhibit led by Dr Fabian Sorce and Professor Ambrose Taylor, and supported over the weekend by Mechanical Engineering PhD students (Richard Brooks, Tristan Calvet, Jiayi Gong and Joe Terry), Professor Sergei Kazarian (Chemical Engineering) and Anne Barrett (Archives and Corporate Records Unit). Historical artefacts from the College’s archives were on display as well as a live microscopy demonstration highlighting different techniques used to treat traditional Japanese lacquer (Urushi). The exhibit was a great success; visitors were highly engaged, and some very interesting conversations were had over the weekend. Further information about the network can be found here.
Visitors to the Festival enjoyed using the hands-on activities that some of our third year students developed in their DMT projects. These were part of the STEM outreach demo super-project directed by Linda Stringer and Richard van Arkel. Shown in the photos below are the mechatronic control demonstrator (supervised by Ferdinando Rodriguez y Baena), the microfluidic fuel cell (supervised by Huizhi Wang) , the mini-wind tunnel project (supervised by Stelios Rigopoulos) and the human battery charger project (supervised by Monica Marinescu).
Thomas Kirkby describes the three parts of a Tribology group exhibit aimed at exploring how microscopic features relate to friction: “We had animations created using molecular dynamics simulations which participants could explore in their own time. The simulations demonstrated mixing of chemical species and the melting of ice-cream amongst other things. Molecular dynamics is a technique we use heavily in the tribology group.
We also built a hands-on friction experiment which participants could take an active role in. We had ‘cars’ which participants could attach skis to. We varied the size of the sliding surface and the material from which the surface was made. Participants could then race their constructions down a ski slope. Early analysis suggests we have a clear winner in terms of which material was fastest but that the size of the ski didn’t make a significant difference.
The third part of the exhibition was an opportunity to look at various materials under the microscope, including the materials from the ski slope friction experiment. We also had some failed machine elements and other surprising things from every day life such as a smartphone screen and a vinyl record.”
A full list of Mechanical Engineering participants in the Festival can be found in the table below:
| Exhibit | Key people |
| What Does a Brain Feel Like? | Zhengchu Tan, Daniele Dini, Ferdinando Rodriguez y Baena |
| Build Your Own Battery | Tom Holland, Yatish Patel |
| Composites: Feeling the Crush in Compression | Dimitrios Bikos, Soraia Pimenta |
| Magical Microscopes; Marvellous Materials | Thomas Kirkby, Marc Masen |
| The Science of Art Conservation | Fabian Sorce, Ambrose Taylor |
| Bedtime Stories for Very Young Engineers | Chloe Agg, Idris Mohammed, Richard Silversides |
| The Nuclear Energy Futures Fair | Catrin Davies, Mike Bluck |
| Dynamics Group | Luke Muscutt, David Nowell |
| Mech Eng Third Year DMT Outreach Demos | Linda Stringer, Idris Mohammed |
| Robotics Forum | Hisham Iqbal |
Article text (excluding photos or graphics) © Imperial College London.
Photos and graphics subject to third party copyright used with permission or © Imperial College London.
Reporter
Nadia Barbu
Department of Mechanical Engineering
