New Glasgow Science Centre festival Curious About Innovation will encourage young Scots to broaden their horizons

To quote our unofficial national anthem though, those days are past now. The current, urgent challenge is to keep Scotland at the leading edge of 21st century developments in a highly-competitive, globalised marketplace. 

And this month, between May 19 and 21, Glasgow Science Centre (GSC) will host Curious About Innovation, an online festival aimed especially at secondary schools, inspiring pupils with exciting science and technology, demonstrating how it helps society change and adapt while showcasing possible employers and highlighting the routes to further learning.

The event is the second in the series, following Curious About Our Planet, the Science Centre's first digital science offering in February that focused on its Our World, Our Impact programme, celebrating the wonders of our planet and helping young people get to grips with the science of Climate Change.

“We had some 18,000 visits to the site over the period and independent evaluations undertaken by the University of Glasgow’s Robert Owen Centre for Educational Change reported excellent feedback from schools that had participated in the activities,” says Dr Robin Hoyle, Director of Science at Glasgow Science Centre. 

Curious About Innovation, which will also feature live talks, interviews, online games and workshops will focus on innovation in several sectors: space, construction, cyber security, engineering, robotics, healthcare and the environment (climate change) with public events in addition to those targeted at schools.

It will draw on the expertise of business, with participating partners which will include the Royal Navy, IBM, Rolls-Royce, Morrison Construction, the National Oceanographic Centre, NASA the universities of Strathclyde and Glasgow and CubeSat manufacturer Glasgow AAC Clyde Space.

Dr Hoyle points out that not only does Glasgow produce more satellites than any other city in Europe but that it builds more than anywhere else outside the United States. Scotland (which might come as a surprise to some) is one of the countries at the forefront of the space industry and may soon become Europe’s space epicentre with five proposed spaceport sites – from Shetland in the far north to Prestwick in Ayrshire.

The event will also feature the unique and outstanding work of  science and technology photographer Enrico Sacchetti (see panel above right) who is engaged on a continuing project to photograph various high-energy physics research facilities around the globe.

The digital events at GSC, says Dr Hoyle, have opened up an exciting range of opportunities in terms of the experts, academics and industry partners with whom the audience can engage.  “While analogue is not dead we are increasingly seeing the future as a blend of real and personal experiences along with the opportunity to engage digitally at your leisure, whether in a school group or on your own.” 

He adds that GSC is committed to emphasising the importance of STEM subjects (science, technology, engineering and mathematics). “The world is changing and while in the past we listened to sociologists and economists about what the future would look like, it’s now science and technology that are at the forefront of shaping what that future will be. 

“There are big problems to solve, for instance in the areas of health and climate change and science and technology are key to addressing these. 

“And we need to realise that these things aren’t happening in a far, distant land; they’re happening just down the road and we have a wide range of companies and organisations at the vanguard of tackling them – take the burgeoning space industry, engaged in everything from building satellites to sophisticated data analysis.

“What we are doing is highlighting the opportunities that exist here, whether at the apprenticeship or technician level through to university graduates. Scotland has a remarkably diverse ecosystem of companies and organisations and we are helping to nurture an informed society that understands what these different ideas can or can’t achieve and help it make good policy decisions for the future,” he says. 

Dr Hoyle enthuses about the range of industry partners he meets – and says that the Science Centre can help them recruit young people by raising the awareness of opportunities they may not yet be aware of.

“Our STEM Futures programme for example lets partners work collaboratively to grow the pool of talent – and allows everyone to benefit by growing and developing their businesses.”

Curious About Innovation is funded by the Inspiring Science Fund plus additional support from JP Morgan, Mathworks and the University of Strathclyde and is part of the GSC’s CONNECT strategy which is introducing a range of new experiences to make it more accessible for everyone. 

Visit curiousabout.glasgowsciencecentre.org

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Exhibition is out of this world 

Enrico Sacchetti, who is based between the US and Italy was originally a fashion photographer. Now his images appear in major scientific and technology publications including New Scientist, Wired UK, Scientific American and the Smithsonian magazine. 

A selection of his work will feature at GSC’s Curious About Innovation festival later this month after his recent Dark Matter and Beyond the Invisible exhibitions in London, Dublin, Milan and Rome. 

“I’m working on a project to photograph high-energy physics research facilities around the world,” he says adding that he’s driven by his curiosity in what he describes as “cathedrals of knowledge”, research facilities in remote locations with some of the largest structures ever built searching for the smallest elements in our universe.

“As luck would have it, GSC was planning its festival within a few weeks of me being put in contact with them and as my work is available online I was ready to go with it,” he says. 

He particularly enjoys the challenge of reaching locations that are usually at more than 3000 metres elevation. “The highest was a radio telescope at 4200 metres where you have to wear an oxygen meter. I find the job aesthetically beautiful – I take my fashion background in lighting and composition and apply it to some very impressive science.”

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Popularity of space exploration boosts future career options

When supergroup Coldplay premiered their new single on board the International Space Station (ISS) last week, it was just the latest evidence of the interest in extra-terrestrial innovation that is increasingly gripping many young people. 

A special performance of Higher Power, featuring dancing alien holograms, was sent up to French astronaut Thomas Pesquet, who gave the track its first play onboard the station. 

Add to this recent news of the Mars helicopter which demonstrated powered flight on another planet for the first time and billionaires Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos racing to colonise Mars, it’s hardly surprising that space is now offering the potential for employment that reaches far beyond its traditional bases in the US and Russia. 

Dr Pamela Anderson, Head of Institutional Engagement at AAC Clyde Space, which is participating in Glasgow Science Centre’s (GSC) Curious About Innovation festival between May 19 and 21, points out that there are over 130 companies in Scotland employing more than 7,500 people in the space sector which she adds are “crying out for skills and talent, right here on our doorstep”.  

It’s something, she adds, that she is hugely passionate about. 

“It’s vitally important to encourage children to study science, to engage them in this area of innovation and hope that, in a few years’ they will want to come back and work with us,” she says. 

Those who do will discover a company that describes itself as “bringing space down to earth”. Clyde Space, the Glasgow-based subsidiary built Scotland’s first satellite and since 2005 has been a market-leading provider of small satellite technology and services (CubeSats).

AAC Clyde Space is Headquartered in Sweden with  operations in the UK, the Netherlands and the US. Designing and developing innovative nanosatellites that businesses can use for a range of applications, the company is helping to solve a range of pressing global challenges which

Pamela says include weather forecasting, coastal pollution mitigation, wildfire detection and marine efficiency and it numbers the United States Airforce Academy, the European Space Agency and NASA among its clients.

Its participation in Curious About Innovation, she adds, will help to shine a light on the opportunities for working in the industry. 
“We’re very keen to encourage children of school age to study related subjects and work in the sector because there is a skills gap and the more we can do to address that at an early stage the better. We’re also keen to increase diversity within the sector, which is still very male dominated.”

Scotland, she believes is particularly well placed to advance these ideals: “We have perhaps a uniquely high level of collaboration here between government, academia and industry and while there are a lot of companies in Scotland working in the sector we’re small enough for there to be room for everyone to work together toward the same aims,” she says.  

These aims are steadily becoming more ambitious: of the more than 1,000 nanosatellites launched up to the end of 2020, AAC Clyde Space is represented on 30-40 per cent and the company says that soon satellites orbiting above us in space will support more than seven billion people on Earth in almost every aspect of their day-to-day lives.

Also, its recent acquisition of Netherlands company Hyperion Technologies adds major capacity to its missions,that of Spacequest gives it a significant foothold in the US and with Omnisys gain capabilities in space-based weather data.  

“We are clearly going to see this sector continue to grow and it’s a very exciting stage – we’re on the brink of something special,” says Pamela.

“And this month what’s also exciting is the prospect of working with GSC to help make school children aware that employment in space technology is now truly accessible.”
 

AAC Clyde Space will give a talk and live  Q&A on 20 May at 1015am at Curious About Innovation. For more details Visit curiousabout.glasgowsciencecentre.org