| This event ‘Space – Engineering Challenges’ was the 5th time that IMechE Merseyside and North Wales Region had hosted the Engineering Day as part of the Wirral Arts Festival. The aim of the day is to raise awareness of Engineering and in particular, what is happening in our locality The day consisted of 4 presentations: ‘Routes to Engineering’ aimed at pupils from the Boys and Girls Grammar Schools to which there were approximately 100 attendees. The session focused on engineer as a career and how to achieve that aim. The interactive session saw many questions asked of the presenters and information taken away by the students The rest of the presentations were open to both the students and the general public and the school itself did the event and the attendees proud. Andy Jones presented ‘The Origins of Our Engineering Elements’ describing what stela events had caused the elements in the atmosphere and wider galaxy to exist in the proportions that they did. There were some interesting questions from the floor, particularly from the pupils of the girls grammar school who had been given permission to attend. ‘New Space – The Global Revolution within the Space Industry’ was presented by Bob Morris from The Northern Space Consortium. Bob spoke about developments nationally in the ‘space race’ including some radical innovations that were conceptualised initially here in Merseyside. Although, Merseyside is not known for its involvement in the space industry, it was interesting to hear about what is actually happening and what The Consortium are doing to try and promote greater funding and involvement in the North West. The evening event was a presentation from Dr Jaclyn Bell. ‘Astronaut Selection and UK’s Role in Future Space Exploration’ was the title for Jackie’s presentation. She spoke about growing up as a school girl in Liverpool and her want to study – she was particularly delighted to find some of her past teachers in the audience. Jackie was awarded a ‘Lennon’ scholarship to study Mathematics before going on to gain her PHD in Particle Physics. Whilst working at the Science Museum, Dr Bell found out that she had been selected as one of 12 to take part in the BBCs ‘Astronaut – Do you have what it takes?’. With clips from the show and insider knowledge, Jackie talked about the challenges, needing to swim! And how she eventually left the show. Despite not winning the series (she can now swim by the way) she is still hoping to apply for astronaut selection when the next European selection opens in the future. Jaclyn reiterated throughout the presentation that that if you have a dream you should do everything you can to make it a reality and that science and engineering is extremely rewarding but takes hard work and determination. The evening presentation had approximately 60 attendees – most of whom were not IMechE members |