Student discussing their research projects a conference event

Changing culture around public engagement

The Department of Physics was successful in applying for the University's culture change fund for public engagement earlier this year. The funds will support the development of a programme aimed at young people enabling them to actively collaborate with researchers from the Department of Physics on real research; this latest initiative expands upon the Department's award-winning public engagement, which informs and inspires tens of thousands of people each year.

The funding was used to launch CENiP (the Collaborative Engagement Network in Physics) and to support a number of projects that provide opportunities for students to do authentic research. One of the projects, Big Data: ATLAS, uses real data from the ATLAS experiment to empower young people with the skills to explore their own questions in particle physics. The project is run in collaboration with the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory and the Institute for Research in Schools.

The first "young researcher" conference was also held in the Department in the summer which allowed school students working on different research projects in the Department to come together to discuss their work with their peers and our researchers. 

The network will continue to provide resources, guidance and evaluation support for researchers who want to develop their own collaborative projects in the future. For more information contact Prof. Alan Barr or Dr Sian Tedaldi.

"The students worked exceptionally well and quickly understood new concepts"

"I enjoyed it, one of the two students made a great suggestion for a simple experiment that I've since tried!"

Feedback form researchers working on collaborative engagement projects.