Students from schools across the United Kingdom have spent part of their summer holidays programming robot prototypes designed to explore other planets and researching solutions to combat climate change.

The 70 GCSE and A-Level students have been taking part in work experience placements which are run by the Science and Technology Facilities Council’s (STFC’s) Rutherford Appleton Laboratory (RAL) in Oxfordshire.

The placements which run each year from June to August range from space science, particle physics and laser science to photography and science communications, and provide unique opportunities for students to contribute to high tech science research to help prepare them for the competitive work place environment.

One of the placements involved producing a series of interactive, hands-on classroom activities using a prototype robot or ‘rover’ to help primary and secondary schools learn more about science, computer programming and technology. The rover which is controlled by a laptop was programmed by three teams of work experience students to perform tasks such as detecting types of liquids on a planetary surface.  The students also worked on the design of the robot adding equipment to measure temperature and an infra-red range finder to tell the robot how close it is to an object.

“The work experience at STFC Rutherford Appleton Laboratory has been a really great experience and I’m glad I had the opportunity to work here. It has definitely made me consider a career in Space Science as I would love to have the knowledge of some of the top scientists here,” said Jessica Heath from King Alfred’s School, Oxfordshire.

Each person works alongside STFC scientists and engineers and is assigned a placement supervisor who also acts as a mentor.

“One of the key things we want to do is to motivate and generate interest in science and engineering for the next generation, said Brian Maddison, Placement Supervisor and Project Manager in RAL’s Space Science and Technology Department. “Science and technology bring huge benefits to our society and economy. In a recession this message is more important that ever. Young people not only want to find a job or a place at university, they want to learn new skills and be inspired into career choices – this is a step in that direction.”

“Most of the students are thinking about their future careers – what A-levels to do, what subjects they would like to study at university or what jobs to apply for,” said Jo Lewis,  Education and Public Outreach Manager at STFC Rutherford Appleton Laboratory.  “By working in groups made up of students from different schools and parts of the country, they learn key project management, communication and team work skills much sought after by employers and universities. This also helps the students gain in confidence. It’s not easy meeting tight deadlines, and giving presentations to teachers, scientists and peers – the students have to do this from 8.30-5pm each day for two weeks or more! Having this kind of work experience on their CV can give someone the edge over other applicants.”

The work experience projects not only equip the students with new skills and confidence, but can be invaluable for scientific research.

The GeoEngineering for Climate Change (GE4CC ) work experience project is one such example. Working together intensively over a two-week period, the students investigated carbon capture and other technological ways of combating the build-up of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. The students’ report will feed into STFC’s Futures Programme which looks at where research can be best applied in areas which make a difference to peoples’ lives.

 In addition to programming robots and investigating carbon capture, some of the students worked on designs for a prototype beam monitoring device for ISIS, one of Europe’s leading particle accelerators specializing in novel research in areas such as medicine, energy, security and the environment.

“Work experience at STFC Rutherford Appleton laboratory has been one of the best experiences I have ever had,” said Vyoma Shukla from St Dominic’s Sixth form College in Middlesex. “Working on the beam monitoring project at ISIS has been a very challenging and enjoyable task. I have learnt the importance of analytical thinking to design and execute a programme, and working in a team under supervisors at ISIS has been enriching and has helped me to improve my communication skills.”

In a keynote speech at the Royal Institution, Mr Willetts talked of the importance of science and technology as a driving force for rebalancing the economy. He said:

“This Government wants science to emerge from this period to be strong, sustainable and effective. Vince Cable and George Osborne both understand the key role of science, technology and innovation in rebalancing the economy.
 
I am an optimist about science’s capacity to do this, because the deep forces driving its growth and popularity are as powerful as ever. A very important stimulus for scientific advance is, quite simply, technology. We talk of scientific discovery enabling technical advance, but the process is much more inter-dependent than that. For example, imaging technology is driven by the demands of astronomers, and then enables those same astronomers to make new discoveries. It’s because of this process that we’ve been able to view this week those awe-inspiring images of the oldest light in the cosmos, gathered by the Planck space telescope. Meanwhile it allows medical imaging to advance along the way, almost as a by-product of our age old desire to look into the heavens.

That is why one of my ambitions is to try to ensure that the exciting intellectual advance of nuclear fusion – we are world leaders at Culham – also drives British technological and industrial development.

I’m a firm believer in clusters – best defined as a low-risk environment for high-risk activity

First, it makes sense for government to back shared facilities – research platforms if you like – which private companies could not develop on their own. So I’m delighted that a state-of-the-art laboratory is opening today at the Harwell Science and Innovation Campus in Oxfordshire. The new £26million lab is next to the Diamond Light Source, the ISIS neutron source and the Central Laser Facility. It will allow researchers to work side-by-side with beam line experts in fields ranging from drug development to novel materials. (They might even find that the most important room on the site is the coffee bar, as at the Hauser forum in Cambridge.) To date, experimentation at Diamond alone has helped firms like Rolls Royce to apply synchrotron techniques for aerospace and energy applications; Pfizer and GlaxoSmithKline on drug discovery and development; Johnson Matthey on improved emissions control catalysts. This is how publicly backed R&D boosts economic performance – one OECD study found that a 1 per cent increase in public R&D increased overall productivity by 0.17 per cent.”

The hub will enable the UK to manage spacecraft operations and process the information collected by future space missions.

The contract has gone to a consortium led by Astrium and the hub will be amongst the first in Europe that will actively encourage direct collaboration between government, industry and academics.

Mr Willets said:

“The Earth Observation Hub will help UK scientists make the most of the wealth of information we are collecting about our home planet, in vital areas such as monitoring the effects of climate change or so we can respond quickly to natural disasters throughout the world.

“It’s the important first step in making the International Space Innovation Centre a reality, linking regional space capabilities and promoting knowledge-sharing between academia and industry. This will support further growth in a sector already worth more than £6 billion a year to our economy.”

The new facilities give Nexeon the ability to produce more material for sampling to the global corporations interested in evaluating and adopting the new technology. More efficient dryrooms and heat recovery systems reduce energy costs and carbon footprint.

Nexeon has seen a great deal of interest in its new technology that uses silicon instead of carbon in lithium ion batteries. Global automotive companies are looking for ways to improve the power to weight ratio of vehicles, and Nexeon’s approach could see even faster introduction of practical electric vehicles.

“We’re delighted with our new home”, says Ian McDonald, Director of Engineering and Operations at Nexeon, who masterminded the operation. “It represents an important milestone in our development which began at Imperial College London. We now have room for further expansion.”

MEPC Milton Park, Harwell Campus and Culham Science Centre cycled to work with the incentive of a free breakfast at the end of the journey.

There were three cycling routes and each science park group had two ride leaders, one for the front of the group and one for the back. The leaders met the cyclists at each location before the groups split and cycled to their own respective science park.

The event encouraged cycling at all levels of ability and was open to everybody.

For more information about the day at each science park visit:

Culham Science Centre

Harwell Campus

MEPC Milton Park

The Consultancy Voucher Scheme (ECIF) offers small to medium-sized companies (SMEs) a “voucher” of up to a maximum of £4,000 which will purchase approximately 8 days’ worth of time on a specific programme of consultancy work. SEEDA will be awarding at least 20 vouchers in the first instance, with a limit of one voucher per company.

Eligible companies must have:

■ fewer than 250 employees

■an annual turnover of less than 50 million euros

■at least 75% of their ownership not owned or controlled by a company that is not an SME

Priority will be given to companies that:

■have not previously received consultancy or contract research services from  Oxford Brookes University

■are based within 60 miles of Oxford Brookes University

Sustainability-themed Innovation Vouchers (SEEDA)

In addition to the above, Innovation Vouchers specifically on the theme of sustainability are available, also for a value of up to £4,000 and funded by SEEDA. The sustainability-themed vouchers are available for consultancy work undertaken on the themes of Construction, Energy and Waste. For these vouchers, the consultancy work is not exclusive to Oxford Brookes and can be undertaken with any university/Knowledge Base Partner in the United Kingdom, provided the applicant is based within the South East Economic Region (excluding London). Applicants must not have had significant prior interaction with the Knowledge Base Partner.

For more information visit the Oxford Brookes University website

Steve Liquorish of CMS Industries, Grove Technology Park (office seating suppliers, see www.cmsindustries.com) – Oxfordshire Business Person of the Year

Bunnyfoot, Harwell Science and Innovation Campus (eye tracking software, see www.bunnyfoot.com)- Innovation winner

Oxford Technologies, Abingdon (hi-tech remote handling applications, see www.oxfordtechnologies.co.uk) – Small business winner

The Sculptor Galaxy lies about 13 million light-years away and is the brightest member of a small collection of galaxies called the Sculptor Group, one of the closest such groupings to our own Local Group of galaxies. It was discovered by Caroline Herschel from England in 1783 and is prominent enough to be seen with good binoculars but dust obscures the view of many parts of the galaxy; but because VISTA (Visible and Infrared Survey Telescope for Astronomy) works at infrared wavelengths it can see right through the dust that is such a prominent feature of the Sculptor Galaxy.

The stunning image shows the galaxy is almost edge on, with the spiral arms clearly visible in the outer parts, along with a bright core at its centre. It also reveals huge numbers of cooler stars that are barely detectable with visible-light telescopes.

Astronomers are studying the numerous cool red giant stars in the halo that surrounds the Sculptor Galaxy, measuring the composition of some of small dwarf satellite galaxies, and searching for as yet undiscovered new objects such as globular clusters and ultra-compact dwarf galaxies that would otherwise be invisible without the dust-penetrating VISTA infrared images. Using the unique VISTA data astronomers plan to map how the galaxy formed and evolved.

Professor Richard Holdaway, Director, Space Science and Technology Department at STFC’s Rutherford Appleton Laboratory where the camera for the telescope was part-built, said; “The level of detail shown in images from VISTA is clearly unprecedented. Together with further observations by other telescopes, including ESO’s Very Large Telescope (VLT) located on the next mountain peak, astronomers are able to build the clearest pictures to date of the Sculptor Galaxy, telling us more about its history and the way it formed”.

Notes to editors
After being handed over to ESO at the end of 2009 the telescope was used for two detailed studies of small sections of the sky before it embarked on the much larger surveys that are now in progress. One of these “mini surveys” was a detailed study of the Sculptor Galaxy and its environment. For further reading please see the following links:

•VISTA links: http://www.eso.org/public/teles-instr/surveytelescopes/vista/
•NGC 253 in the visible: http://www.eso.org/public/news/eso0902/

Images Available

For more information on the images that accompany this press release please see ESO’s Press release http://www.eso.org/public/news/eso1025/

The demonstration of the 3-D technology was showcasing the work of CrystalLight Productions, one of the companies based at Grove Technology Park.

More than 70 people attended the Science Vale UK event on Wednesday (9 June), which focused on innovation and skills development, particularly of young people wanting to make a start in science and business.

Stuart Miller, Chief Executive of Bybox, was the special guest presenter at the event, which also included presentations from Dr Ian Griffin, Chief Executive of Science Oxford, Steve Gledhill, of Skills For Technology, Manlove Forensics and Airbox Aerospace.

Science Vale UK is a partnership aimed at promoting the business interests of the southern central Oxfordshire area, in particular the growth opportunities for science, technology and innovation. This latest event was organised following popular demand at three events held earlier in the year.

One of the people attending the event was Andy Chambers, of Canberra UK, based at Harwell Science and Innovation Campus. Canberra UK develops and maintains nuclear monitoring devices.

He said: “I come to these events because I want to hear how other people are doing their business, particularly developing young staff. I have been at Harwell for 25 years and I started as an apprentice and now I am the UK Service Manager.

“We also see ourselves as part of the local community, even though we support customers throughout the UK and we trade internationally. We take services from a lot of national companies but we want to work with local companies so an event like this gives me a chance to find out about what businesses around here can offer us, so we can keep it local instead of going to the ‘big boys’ all the time.”

David Williams, of commercial property consultants Meeson Williams, was also part of the audience. He said: “I like to support Science Vale because it is a good initiative. This co-ordinated approach to inward investment is great for companies considering the South East and this area in particular. It is about more than the supply of property, and the public sector involvement means they can provide information about housing, schools and transport.

“This is a great area in terms of the companies that are already here, the countryside and the schools. That is why everyone is moving from London. We are seeing an awful lot of people wanted to set up business in this area.”

The MNT Centre facilities are focused round 700m2 of Class 100 and Class 1000 clean rooms that provide an  excellent foundation for chip and device R&D for MNT devices and process development. State of the art facilities are available for complete life cycle design and test of devices in conjunction with expertise and advice from more than 30 highly experienced scientists and process engineeers. For further information visit the Micro and Nanotechnology Centre website.