HetSys is passionate about sharing our research and our expertise. Whether we are supporting schools, or working with Industry our students organise events and activities to make sure we have an impact in the real world.

Current Outreach Initiatives

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Previous Outreach Events

XMaS Science Gala 2020

Wednesday 5 February 2020

The annual XMaS Science Gala is an evening extravaganza highlighting inspiring careers and exciting science, open to anyone interested in STEMM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Maths, Medicine). The HetSys Outreach team demonstrated a wide range of activities that support heterogeneous materials research.

At the event, the group followed a very scientific approach to show that - believe it or not - computer simulations can help to bridge the gap between the microscopic structure of molecules and materials and our everyday experience.

The group showed the influence of material structure on material behaviour, which itself proves why heterogeneity of materials need to be incorporated in the modelling algorithms. Everyone knows about light: sunlight is the cornerstone of life on Earth and artificial light (light bulbs, LEDs...) is essential to our day-to-day lives. Most people would also know that light interacts with most of the things it shines upon: tan lines or sunsets are classic examples, but scientists can also leverage this light-matter interaction to understand the properties of many different materials, with important applications to renewable energy and structural biology.

The team showcased the impact of structure on the colours of different molecules: colour is something that depends on how exactly light interacts with matter, and because of that, if you change structure, you change colour!

British Science Festival Family Day

Saturday 14 September 2019

At the British Science Festival family day, the HetSys outreach team presented three activities to demonstrate influence of predictive modelling of heterogenous systems on improving life.

The event was available for the public to take part in and had a really positive response. It was design for ages 9+ and we showed how the combination of imaging technology and computational simulation enables us to make a sustainable materials design which is a theme of the HetSys CDT.