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WMG Talks - British Science Week 2021

WMG Talks

This is a digital reboot of our popular WMG Talks series – formerly run at family days, school events and conferences. If you’d like to see the style of previous talks, you can see recorded versions here.

Sign up for this webinar using this form. A link to the event will be sent out nearer to the event. If you have any questions, please contact us at wmgoutreach@warwick.ac.uk

Details

Date

Friday 12th March

Time

1130 (Live broadcast start)

N.B.: It will be possible to ‘catch-up’ and start watching slightly later, or watch the recording later in the day

Format

MS Teams Live Broadcast with strictly moderated questions from the audience

Duration

40 minutes of talks with time for questions afterwards

Suitable for

Year 9+

Curriculum

Design and Technology, Chemistry, Physics

Additional relevance

Careers information, inspiration, call-to-action for studying STEM subjects, innovation, future technology, etc.

Sign up for this webinar using this form. A link to the event will be sent out nearer to the event. If you have any questions, please contact us at wmgoutreach@warwick.ac.uk

Our Speakers

Amar

Title: Teaching cars to sense our world.

Blurb: If you’ve ever wondered how a car might be able to drive itself in the future, Amar’s talk is for you. Amar is a graduate engineer working in the Intelligent Vehicles group. He has worked on various projects, including a driving simulator that uses a real vehicle. Right now, he is working on a popular model of car and attaching sensors to it, teaching the car how to see and understand the world around it. Want to find out how far away a self-driving car is? Look no further…

Ben

Title: Kinetic energy to electricity: There and back again, an electric machine's tale.

Blurb: When you want something to move, you’ve got two choices: push it, or connect a motor to it. Since humans are lazy most of the time, machines that convert energy to movement have been essential to our way of life for about 200 years. Unfortunately, some of those machines emit gasses that have caused our global climate huge problems.

 

What if a different type of machine could help us fight against climate change, while still being able to drive us about and work for us? Ben is here to tell us about electric machines, and how we can improve their performance, reduce their cost, and unlock a net-zero carbon future?

Katerina

Title: Elements of battery chemistry: Lithium and beyond

Blurb: Lithium ion batteries: since their invention in 1985, they have come to power the world around us, and their use is only set to increase with the drive towards electric vehicles.

But what is it about these batteries that has allowed them to become so crucial to our lives? Why use lithium? And as the limits of current technologies are pushed, is it time to reinvent the battery and look beyond lithium?

 

To understand this, we have to think small. Katerina, with her background in both Chemistry and battery research, takes us down to the atomic scale to get up close and personal with the structures and reactions that power the world around us.

Kevin

Title: 3D printing: Can you put your finger on what it is?

Blurb: What if you could click print and instead of getting a piece of paper out the machine you could have any item you want? A vase? A plane? What about a realistic human finger?

Kevin Couling is studying for a PhD in 3D printing of solar cells – so his equipment can print out hugely complicated machinery and parts. He was approached by medical academics who wondered whether 3D printing could unlock new ways for medical students to learn surgery – without the gruesome need for real body parts!

Sign up for this webinar using this form. A link to the event will be sent out nearer to the event. If you have any questions, please contact us at wmgoutreach@warwick.ac.uk