Research project
Creatively creating the materials of the future
- Start date: 1 January 2020
- End date: 30 December 2023
- Funder: Leverhulme Trust and Royal Academy of Engineering
- Primary investigator: Professor Lorna Dougan
This project will deliver public engagement activities which embrace creativity and creative thinking to allow young people and families to explore innovation in material design. Using the Bragg Centre for Materials Research at the University of Leeds as a platform, the project will build on the culture of collaborative projects we have established through the Bragg Centre Creative Labs, connecting engineers and artists to work together and explore innovation in materials design.
These creative connections will provide a powerful opportunity for engineers to share the creativity and imagination of their materials research with the public. We will support and train the engineers to develop material for an interactive web-based resource, which will include a videos, demonstrations, interviews, games, an open competition and engineering creativity bag. The engineers will use these resources to engage with our target youth groups and schools.
The outputs of the project competition will be part of a public exhibition in Yorkshire, and will showcase the innovative advanced materials developed by the engineers, captured through the imagination of members of the public, whom we have inspired. The target demographic is young people and their families, particularly those who do not identify with or aspire to continue in STEM.
The outcomes will include (i) connectivity, building networks between engineers and young people and their families; encouraging participation and involvement, (ii) Enlightenment: Inspiring wonder, curiosity and learning; meaning and sense making and (iii) Innovation, new ways of thinking and acting; new products and knowledge; creating, galvanising change.