Students from the Centre for Doctoral Training in Advanced Characterisation of Materials (CDT ACM) took part in the first ever Great Exhibition Road Festival on the last weekend of June. The Festival was a celebration of science and the arts in the spirit of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert’s vision for the Great Exhibition, 200 years on from when they were born.
CDT ACM students displayed several devices in the Greener Futures Zone, one of eleven interactive Zones. From playing with electrolysers, thermoelectric hand generators, fruit batteries, and fortune wheels. Alumni Student Josh Bailey showed visitors how to make tea using solar tubes while Connor Wells and Becky Shutt got visitors of all ages to share their thoughts on green futures that they would like to see and the best ways to get there with the use of the fortune wheel.
Students from Cohort 5 Nathalie Fernando and Anouk L’Hermitte used glass vials filled with water and the dye powder to show how activated carbon is an example of a porous material, which can be used in the environment to remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere or pollutants from water for example.
The Great Exhibition Road Festival builds on the success of the Imperial Festival, which is now in its eighth year, and has led to collaboration between scientists, artists and other creative partners
