By Tommy Bonnet
Nottingham Central Library has been transformed into an immersive microscopic and robotic world for families – with experts hoping it will help inspire a new generation of scientists.
A free future maker event was hosted for families and children, which centred around hands-on learning with interactive displays.
The half term event on Wednesday (Ocotber 23) was run by the University of Nottingham, which hopes to engage and create the next generation of future scientists and increase understanding of innovation in the industry.
Dominic Price, research fellow at Cobot Maker Space who was leading the popular ‘robot dog’ exhibition, spoke on the importance of displaying robots to young people
He said: “We’re trying to inspire the next generation of roboticists.
“Being around robots all day everyday you forget robots for most people are very novel, bringing them along and showing them off and seeing people’s reactions is very gratifying and hopefully inspiring.
“It also makes me think about when I was child that it would’ve been fantastic to see a robot and would’ve given me ideas about what I would do in the future.”
Similarly, Dr Luke Norman from the Nanoscale and Microscale Research Centre, who was running the 360 immersive microscopy room and electron microscope said: “Electron microscopy allows us to see details down to the atomic level, and it’s wonderful to see them inspired and really interested.
“We want to inspire the future generation of scientists, showing them what the world looks like on a micro scale.
“We’ve had a lot of great feedback from parents and kids, and lots of smiles on faces which is the best thing in the world.”
Hundreds of parents and children enjoyed the events on Wednesday.
Tracy Law, mum from Basford said: “It’s our first time in Nottingham Central Library and it’s brilliant, during school holidays we needed something to do and saw this and it’s free which is a plus.”
Her six-year-old son Logan said “I’ve liked the robot fight, I like science just how you can do things and make things work.”
Events like these are part of a broader industry effort to make science more accessible to the public and younger people for free – bridging the gap between academic research and the community.
The immersive room and electron microscopy event will continue to be available in Nottingham Central Library until November 1st.
