On Thursday April 25th, The University of Roehampton, London welcomed 200 school students from across London to take part in challenges and experiments with leading companies and university departments in the TeenTech Roehampton Festival. Designed to provide young people with fresh perspectives about careers in the science, technology and engineering sectors, the event was led by Maggie Philbin (former Tomorrow’s World reporter and CEO TeenTech) and 20 leading companies who brought their very latest technology to help young people see the many different openings in these fast-growing sectors.
Ruth Seabrook, Head of Secondary ITE & Partnership, University of Roehampton said: “TeenTech allows our student teachers and their pupils and teachers in school to participate in a wonderful enrichment event. It is an aspirational day filled with really engaging and new STEM activities and it can empower pupils from a young age to think about technology in new ways and inspire them to think – I could do this – I want to do this in the future.”
Participating companies and organisations running interactive stands and challenges bringing the world of science and technology to life included AWS, Softwire, BBC R&D, NHS England, JP Morgan, Arup, Boeing Global Services, Atkinsréalis, Met Police Cyber Choices, National Physical Laboratory and the Alex Lewis Trust.
Three weeks before the festival, over 1000 students participated in a virtual TeenTech Innovation Day to design their own ideas for the ‘kinder, safer, smarter’ TeenTech City of Tomorrow. With a focus on the way technology could improve the Home of The Future, Teams brought their model buildings and fresh thinking to the event and shared their ideas with industry experts.
On the festival day school students explored departments across the university site. They experimented with tools such as adding sound effects to a movie and experimenting with lights, cameras and green screen technology in the Film and TV Department, understanding computational thinking, the science of slime and were able to compete in the latest E-Sports using VR headsets.
Regional Sponsor Amazon Web Services received positive feedback from students who took part in an interactive quiz on technology and cloud computing.
Regional Sponsor Softwire said: “We were delighted to be a TeenTech Roehampton Festival regional sponsor this year. It was wonderful to see so many students engaged in problem solving and enjoying learning about technology. We hope it has a lasting impact and are excited to see what future innovations the next generation help shape.”
Maggie Philbin, CEO TeenTech said “We’ve worked with the University of Roehampton for over eight years and we’re immensely grateful to the University of Roehampton and to event partners Amazon Web Services and Softwire for the time and energy which has made this such a very special experience for so many young people.”