Destination Space!
On the 5th of February 2020 an exciting event called Destination Space took place at the museum in Dynamic Earth, Edinburgh. Florian Vidal and Thomas Strober (REVOLVE Fellows) joined Yifang Wei (TESLA Fellow) to showcase their research. Dozens of children came to their booth to try pedagogical experiments and learn more about science. Questions were also asked about their PhDs and day-to-day life at work in the University and on secondments. The kids had a lot of fun playing with the Theremin and were blown away by the optical experiments. It was also the perfect opportunity to introduce basic physical concepts such as waves and light propagation!
Undergraduate Video Competition
Our Elecrical Engineering undergraduate students took part in an undergraduate video competition related to Electromagnetics in Practice. To view all the videos you can head across to our dedicated REVOLVE Outeach site.
Caltech Space Challenge Week
Andrea, REVOLVE PhD Fellow participated in Caltech Space Challenge week. The workshop brought 32 undergraduate and graduate students from all over the world to gather at Caltech and their task was to design a pre-phase A mission to Enceladus in 5 days. The participants came from different scientific backgrounds, representing engineering, science, business, graphical design, and many others. For more see Andrea's blog article on the REVOLVE Outreach website!
REVOLVE in Science Day at George Heriot School
REVOLVE organised a science day for all Primary Three students at George Heriot School in Edinburgh. The event took place on Tuesday 11 December in the school premises addressing the theme of electricity. REVOLVE brought a number of hands on experiments to illustrate the concept of conductance and how to use play-dough or pencils in circuits. Together REVOLVE illustrated how electricity can be give rise to magnetism and use a home made paper-plate speaker to show a practical application. REVOLVE’s Theremin was also available and attracted the attention of the students.
REVOLVE and the Science in the City Festival
REVOLVE had a very successful participation in the Science in the City Festival which took place in Toulouse (9th-14th July 2018) as part of the 8th edition of the EuroScience Open Forum (ESOF). REVOLVE fellows together with volunteers from the three institutions showcased their latest innovations and proposed scientific challenges to visitors in a friendly and interactive Fun Family Day. The presented open session named ‘REVOLVE - Waves: Radio and Space' allowed attendees of all ages to take part in a series of applied engineering experiments ranging from making your own speaker, setting up your own radio link and making music with the wave of a hand through interference of electromagnetic fields. All public actively engaged with the team and had alos the opportunity to see real satellite components. Being the largest interdisciplinary science meeting in Europe, the event offered a unique framework for interaction between engineers and the general public.
REVOLVE and Explorathon 2018
REVOLVE fellows participated in Edinburgh's Explorathon 2018 in collaboration with Leith Labs! The venue this year was the popular Shopping Centre located in Ocean Terminal. One of the activities carried out at the event showed how researchers at the Microwave and Antenna Engineering Group at Heriot-Watt University are working to use traditional electromagnetic concepts to wirelessly transmit power that can recharge electronic devices. This will enable us to charge our devices on the move, become more environmentally friendly reducing the number of batteries in the waste strem, stored power and re-use it. Other activities presented introduced the concept of sound and light waves, which raised a great interest among the kids and, of course, the big ones!
Space for Kids!
"If I was an Engineer I would.....build a space station and send satellites into space...to the moon!"
Part of the Space for Kids project is to invite students to submit their very own space videos and this is the first submission! Holly, age 11 has drawn her own storyboard with space rockets, satellites and even a space dog! Here is her story:
"This video is for 'Space for Kids!' The animation is about a girl who is thinking about what she would do as a Space Engineer....she goes on a special journey to the moon and designs her own space station so that she can fly her own rockets. The girl dreams about Space and about being an engineer so that life is better for people. She is a dreamer and a princess. She has many ideas and wants to share them."
Thank you to Holly (age 11) for sharing her fantastic animation about Space for Kids! To read more on Space for Kids page see our dedicated REVOLVE Outreach website.
Family Fun for REVOLVE at the Edinburgh Science Festival
Dr. Carolina Mateo-Segura, Revolve Fellow, lead the participation on this year’s Edinburgh Science Festival at Oriam. Visitors got the chance to be hands-on with cutting edge research from the Microwave and Antenna Engineering group at Heriot-Watt, in a day packed with interactive sessions aiming to showcase how the group works with electromagnetic and mechanical waves. Everyone was able to take part in a series of scientific challenges to unlock prizes in a friendly and interactive Fun Family Day.
Thank you to our PhD students who volunteered their time to help in running the event!
Introducing the Blogs!
Now that the Revolvers have settled into their respective placements they have had the fantastic opportunity to progress their outreach as part of the Space for Kids project. Each of the Fellows has written their very own blog post introducing their research interests which include space antennas, satellites and even reconfigureable beamformers! The REVOLVERS will be inviting local school students to submit their ideas, take part in amazing and fun hands-on science experiments and to intetract with the students on the blog by submitting their comments and asking the REVOLVERS questions related to space engineering! The activties will be fun and you can read more about their outreach project on the REVOLVE Outreach webpage!
REVOLVE Newsletter
The second edition of the REVOLVE Newsletter was released in February 2018 and showcased our PhD Fellows...the 7 Revolvers! You can read all about our fantastic Revolvers in their bios as they talk about their dreams, aspirations and what led them to the REVOLVE project! There's lots of great news about the REVOLVE team and the team go to great lengths to highlight their research. We hope that you enjoy reading the Winter edition of the REVOLVE Newsletter!
REVOLVE take part in the Midlothian Science Festival
This year’s Midlothian Science Festival in Edinburgh was led by REVOLVE Fellow, Dr Carolina Mateo-Segura. The Science Festival took place in September 2017 and shows that Science, Engineering and Technology is a key part of the Midlothian’s cultural identity. It infuses into the natural and historic environment the following key elements:- food and drink; health care and sporting achievements; and,the creative arts. The activities showcased at the Dalkeith Library and Arts Centre by the team were designed to inspire and engage visitors of all ages and background in science, engineering and technology. It was full of mind-blowing experiments to raise the aspirations of local children and cultivate the next generation of scientific/engineer explorers!
Explorathon!
REVOLVE Fellows, Dr. Carolina Mateo-Segura and Prof. George Goussetis together with several PhD students from the Microwave and Antenna Engineering Group in Heriot-Watt University, participated in this year’s Explorathon 2017; an event held at the WHALE ARTS Agency in Edinburgh during September 2017. This day-long event was part of Explorathon European Researchers’ Night across Scotland. Here, we showcased our recent progress on both near- and –far field wireless power transmission devices based on either electromagnetic coupling or high power antennas together with simple experiments of light and sound. Photos of the event can be found here: https://www.flickr.com/photos/beltanenetwork/
Outreach Initiative for REVOLVE
Juline Legay is presently preparing for her exams for a Business School in France and has created and developed this Outreach Initiative for REVOLVE! 
Juline has a strong interest in communication and enjoyed a short internship in the communication department of Thales Alenia Space in Toulouse 4 years ago. This summer, Juline volunteered for a one month internship in Heriot-Watt University, where she worked on outreach activities as part of the Revolve project. She was supervised by Prof. George Goussetis and Dr. Carolina Mateo-Segura and during the internship the main focus was on two objectives: Dissemination of the research and space telecommunications activities for kids and finding ways to dismantle the barriers that prevent girls from becoming engineers. With the assistance of Lynn, REVOLVE Administrator, Juline set up the Revolve Outreach website, developing a website that is more accessible for the younger audience. Juline also created a series of short videos that explain what a satellite is and how it moves in orbit. She included some videos promoting women for engineering along with an additional video of Herve Legay, Technical Director at Thales Alenia Space (France), presenting the Revolve project. Juline also suggested the communication project ‘Space for Kids’, the objective of which is to create a regular link with young pupils throughout Europe and their research team. Some details surrounding Space for Kids and the PhD students have already been presented on REVOLVE Outreach. The REVOLVE group agree that it will be a great platform to carry out their dissemination activities, and give sense to the scientific adventure! It will be also a great opportunity for the kids to follow our group of researchers, learn more about space, and hopefully encourage them to consider engineering as a vocation. This link could be implemented with the use of social networks and we have planned a competition which will include ludic activities. Juline hopes that this project will interest the wider public and that both the kids and students will be happy to take part in the exciting initiative!!
To browse the website and show your support for Juline's initiative see: REVOLVE Outreach
