Full STEAM Ahead

Over 3,700 parents, teachers and children came from across West Yorkshire to join in the European Researcher’s Night at the University of Huddersfield. The event, which is hosted annually at hundreds of venues across Europe, was held at the University for the second year running. It was one of the few centres in the UK to be selected.

The event aimed to show the role of research and the contribution it makes to society; as well as inspire younger generations to pursue careers in science or research. ‘Full STEAM Ahead’ refers to research around Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Mathematics.

Huddersfield Business School hosted several workshops, including sessions on ‘Diet and Health’ run by Pamela Anderson, ‘Erasmus Mundus & Tea Tasting’ organised by Professor John Anchor and Hana Benesova, and ‘Crowd-funding your game’ facilitated by Martin Smith. One workshop included an interactive game known as ‘The Brain Game’, which uses theories from project management and was led by Dr Moheeb Abualqumboz, Jim Bamford, Prof David Bamford and the Operations Management team.

The Centre for Sustainable and Resilient Communities (CSRC) organised an event entitled ‘Wake up and smell the coffee’, which was led by Professor Adrian Wood, Fiona Hesselden and other staff members. Meanwhile, Dr Maria Kozlovskaya ran an economic experiment throughout the evening looking at ‘Community Spirit’.

The night was incredibly well received, and attendees said they were extremely likely to visit a similar event in the future. “Seeing my kids’ faces as they walked from adventure to adventure - they couldn’t wait to enter the next space and just see what it had in store!” said one parent. Another commented: “Our favourite things were the interactive workshops; the kids now think that the University is super cool!”