The Cambridge Festival comes to the Ray Dolby Centre
March saw us open our doors for the first Cambridge Festival events hosted in the Ray Dolby Centre where, as part of the university-wide festival, we welcomed the public in for a day of talks, demonstrations, and hands-on activities. Saturday 21 March was the West Cambridge day, and we collaborated with departments across the West Cambridge Innovation District to ensure attendees were aware of the wide range of events on offer. The Cavendish’s day opened with a talk from the inimitable Dave Ansell, of Sciansell, in which he provided a long-overdue update to Faraday’s famous ‘Chemical History of a Candle’ talks. Audiences learnt about the science behind modern lighting systems via a series of fires, sparks, and carefully controlled explosions. In the afternoon, audiences went head-to-head with Sam Gregson, the ‘Bad Boy of Science’, and our own High Energy Physics (HEP) research group in a series of challenges based around the cutting-edge particle physics being done at CERN. Despite a plethora of PhDs and a Professor – Tina Potter – making up the High Energy Physics (HEP) team, strength of numbers triumphed and the audience won the competition. For our final talk, Sam Grimshaw joined us from next door to show how the Whittle Laboratory is developing the technology that will underpin carbon zero aircraft propulsion systems. Alongside this lofty aim, he demonstrated how the science used to design and test jet engines has lifted the veil on the art of swing bowling in cricket.
Parallel with our esteemed speakers, we ran the East Anglia heat of the national 3 Minute Wonder competition. Growing from a local competition first held 14 years ago, 3 Minute Wonder tasks early career researchers with explaining their work to a general audience in only three minutes, using one slide and as many props as they like. This year’s winner was Daniel L Robins, a PhD student from the Kavli Institute for Cosmology’s REACH project, with his talk ‘Unveiling Cosmic Dawn’. The national final was held on 27 May at the Royal Institution in London and, despite a strong showing from Daniel, the competition was won by Tara Ryan, from the University of Limerick and representing Ireland.
Hands-on activities and direct engagement with researchers are cornerstones of our engagement activities, and we were delighted to have representatives from the Vision Lab and HEP research group take part this year. Visitors to the Vision Lab exhibit were shown a variety of ways in which imaging and light technologies assist other healthcare issues, and how the team are working to ensure these technologies work well for all skin tones.
Continuing the theme of viewing the invisible, the HEP group set up a cloud chamber and their muon detector. This allowed visitors to see the subatomic particles that pass around (and through) us and learn about the work high energy physicists are doing to understand the fundamental building blocks of the cosmos.
Elsewhere, visitors used their understanding of forces to build bridges and self-supporting structures using some of the Outreach Office’s practical kit, and Will Hay, Chief Technician from the Department of Engineering, brought his camera obscura and made full use of the Ray Dolby Centre’s views over Cambridge to practically demonstrate the fundamentals of optics. The ever-popular planetarium from the Mark Rutherford School was housed in our first-year undergraduate labs, giving those lucky enough to secure tickets a peek into the teaching wing.
Following the public activities of the weekend, we welcomed students from local schools into the department for the Festival’s schools days. These days aim to bring researchers and students together to encourage young people to pursue higher education and research careers through curriculum-relevant talks, workshops, and activities.
Over two days, more than 1000 students visited the Departments of Computer Science, Material Science and Metallurgy, Physics and the Veterinary School. The Ray Dolby Auditorium hosted the largest lectures, attended by nearly 400 students, and we welcomed over 300 students over the two days into the nearby seminar rooms for hands-on physics activities based around the physics curriculum.
March also saw the last of this academic year’s Outreach programmes. The Cambridge Physics Experience finished with a week of Year 7 events that welcomed around 200 students from around the UK into the Department, who used their understanding of curriculum physics to develop the most effective mission to Mars. This required that they design the wheels and suspension system for a lego rover, effectively cushion an accelerometer to reduce the force it experiences, and design an aerodynamic shell for their lander. This marks the end of another year of our activities for Year 7, 9, and 12 students, and bookings will open soon for the 2026/27 programme.
Preparations are well underway for this September’s Physics at Work event, when we hope to build on the success of last year and bring another 2000 students face-to-face with those working in physics-related careers to show them what is possible with further study in physics.
Children attending Physics at Work 2025
Children attending Physics at Work 2025
Children attending Physics at Work 2025
Children attending Physics at Work 2025
More information about our programmes can be found on our website.
Our work relies on generous donations of all amounts, if you would like to contribute to our activities, please do so here.