From February 9 to 14, schools, colleges and universities around Ireland will play host to an array of exciting events aimed at engaging school children and entire families in the wonderful world of engineering during Engineer’s Week 2014!
OK, LEGO!
It took 432kg of LEGO before this little brick finally cracked under the pressure
The iconic LEGO brick (toy of choice of many an engineer!) features highly in the week’s festivities. Dr Ian Johnston is an engineer famous for experimenting to find out just how strong LEGO bricks really are.
Dr Johnston, a consultant for BBC’s Bang Goes the Theory, will be delivering a part-lecture, part-live experiment, part-public participation event at Engineers Ireland headquarters in Ballsbridge, Dublin on February 13. It’s free and open to the public so book your place now!
If you prefer a more hands-on experience of LEGO and would like to build your own robot then perhaps the Learn It workshops are more your style. There’s a junior robotics workshop for first to third class pupils; children can build LEGO models with sensors and motors and connect them to a computer to programme behaviours.
The machines and mechanisms workshop is aimed at older primary school students and explores deeper concepts. Participants will measure distance and calibrate scales while figuring out how to get their robot moving. All of these workshops are running in Cork City Council’s Lifetime Lab.
Engineering the future
Robots are not the only futuristic theme during Engineers Week. If you’re interested in how engineers are designing the cities of the future, perhaps the ‘Smart City – Smart Campus’ tour of Trinity College Dublin – organised by the Young Engineers Society – will appeal to you.
Save your energy for NUI Galway Energy Night
NUI Galway’s New Engineering Building is one of the most energy efficient building in Ireland
This popular Engineers Week event (now in its fourth year) is student-run and has proven popular with industry, academia and the public. The issues of renewable energy and energy efficiency are important; will wind turbines be our main source or are they too invasive? These issues will be tackled and there is also a tour of the university’s cutting edge new engineering building, one of the most energy-efficient buildings in Ireland.
You can count on Dr Maths
There are hundreds more fun events up and down the country, including an exploration of randomness and chaos in the universe by Dr Maths at IT Carlow or the Kilkenny Castle engineering treasure hunt for primary school students. Visit the Engineers Week website events for a full list of events.
Use the #engweek14 hashtag to follow the Engineers Week chatter across social media sites.
