More than 500 young people are heading to De Montfort University Leicester (DMU) on Saturday as the university hosts Creat-A-Con, a technology showcase which aims to show how inspiring careers in science and engineering can be.
Exhibitors includes Interact Labs, Leicester Hackspace, Face Your Elephant - which tours music festivals offering green energy advice - and Starbase Leicester. Visitors will be able to try technology such as 3D printing, Raspberry Pi, Minecraft, K'nex and computer-controlled robots such as Nao (pictured below).
People will be able to find out about the technology expertise at the university, which is home to the Institute of Creative Technologies (IOCT), a cutting-edge research unit.
The event, which will take place in Queens Building on Saturday, is being supported by the DMU Square Mile Project, which uses DMU’s academic expertise and an army of student volunteers to help the community.
The inaugural event has been organised by SideFest with the Square Mile. Jason Boomer, from Sidefest, said: “We registered SideFest in 2014 and thought about what we could do. We came up with something that would benefit students, so we pitched the Creat-A-Con idea to DMU Square Mile who absolutely loved it, within about 3 weeks we already had 500 people saying they were coming.
“The response has been so overwhelming and we’ve since been working with Square Mile to arrange a second event for later on in the year but we believe the overall idea for the event can be taken nationwide to other universities.”
Pupils from primary and secondary schools across Leicester will be at Saturday's event. DMU is committed to raising aspirations of school children to study STEM subject - science, technology, maths and engineering - at university.
DMU Square Mile manager Mark Charlton said: “We are thrilled so many people want to come to DMU for the Creat-A-Con event.
“We believe engaging young people in STEM subjects is crucial and raises aspirations to Higher Education and industry-related careers.
“DMU is committed to free projects like Creat-A-Con as we continue to demonstrate how a university can be a public good for its local community."
Posted on Wednesday 18 February 2015