The Future is Fantastic: Christ College visits the Cheltenham Science Festival

 

Christ College pupils visited Cheltenham’s prestigious Science Festival at the Town Hall for a whole spectrum of exciting and informative displays and lectures.

 

They learned about the mysteries of the teenage brain, witnessed the awesome combustion of a digestive biscuit soaked in liquid nitrogen, and listened to an inspirational talk from space scientist Dr. Maggie Aderin– Pocock, who harbours a personal ambition to go to Mars.

 

The students also enjoyed experiencing “aging” software, to get a glimpse of how they might appear as adults.

 

The field of Robotics was very well represented at the Festival. All of the students conversed with Oscar the Robot, and also on display was the Heart Robot, which is designed to show what it might be like when machines demonstrate emotional characteristics, and how our relationships with them could change.

 

The Rep Rap, or Replicating Rapid Prototyper is an ingenious 3D printer. Instead of printing on paper, it makes robust mechanical components from layers of plastic. It can even “self-copy“ its own parts.

 

Also on display were the imaginative entries into the Design a Robot competition, many from Christ College students.