Department of Engineering / Events and Outreach / School and community outreach

Department of Engineering

School and community outreach

School and community outreach

Student numbers are up

The number of students starting the undergraduate Engineering course has seen a substantial increase on previous years. 324 first year students started their Engineering degree this term compared to 301 the year before.

Volunteers get involved to share their enthusiasm for engineering with visiting school pupils and families, and also to get involved in the kind of activities many of them wished they could have done at school.

Joy Warde

Two hugely successful projects that without doubt have helped the Department to achieve such an increase are the Headstart summer schools and our Engineering Outreach programme.

Headstart summer schools

Dr Geoff Parks, a Senior Lecturer in the Department and Director of Admissions for the Cambridge Colleges, is involved in organising Headstart courses at Cambridge. Headstart is a national scheme, which is part of the Royal Academy of Engineering's 'Best' programme. Headstart organise courses, open to students in Year 12 (or equivalent) who are interested in knowing more about working in the world of science, engineering and technology. More than 1300 students from all over Great Britain attend Headstart courses each year.

Dr Parks, who has organised the Headstart course based in the Cambridge Engineering Department for more than a decade, said: "Headstart provides a fantastic opportunity to discover what it is like to be an undergraduate at Cambridge and to learn more about the scope and importance of Engineering in the modern world. It is very gratifying to see many students whom I first met on our Headstart course going on to great things as undergraduates, and indeed postgraduates, at Cambridge."

Headstart is one of several schemes run by the Engineering Development Trust, a charity dedicated to encouraging young people to consider careers in engineering, science and technology. Increasingly oversubscribed, the programme aims to give Year-12 pupils a taste of undergraduate life at a number of leading universities, and also insights into their chosen discipline.

The Headstart Engineering summer school at Cambridge gives participants a taste of the Cambridge style of teaching and the broad scope of the Engineering course which allows students to explore all the various disciplines before deciding on a specialism.

Participants live in Jesus College to give them a taste of collegiate life. The four-day programme incorporates lectures, practicals, supervisions and a team design-build-test project plus social activities. Through these, they have the chance to meet and talk with current Cambridge undergraduates, graduates and teaching staff.

Engineering Outreach programme

Dr Joy Warde is the Department's Outreach Officer who runs the Department's Engineering Outreach programme. Staff and students from the Department are involved with many activities to promote Engineering in both the local Cambridge area and nationally.

The outreach undertaken by the Department of Engineering engages children, families and young people in the challenge of hands-on activities - such as building rockets and planes, skyscrapers and bridges.

Working with more than 120 undergraduate and graduate volunteers, Joy stages a busy programme of outreach activities. Each year these attract participation by around 2,000 people, many of whom come from a 20-mile radius of Cambridge.

Some activities are staged for schools and groups; others are open to the general public. Regular free events such as the Discover Engineering family workshops are so popular that they are booked up well in advance. "Events like this are a great opportunity for local families to visit the Engineering Department, meet some real engineers and complete a fun hands-on challenge," said Joy.

The overall emphasis is on hands-on activities that encourage participants to get to grips with basic concepts such as flight and strong structures. The success of interactive sessions stems from well-planned projects, a plentiful supply of materials, and interaction between participants (who may be as young as six) and enthusiastic volunteers.

Joy points out: "Volunteers get involved to share their enthusiasm for engineering with visiting school pupils and families, and also to get involved in the kind of activities many of them wished they could have done at school."

Around 50 volunteers took part in the Rocket Car Derby session organised as part of Cambridge Science Festival this year. "It was fabulous to see families using some basic engineering principles to design, build and test a rocket car - and also have lots of fun," said Joy.

Teds in space

Earth from 30km

A team of students from the University of Cambridge sent four teddy-bears into space this week as part of an initiative to engage local schoolchildren in science and engineering.

This was a really fun thing to do. The best bit was when we set the balloon off with the bears. The CU Spaceflight team made us really involved and we helped assemble all the equipment.

Aiyana Stead, age 12

Bravely going where few of their kind have gone before, the Teddy-nauts were dressed in special space-suits designed and made by 11 and 12 year-old pupils from Parkside and Coleridge Community Colleges as part of a project with Cambridge University Spaceflight to help them learn more about science, engineering and space.

After a nail-biting wait for optimal weather conditions, the children were scrambled by their schools to the mission launch site at Churchill College, Cambridge on Monday. From there the four intrepid space pioneers, dressed in their special suits were launched on a foam padded box containing instrumentation and cameras attached to a helium balloon.

The Teddy-nauts spent two hours and nine minutes in flight from the launch site in Cambridge reaching heights of more than 30 thousand metres – known as Near Space or the Edge of Space. In spite of enduring temperatures of between minus 40 degrees and minus 53 degrees, depending on the effectiveness of their spacesuits, all four landed safely just north of Ipswich to be retrieved by the team of student scientists who’d travelled from Cambridge by car, following the Teddy-nauts’ progress via an onboard GPS system.

The enthusiasm of the pupils for the project was evident:

“This was a really fun thing to do. The best bit was when we set the balloon off with the bears. The CU Spaceflight team made us really involved and we helped assemble all the equipment.” Aiyana Stead age 12

“It was really fun when the balloon was blowing up. We had to hold it in the freezing winds. It felt like we were being smothered by a giant dumpling.” Megan Makinson age 12

“I really enjoyed launching the teddy-bear into space and I also enjoyed designing and building the teddy-bear suit. The balloon was enormous compared to the normal balloons, and it was really hard to keep hold of, but it was great fun letting go of it.” Kane Robbins age 12

Ed Moore – one of the CU Spaceflight team involved in the project said:

"Space is inspiring, and getting there brings together science, engineering, imagination, and lots of fun. As a team, we all have stories of the spark that lit the fire and motivated us to choose science and aim for Cambridge. There can be few more worthwhile things for us to do than to try and provide that spark for the current generation of school kids. We had a fantastic time working with the kids and their teacher, Dr Hinshelwood, and as a team we’re delighted that there could, with luck, be some hugely talented people joining CU Spaceflight in a few years time!"

Teacher, Steve Hinshelwood, who runs Science clubs at Parkside and Coleridge said:

“This was a super activity for the students to be involved in. They had great fun problem solving as they tried to turn their original space suit designs into something that they could actually build. Suddenly scientific ideas such as insulation, convection, conduction and radiation became important. Thinking about weight made ideas of buoyancy, pressure and the composition of the atmosphere relevant. The need to get the teddies back gave the students a chance to think about computer control and radio communications. I don’t think that the students realized how much science they were learning – they were just having fun. CU Spaceflight is a super team to work with. They were able to engage with the students at just the right level, stretching their understanding and always encouraging. They’re superb ambassadors for the fun that can be had following science.”

No treasured possessions were endangered in this experiment. The four teddy-bears used were purchased specifically for the mission by Mr Hinshelwood.

Engineering students involved in this project were: Rob Anderson, Jeremy Appleyard, Sal Drummond, Robert Fryers, Henry Hallam, Ed Moore, Daniel Strange and Iain Waugh.

Video of some of the launches and a gallery of many of the photos can be found at www.cuspaceflight.co.uk. Further launches are planned for the coming weeks.

Sport, Ethics and Engineering of the Olympic Games

A lecture for school children, age 12 to 15 years old, entitled 'Sport, Ethics and Engineering of the Olympic Games' took place here at the Department of Engineering. The two visiting speakers were Adam Whitehead, a former European and Commonwealth Champion and an Olympian at the Sydney Olympics 2000, and Dr Gilly Mara, a Sports Engineer.

The lecture began with Adam Whitehead, who showed off his array of swimming medals, including a Commonwealth gold medal and European Championships gold medal. The speakers gave an exciting insight into the world of engineering and sport and the ethical issues this raises. Engineering is not always seen by students as an important factor in sport in general nor the Olympic Games in particular. However, the very core of all sports focuses on engineering and modern technology. Athletic tracks have changed from grass, to cinders, to the synthetic all weather surfaces that are used today and basic markings for a pitch or arena have transformed these surfaces to become the great stadiums of our age. Even the humble football has changed from a pig’s bladder inside a laced leather cover which doubled in weight in the rain!, to the footballs of today, which are made from modern waterproof materials and retain their size, shape and weight in all conditions. Technological advances such as the modern swimsuits worn by elite swimmers, through to the prosthetic limbs and equipment designed to aid athletes who have a disability, were also highlighted. Students had the opportunity to meet and engage in a lecture and debate with a sport engineer and an Olympic athlete, opening their eyes to the world of engineering and how it has helped change the theatre of sport.

The ‘Sport, Ethics and Engineering of the Olympic Games’ lecture offers an exciting insight into the world of engineering and sport. Funded by the Royal Academy of Engineering and supported by the British Olympic Foundation. The lecture was organised in collaboration with SETPoint Cambridgeshire and was very well received by the 180 school children who attended.

Joy Warde, the Outreach Officer here at the Department who organised this event, recently won a 2008 Science and Engineering Ambassadors (SEAs) award for her outstanding contribution to initiatives that encourage young people's interest in engineering.

Young eco footprinters present findings to the Department

Year 10 students from Harry Carlton School

The Department of Engineering hosted a pilot secondary education programme aimed at stimulating informed change to consumption practices through Ecological Footprinting.

There is in here the potential for a national scheme to be developed to change the attitudes in schools in a reasonably scientific and analytical way.

Professor Peter Guthrie

Footprinting is a tool for estimating the land area required to sustain a population's life-style. It tackles a central sustainability question: just how much of the earth's bio-productive capacity do humans use? Answer for a UK citizen: 314% of their fair share. Footprinting can reveal the components of our life-style that have the biggest ecological impacts. This data is the stuff of informed change: how far could recycling and other initiatives take us, what would it really take for us to achieve 'One-Planet Living'?

The potential for footprinting to stimulate learning and change is being researched by Chris Cleaver as his fourth year project. Chris an undergraduate who is supervised by Peter Guthrie, engaged a group of 14-15 year old students from Harry Carlton Comprehensive School in collecting data to estimate and interpret their own school's Ecological Footprint. After an intensive eight weeks of surveying, sampling and processing the student group came to the Department to present their findings to a four-person panel, which was chaired by Philip Guildford, Director of Research, and included Professor Peter Guthrie, Dr. Joy Warde, from the Department, and Dr. Kate Billings, Faculty of Education.

Participating in the footprinting process

The Harry Carlton year 10 students had split into three groups, each collecting primary data for a different broad category of consumption. Faced with the task of estimating components of the school's food consumption, a group member described their approach, "we decided the best way of doing this was to design a questionnaire to discover how much pupils would eat in a school day…we first created a questionnaire and tested it, gave it out, then used Microsoft Excel to process the data". Despite testing, not all the problems were ironed out, "we weren't specific enough about how to answer some of the questions, we'd be asking how much fruit juice do you consume a week, and they'd write 3 down or something!"

Revealing results for the school's governors

Each group's results were then combined, and the total school footprint was estimated at 0.8 global hectares per pupil. This is 45% of a pupil's fair earth-share, to sustain an activity taking less than 20% of their time. The students showed that the life-style areas contributing the most were 'Shelter', including the school's electricity and gas usage, and 'Mobility', covering car and bus transport to and from school (both 35%). Meanwhile, paper and meat consumption were singled out as the big-hitters for 'Goods' and 'Food' life-style areas respectively.

For each area, the student footprinters had identified in their presentation simple actions that could lead to significant reductions in ecological footprint. Will these actions materialise? The lead-presenter thought so: 'we're going to continue the project, and we're going to deliver the results to the school governors…we must educate staff, students on all these issues and how they can reduce our ecological footprint'.

Joy Warde's words of commendation are telling of how the panel viewed the presentation: "I'm really impressed, you've done a really good job of doing the presentation with confidence; it's nice to see'.

Group-engagement in Footprinting: A strong concept

When the students and panel later sat down to reflect on the programme, one thing rang clear: the concept of participative footprinting was a good one. As one student put it, "probably the best way to learn it is to actually do it yourself; it helped a lot to find out exactly how you can cut down all these things, not just individually but as a group of people as well". Perhaps there was a wider lesson here about the value of engaging groups in change, something Philip Guildford acknowledged to Harry Carlton's footprinters, "personally, I found it quite inspirational, because I'm helping with changes on this site".

Can the programme go further and wider? Peter Guthrie has little doubt: "there is in here the potential for a national scheme to be developed to change the attitudes in schools in a reasonably scientific and analytical way". Those optimistic words seem a fitting response to the day the young footprinters held centre-stage in the Department of Engineering.

About the Author

Christopher Cleaver, a fourth-year engineering student, conceived, designed and helped to implement the school footprinting programme. After graduating, he intends to develop the concept further, and is pondering over models of dissemination. Chris did some eco footprinting last year with schools in Mauritius and this is an extension of that work. He is supervised by Professor Peter Guthrie, Head of the Centre for Sustainable Development.

Outreach work by the Department of Engineering wins national accolade

Joy Warde, Outreach Officer at the Department of Engineering

The educational outreach undertaken by the Department of Engineering to engage children and young people in the challenge of hands-on activities – such as building rockets and planes, skyscrapers and bridges - has been recognised by a prestigious national award.

Joy Warde, Outreach Officer here at the Department of Engineering, was one of a small group of practitioners to receive special commendation from the Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics Network (STEMNET) for an outstanding contribution to initiatives that encourage young people’s interest in engineering.

Funded by the Department of Trade and Industry, STEMNET works with partners in industry and education to run initiatives that encourage a flow of creative young people into the science, technology and engineering sectors.

The 2008 awards for Science and Engineering Ambassadors (SEAs) were presented by Ian Pearson, Minister for Science and Innovation, Lord Sainsbury and Jon Tickle, presenter of the TV show Brainiac at a ceremony at the House of Lords.

Joy was nominated for an SEA award by SETPoint Cambridge and St Alban’s RC Primary School in Cambridge. In its nomination St Alban’s wrote that, as a female engineer, Joy had challenged pupils’ stereotypical views of the profession, and had inspired them to discover new skills, such as team work and problem solving.

Working with more than 120 undergraduate and graduate volunteers, Joy stages a busy programme of outreach activities at the Department of Engineering for children, families and young people. Each year these attract participation by around 2,000 people, many of whom come from a 20-mile radius of Cambridge.

Some activities are staged for schools and groups; others are open to the general public. Regular free events such as the Discover Engineering family workshops are so popular that they are booked up well in advance. “Events like this are a great opportunity for local families to visit the Engineering Department, meet some real engineers and complete a fun hands-on challenge,” said Joy.

The overall emphasis is on hands-on activities that encourage participants to get to grips with basic concepts such as flight and strong structures. The success of interactive sessions stems from well-planned projects, a plentiful supply of materials, and interaction between participants (who may be as young as six) and enthusiastic volunteers.

“Volunteers get involved to share their enthusiasm for engineering with visiting school pupils and families, and also to get involved in the kind of activities many of them wished they could have done at school,” said Joy.

Around 50 volunteers took part in the Rocket Car Derby session organised as part of Cambridge Science Festival. “It was fabulous to see families using some basic engineering principles to design, build and test a rocket car – and also have lots of fun,” said Joy.

Expanding school resources on Carbon Footprinting

Steph Jezewski and Natosha Kilby

Inspired by a fourth year undergraduate project by Chris Cleaver in 2007/8 on Eco Footprinting in Schools, Professor Peter Guthrie FREng (Professor of Engineering for Sustainable Development), hosted two Year 11 (16-17 year old) school students for four weeks over the summer. The students, Steph Jezewski and Natosha Kilby, were given the task of expanding the teaching resources about Carbon Footprinting that they used in their school, and create new resources suitable for primary schools. They have developed resources for both Infant and Junior Primary schools. They then pilot tested the resources in two local primary schools in September.

The student placements were organised and funded by The Nuffield Foundation' Nuffield Science Bursaries. The Foundation offer bursaries to first year post-16 science, technology, engineering and maths (STEM) students, up to 1000 funded places a year, so that students across the UK can get an insight into the world of scientific research and development, including areas of technology, engineering and maths. Through the scheme, students take part in STEM based projects, lasting 4-6 weeks, in universities, industry or research institutions during the summer holidays. Students work alongside practising scientists, technologist, engineers and mathematicians.

Peter and his team were most impressed by the students work and believe that it could form the basis of a widely adopted national schools scheme for (a) improving environmental performance at schools and (b) raising the awareness of the importance of engineering in solving many of our environmental problems. The 'resource packs' they have created are very attractive and attention-grabbing.

The students presented their resource packs to some engineers in the Department. Following the positive feedback that this received the students have sent a DVD of their presentation to the Royal Academy of Engineering to see if it is something they would like to take further. The students had a presentation evening with all the other Nuffield Science Bursary Students in October and hope to enter their project for a Gold CREST (CREativity in Science and Technology) Award. This is a nationally recognised scheme to reward Science & Technology project work. Peter said "What was particularly good about this project is that the students did such excellent work largely unsupervised and they managed to produce a huge amount of work that impressed everyone. They are not planning on being engineers in the future so they had a completely different outlook on tackling the subject. One of the highlights was that they created two stories for the infant age children, this was a fantastic idea and really impressed all the staff here. Many wanted a copy there and then." The students were supported in their time in the Centre for Sustainable Development by Victoria Hickman (PhD student) and Bethanie Wattleworth (Engineering Undergraduate).

CamBridge Bridge Design Competition

'The Three Punts Bridge', side view by Riccardo Nori, aged 8.

The Department's Outreach Officer Dr Joy Warde recently ran two competitions to design bridges for the River Cam to mark the University's 800th anniversary celebrations. CamBridge Junior Competition (ages 5-11) and the CamBridge Senior Competition (ages 11-99).

The Junior Challenge (ages 5-11)

The junior challenge was to consider what the bridges of the future will look like and to design a foot and cycle bridge for the River Cam for 2109. There must be a clearance of 4m at the mid point of the bridge to allow boats to pass underneath.

Entries were judged according to their aesthetics, quality of drawing and technical plausibility.

The two winning designs will be included in the “Letters to the Future” which will be stored at the University Library until 2109. These letters will be opened during the 900th anniversary celebrations.

Winner 5-7 age range

The 'Rowing Boat' by James Pachebat, aged 7 from Stuntney, Ely.

Winner 8-11 age range

'The Three Punts Bridge' by Riccardo Nori, aged 8 from Bourn.

 

The 'Rowing Boat' by James Pachebat, aged 7
The 'Rowing Boat' bridge, side view by James Pachebat, aged 7.
Click on the image to see a larger version

 

 The 'Rowing Boat' by James Pachebat, aged 7
The 'Rowing Boat' bridge, view from above by James Pachebat, aged 7.
Click on the image to see a larger version

 

 'The Three Punts Bridge' by Riccardo Nori, aged 8
'The Three Punts Bridge', side view by Riccardo Nori, aged 8.
Click on the image to see a larger version

 

 The 'Rowing Boat' by James Pachebat, aged 7
'The Three Punts Bridge', view from above by Riccardo Nori, aged 8.
Click on the image to see a larger version

 

 

 

The Senior Challenge (ages 11-99)

On Saturday 20 June local families and schools were invited to build a model bridge for the River Cam. The eager contestants designed, made and tested a model bridge.

Teams were 4-6 people. A list of acceptable building materials and competition rules were sent to all participants in advance of the competition. All teams were encouraged to plan their bridge design in advance of the competition as the construction time was very short. Teams could build and test their bridge at the Department or build their bridge at home and bring it to the Department for testing.

The bridges were judged on the basis of:

  • The maximum load it can support at mid span
  • The maximum load divided by the weight of the bridge (a measure of efficient use of materials)
  • Aesthetic appeal

 

The winning teams

 

Most aesthetic design
Most aesthetic design
Click on the image to see a larger version

 

 The maximum load carried by a paper/cardboard bridge was 75kg
The maximum load carried by a paper/cardboard bridge was 75kg
Click on the image to see a larger version

 

 the most 'efficient' bridge was able to carry 77 times its own weight<br />
The most 'efficient' bridge was able to carry 77 times its own weight
Click on the image to see a larger version

HoverMagic

The event, sponsored by Research Councils UK, and organised by the Department's outreach officer Dr Joy Warde, was a hands-on activity day in which family teams were invited to design, build and test a hovercraft. The activity was aimed at children aged 6-13 to show them the fun, creativity and relevance of engineering. 1200 people, including the Vice Chancellor, attended the event resulting in the construction of 800 hovercraft. The families were assisted by over 60 engineering students and alumni.

The hovercraft were constructed from a battery powered motor mounted on a polystyrene tray. In order to succeed participants had to investigate the variables which affect the speed of travel. These included size and shape of the hovercraft body, design and postion of air intake, hovercraft weight and friction. Details of the kit used and instruction sheets can be found on the Department's Outreach website.

Participant feedback after the event was glowing:
"It’s a great day for our children! Many thanks for all the material provided free of charge."
"The event was great. The students were very enthusiastic. Thank you."
"It was fun and educational, well done."
"This was just so brilliant, all the children enjoyed it (so did my husband and I!!)."
"These events are always interesting/challenging, well organised and staffed. Good job."
"The children really enjoyed this and it is a great way to learn."
"It was awesome! Please do it again next year! We had so much fun."

Design a Wind Turbine - family workshops

Dr Joy Warde the Department's Outreach Officer held the first two 'Discover Engineering' family workshops at the end of last term. The workshops were sponsored by the Royal Academy of Engineering's Ingenious Fund which awarded £21k to develop and host 6 workshops this academic year.

Your workshops have given children like my son, an opportunity to experience a subject to which they would not otherwise have access. This in turn enriches their education, and extends their horizons.

The overall aim of the workshops is to introduce young people to the creativity, relevance and importance of engineering and technology in society. As part of the workshop Jim Platts, a lecturer here at the Department of Engineering, gave a talk on "Designing and Making Larger Wind Turbines".

On arrival eager families were given a standard kit consisting of a set of gears, generator, rotor hub and axle. The first task was to build the gear box and connect the generator. They then had to use information provided by the outreach team to design the shape, size and angle of their turbine blades. As the teams found out, this is a very complex problem, as they had to think about all the forces which act on the blade.

When complete they could test their turbine and record the maximum output voltage. Using the advice of the student Engineering consultants the teams then had the opportunity to tweak their design to try to increase the voltage output. There was a real buzz of excitement as teams were able to improve their turbines and record a higher voltage on the results board.

Each workshop ended with a prize giving ceremony where the teams who designed the top 3 wind turbines received a prize. Every child could take home a Discover Engineering certificate and a "what next kit".

The event was fully booked, as always, with 270 visiting children and parents and the feedback has been great. Comments from participants include:

"Your workshops have given children like my son, an opportunity to experience a subject to which they would not otherwise have access. This in turn enriches their education, and extends their horizons"

"Great workshop, very enjoyable and educational."

"Cool, it gets you to think a lot."

"Engineering is never boring."

The project was designed by a team of student volunteers and 32 undergraduate and postgraduate students helped on day.

PhD student Sam Bennett wins national volunteering award

Sam Bennett demonstrating engineering principles

Four students at the University of Cambridge have received Gold Awards from Volunteering England in recognition of their contribution to voluntary work.

A Student Volunteering Gold Award is presented for exceptional leadership, dedication and/or achievement and is a prestigious mark of excellence in student volunteering.

This year's winners have demonstrated their commitment to volunteering across a range of areas.

Sam Bennett, an Engineering PhD student, is one of the four Gold Award winners. He has been an active volunteer for the Department of Engineering's Outreach team for a number of years.

As Science and Engineering Ambassador he has helped to promote engineering to local young people, through assisting groups of children to complete design-build-test projects, and mentoring gifted and talented students.

His nominator Joy Warde the Department's Outreach Officer said: "Sam has been an active student volunteer for the Outreach team from October 2006 when he joined the University as a PhD student. The Engineering outreach programme aims to promote the fun and excitement of Engineering to local young people. Teams of undergraduate and postgraduate students help make engineering and the University of Cambridge accessible through hands-on design-build-test projects.

"As part of our educational outreach programme, Sam is registered as a Science and Engineering Ambassador. The Science and Engineering Ambassadors scheme forms part of a UK National STEMNET programme to enhance young people's scientific and technical capabilities and raise awareness of the importance of these skills to society.

"Sam is a very enthusiastic, energetic and reliable volunteer who has participated in numerous outreach events involving school aged children (aged 8-18) and their parents and/or teachers. So far he has donated over 350 hours of his time to the outreach programme over the last three and a half years. As part of his role as a Science and Engineering Ambassador he has:

 

  • led whole class teaching for both primary and secondary schools,
  • mentored gifted and talented school students,
  • assisted small groups of children and their teachers or parents to complete a design-build-test project,
  • given tours of the Engineering Department for schools,
  • worked as part of the outreach development team to design new outreach resources,
  • designed and delivered other University outreach projects e.g. at the Whipple Museum and on the Arts bus.

 

"Sam is a brilliant volunteer who works professionally and efficiently with the participating school children as well as other Science and Engineering Ambassadors, teachers and parents. He has demonstrated enthusiasm and commitment to all of the many activities for which he has volunteered. He will be leaving Cambridge in the August 2010 and he will be greatly missed by the outreach team."

Emma Wenborn, Community Affairs Officer at the University, said "The Gold Awards are a fantastic opportunity to recognise the outstanding achievements of our student volunteers. Around 5,000 University of Cambridge students volunteer each year, giving 85,000 hours of time to community initiatives. The four winners have demonstrated exceptional dedication, leadership and achievement in their voluntary endeavours. They are an inspiration".

The Awards were judged by the University's Committee on Community Activities, which oversees community engagement activity across the University.

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