Outreach
Outreach Videos
Outreach Activities
Past Outreach Events
We had an exhibition stand at the Faculty of Engineering Project weeks at the University of Sheffield:
- Global Engineering Challenge on Wednesday 29th January 2025 for 1st year undergraduate students from the Faculty of Engineering
- Engineering You’re Hired on Wednesday 5th February 2025 for 2nd year undergraduate students from the Faculty of Engineering
We were fortunate enough to be able to borrow the ‘Communication with Light’ demo from the Low Dimensional Structures and Devices group (LDSD), which is a quantum cryptography system. See the Demos section for more details.
Dr Nick Bailey attended the IOP Quantum Undergraduate Day on 20th November 2024, to give a talk to undergraduate students and to promote our PhD studentships and upcoming PhD Open Day.
His talk, titled ‘How the Quantum Sausage is Made: A PhD in Semiconductor Growth’, gave an introduction on MBE and MOVPE techniques and how they fit into emerging quantum technologies.
Nick also gave insight into his personal PhD experience at the University of Sheffield and on the PhD opportunities the National Epitaxy Facility has to offer. He also promoted our PhD Open Day on 4th December, encouraging students to attend to learn more about the Facility and studentships.
Dr Young In Na and PhD student Katie O’Flaherty exhibited at the University of Sheffield’s School of Electronic & Electrical Engineering’s ‘Girls into Electronics’ summer school on 2nd July 2025, which is in conjunction with UK Electronic Skills Foundation.
60 school girls from across the UK attended the event to learn about Electrical and Electronic Engineering with insightful talks, interactive lab sessions, networking opportunities and student project exhibitions.
Young In and Katie exhibited the LDSD ‘Communicating With Light’ demonstration shown below and spoke to students on their student and career experience.
Prof Rachel Oliver and Dr Menno Kappers attend the Cambridge Science Festival annually. In March 2024 the Cambridge Centre for Gallium Nitride ran an exhibit on energy efficient electronics.
LDSD Demos
Communicating With Light
Communicating with light is an optical fibre system where students can see how to carry information with light, eavesdrop and see how photons carry information, all whilst playing fun 80’s music.
Single Photon Challenge
The Single Photon Challenge is in the form of a Light Emitting Diode (LED) which generates short light pulses of various intensities. Light from the LED is coupled straight to the optical fibre and split equally into three fibre outputs. It is a competitive game where players look through the microscope and click every time they see a red dot (photon).
Quantum Interface of Photons
Quantum Interface of Photons alters between single photons and two photons, and the different ways they travel. Based on the Hong-Ou-Mandel effect on photonic structures,a key component of photonic quantum information processing.
*All demos are borrowed from the LDSD group at the University of Sheffield. Please see their website for more information – https://ldsd.sites.sheffield.ac.uk/easy-science.