Outreach
Outreach Activities
Upcoming Outreach Events
North Star Science School – 18th November 2026
We are exhibiting at North Star 2026 in Gullivers Valley, Rotherham, with stand activities and giveaways.
There will be up to 1000 year 8 and 9 students attending, and we look forward to inspiring them to think about a career in STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Maths).
We hope to see you there!
Past Outreach Events
Pint of Science 2026
One of our PhD students Katie O’Flaherty gave an insightful talk at the Pint of Science UK event in Sheffield in May.
Katie’s talk was on quantum photonics for quantum key distribution for satellites using semiconductors.
Her talk was about the fundamentals of what “quantum” really means — including Nobel Prize-winning experiments — through to the principles of quantum cryptography, why it matters for the future of secure communications, and how modern research is making these technologies possible.
View the video to find out more!
University of Sheffield’s ‘Girls in Electronics’
Dr Zofia Bishop and Dr Young exhibited at the School of Electronic & Electrical Engineering’s ‘Girls into Electronics’ summer school in July, which is in conjunction with UK Electronic Skills Foundation.
This is the second year we have attended the event, which is for 60 school girls from across the UK to learn about Electrical and Electronic Engineering.
The agenda includes insightful talks, interactive lab sessions, networking opportunities and student project exhibitions. Zofia and Katie exhibited the LDSD ‘Communicating With Light’ demonstration shown below and spoke to students on their student and career experience.
Faculty of Engineering Project weeks at the University of Sheffield
We have exhibited at these events for the last few years, to engage with students and encourage them to think about further study in engineering:
- Global Engineering Challenge for 1st year undergraduate students from the Faculty of Engineering
- Engineering You’re Hired for 2nd year undergraduate students from the Faculty of Engineering
The Low Dimensional Structures and Devices group (LDSD) kindly lent us their ‘Communication with Light’, which is a quantum cryptography system. See the Demos section for more details.
IOP’s Quantum Undergraduate Day
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.
Cambridge Science Festival
Prof Rachel Oliver and Dr Menno Kappers attend the Cambridge Science Festival annually, providing various stand activities . In March 2024 the Cambridge Centre for Gallium Nitride ran an exhibit on energy efficient electronics.
Outreach Videos
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.