Hundreds of engineers set to inspire young people in UK-wide ‘Big Assembly’

UK-WIDE ASSEMBLY TO FOCUS ON ENGINEERS ON A HEALTH AND WELLBEING MISSION

• Hundreds of engineers on a mission set to star in Tomorrow’s Engineers Week (4-8 November 2019, #TEWeek19)

• Schools urged to sign up to UK-wide “Big Assembly”

Hundreds of engineers are set to inspire young people to become engineers this November.

The engineers from a range of backgrounds all have one thing in common: their incredible work on exciting projects that make a positive difference to people’s health and wellbeing.

The engineers on a mission will be the stars of films and a unique Tomorrow’s Engineers Week Big Assembly, which offers schools across the UK the chance to take part in the same assembly on engineering careers at the same time. 

The Tomorrow’s Engineers Week Big Assembly takes place on Wednesday 6 November. More than 850 schools are expected to sign up with tens of thousands of students expected to take part and ask questions using social media. Last year 50,000 young people took part in the inaugural Tomorrow’s Engineers Week Big Assembly. 

Schools can sign up to be part of the Big Assembly at bigassembly.org. It will be streamed live from The Chase School in Malvern, Worcestershire and will available to download or stream on demand 24 hours after the live broadcast. Lesson plans, written by a teacher from Appleby Grammar School in Cumbria are also available for schools to use.

The engineers on a mission featured during Tomorrow’s Engineers Week, which runs from 4-8 November 2019, include:

• Yewande Akinola who uses engineering to design and construct buildings in our built environment.
• Natalie Cheung, a civil engineer with a passion for mentoring young people to become engineers on a mission.
• Imogen Graves, a civil engineer helping protect the environment.
• Ellen Harper, a masters student at University of Strathclyde helps those with restricted mobility to swim.
• Hiba Khan, a civil engineer keeping people’s homes safe.
• Rhodri Lewis, a lifeboat systems engineer at RNLI.
• Mat Murgatroyd a mechanical engineer working on improving mobility of patients with knee issues.
• Nana Odom, a clinical engineer using technology to support and advancing patient care.
• Rebecca Shipley, a healthcare engineer helping to beat cancer.
• Severin Skillman, software engineer with the UK Dementia Research Institute.
• Tijana Jevtic Vojinovic a biomedical engineer specialising in rehabilitation and assistive technology at the Royal National Orthopaedic Hospital.

The Tomorrow’s Engineers Week Big Assembly is sponsored by EngineeringUK, Institution of Civil Engineers, Institution of Engineering and Technology, Institution of Mechanical Engineers and the National Centre for Computing Education. It is supported by the Energy Institute, the Institute of Physics and Engineering in Medicine. It has the backing of the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy.

Broadcaster Fayon Dixon, will host the Tomorrow’s Engineers Week Big Assembly for a second year. She said:

“I’ve seen first-hand how engineers can make a huge difference in the world. Every year I host events for young people at The Big Bang Fair and see them inspired by engineers who are helping to develop medical procedures, keep us safe, make us fitter and even save the environment we live in!

“I’m delighted to be hosting the second Tomorrow’s Engineers Week Big Assembly and would urge all schools to sign up to take part.”

Jodie Smith, Professional Partnerships Lead at The Chase, commented:

“We at The Chase firmly believe that encouraging more students to take science, technology, engineering and maths subjects is vital to the UK’s future success.

“The Chase was recently named one of the National Centre for Computing Education’s Computing Hub schools which will help us encourage more young people to understand the power of what they can achieve by becoming engineers in this 21st century world. 

“We’re delighted to be hosting the Tomorrow’s Engineers Week Big Assembly and look forward to welcoming all the participating schools to the event.”

Beth Elgood from EngineeringUK, the organisers of Tomorrow’s Engineers Week, added: 

“Tomorrow’s Engineers Week provides an opportunity for the engineering community to work together to inspire the next generation of engineers. The number of professional engineering institutions, engineering employers and individual engineers who participate in this collective drive to raise the profile of engineers grows each year. 

“Whether it’s visiting a school to talk about engineering careers as part of the Big Assembly, staging an event to celebrate what engineers do or supporting Tomorrow’s Engineers Week on social media there are lots of ways to get involved.”

More information on how to get involved is available at tomorrowsengineers.org.uk/teweek. 

Schools can sign up to be part of the Big Assembly at bigassembly.org.