Department of Engineering / News / Cambridge academics to showcase research excellence at Hay Festival

Department of Engineering

Cambridge academics to showcase research excellence at Hay Festival

Cambridge academics to showcase research excellence at Hay Festival

Academics from the Department of Engineering will take part in the Cambridge Series at the prestigious Hay Festival to speak on subjects including climate change and technology.

The University of Cambridge nurtures and challenges the world’s greatest minds and offers the deepest understanding of the most intractable problems and the most thrilling opportunities. And for one week a year they bring that thinking to a field in Wales and share it with everyone. That’s a wonderful gift.

Peter Florence, director of the Hay Festival

The literary festival, which celebrates its 30th anniversary this year, will run from May 25 to June 4 in Hay-on-Wye. This is the ninth year running that the Cambridge Series has formed a section of the festival. It is part of the University of Cambridge’s commitment to public engagement.

This year’s line-up includes:

Professor Steve Evans, Director of Research in Industrial Sustainability, will explore how the industrial system is (slowly) changing and why free energy is ignored. He will also explain how to be an environmental optimist and to love factories. Professor Evans will speak on Friday June 2 at 11.30am.

Dr Hugh Hunt, Reader in Engineering Dynamics and Vibration, on whether it is possible to refreeze the Arctic. Dr Hunt will speak on Saturday June 3 at 11.30am.

Professor Daping Chu, Director of Research in Photonics and Sensors, will discuss the car of the future and Head-Up Display technology alongside his Jaguar Land Rover collaborators. Professor Chu will speak on Saturday June 3 at 5.30pm.

Dr Michelle Oyen, Reader in Bioengineering, will assess the carbon footprint of popular building materials like steel and concrete and will discuss approaches for substituting new bio-inspired materials instead. Dr Oyen will speak on Sunday June 4 at 2.30pm.

Peter Florence, director of the Hay Festival, said: “The University of Cambridge nurtures and challenges the world’s greatest minds and offers the deepest understanding of the most intractable problems and the most thrilling opportunities. And for one week a year they bring that thinking to a field in Wales and share it with everyone. That’s a wonderful gift.”

To find out more, visit www.hayfestival.com. For the full line-up of the Cambridge Series and times, click here.

The text in this work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License. Images, including our videos, are Copyright ©University of Cambridge and licensors/contributors as identified.  All rights reserved. We make our image and video content available in a number of ways that permit your use and sharing of our content under their respective Terms.