The students enjoyed input from Department of Materials academic staff in a programme of activities, designed to give students an idea of university life and the subject of Biomaterials, led by Senior Lecturer, Dr Sara Ronca.

The students started the week with a team task designed to bring the students together and start them thinking about how materials could be applied biologically – they created ‘bionic’ arms, which encouraged the students to think about the difficulties in applying materials in a way which meets the physical needs of human beings.

Photographs show a few of the teams demonstrating their bionic arms to an academic staff panel.

‌Throughout the week, students attended laboratory sessions and lectures in Biomaterials (Dr Elisa Mele), Drug Delivery (Dr Helen Willcock), Simulations (Dr Jamie Christie), Tomorrow’s Materials (Dr Simon Martin), Ceramics, (Dr Sina Saremi Yarahmadi) and Bioinspired Materials (Professor Gary Critchlow pictured right), and undertook a Biomaterials project, which they displayed on the final day.

Students also got to visit Lucideon in the UK, a Materials Development and Commercialisation company.

The visit included a presentation about ceramic processing and four demonstrations across Lucideon’s different expertise and activities. 

The students were shown physical testing, surface analysis, how to obtain a glass by melt quench and the application of inorganic materials in healthcare. The visit ended with a lunch made of Staffordshire oatcakes and the chance to chat about careers and opportunities in this field.

Outside of the academic input delivered, our visitors took part in a range of informal activities including a campus treasure hunt (starting from their Halls, pictured left), where they had to find, identify and photograph themselves in different spaces across the campus with sculptures and buildings.

They also had a sports evening (shown below) in the Victory Hall on site and on the final evening, attended a formal dinner in the University Council Chambers. (top photo.)

The formal dinner was attended by academic staff and senior university staff including the Dean of the School of Aeronautical, Automotive, Chemical and Materials Engineering, Professor Chris Reilly and Pro Vice-Chancellor for Teaching, Professor Rachel Thomson, who gave an inspirational speech to the students, which focused on her own experience of academic progression and encouraging the students to be open to, and engage with, the opportunities that academia and the world can offer.

The CEO of Smallpeice, Mr Kevin Stenson, also attended the dinner, offering his thanks to everyone involved with the course from Loughborough University and the Smallpeice Trust and, of course, the students for engaging so well with the subject area of Biomaterials.

On the final day, student teams displayed their work for staff to mark and presentations were given to teams for 'Best Bionic Arm', winners of the Campus Treasure Hunt and the main award, 'Best Composite.' The students and staff enjoyed a buffet lunch to end the event, with speeches from Head of Department, Mr Barry Haworth and summer school academic lead, Dr Sara Ronca, as well as from Mr Jon Bowmer, Education Officer for Smallpeice.

The feedback from the course was excellent, with 81% of students stating that the course had increased their interest in engineering in general, which was excellent to see, especially as 54% of the attendees were female students.

The Department of Materials would like to extend its thanks to Lucideon for hosting our students again this year, the Smallpeice Trust and its staff for their excellent support of the event, the academic and research staff who gave their time to deliver the taught elements of the course, and to all of the students who attended. All students immersed themselves fully in all of the activities and showed themselves to be potential engineers of the future!