Institution news
Nearly 50,000 students took part in the assembly, broadcast live last month from Leicester to over 800 schools across the UK, connected by video stream and social media.
The Assembly featured a panel of inspiring engineers who discussed their careers and the positive impact engineering has on issues including the environment, health, safety and security.
Anneka Kang, a Young Member of the Institution, joined the panel to talk about clean energy and how engineering can help protect the environment. Anneka is studying for a PhD at the UCL Energy Institute investigating how to reduce pollution in the UK’s cities with clean heating technologies.
Tomorrow’s Engineers Week formed part of the government’s Year of Engineering campaign.
“It was fantastic to see so many students from around the country joining the first Tomorrow’s Engineers Week Big Assembly to hear inspiring stories from engineers on a mission, and the eye-opening questions they prompted,” said Minister for the Year of Engineering Nusrat Ghani.
“Events like this are a brilliant way of bringing this exciting profession to life and inspiring students to think about engineering as a career – the aims at the heart of the Year of Engineering.”
Alongside the Big Assembly, five engineers on a mission were selected to star in films which have been watched more than 100,000 times with content posted across Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, Twitter and YouTube.
They included Institution member and talented fire engineer, Roshni Wijesekera, who featured in one of the films.
The Big Assembly was also sponsored by BCS, ICE, IET and supported by other professional institutions.
Schools, colleges, students and parents can watch the Assembly again on demand at tomorrowsengineers.org.uk
With EngineeringUK data showing that 203,000 people with engineering skills are needed annually in the UK, the Big Assembly and Tomorrow’s Engineers Week aims to inspire more young people to consider a career in engineering.