As part of the SS Great Britain Trust’s "Future Brunels" programme, a group of eleven Year 9 students visited CQP and NSQI to witness demonstrations about fundamental phenomena observed in light such as refraction, total internal reflection and interference.

PhD students from the University shared their research with the Year 9 students and showed them how they use optical fibers to send and encode information using light.

The “Future Brunels” also had the opportunity to feel what it’s like to be a scientist by running their own experiment: the well known Young’s double-slit experiment, where they could measure the wavelength of light using their own mobiles.

At the end of the day, the eleven Future Brunels’ visited the CQP laboratories where they could see with their own eyes how PhD students spend their time and how research is done in the real world.