QET Labs at Cheltenham Science Festival 2017

QETLabs researchers and PhD students showed the public demonstrations of optics and its use in encrypted communication systems (pictured above: Lawrence Rosenfeld).

Cheltenham Science Festival is one of the UKs largest public engagement science exhibitions, which has had attendance of 45,000 visitors at previous events. This year’s festival saw researchers from QETLabs showcasing a variety of demonstrations.

Organiser and researcher Henry Semenenko engaging a young scientist in message encryption

Researcher Jake Kennard (left) and organiser and researcher Alasdair Price (right) ready to decode!

QET Labs students and researchers Henry Semenenko and Alasdair Price organised demonstrations ranging from explaining the fundamental properties of light such as polarisation, and how we use it in sunglasses and 3D cinema glasses, to addressing current affairs of hacking encrypted messages and securing communications against malicious adversaries.


Pictured: PhD student Ben Slater

The exhibit was well received, engaged with a large number of people and was popular with schools, children and adults from all types of non-technical backgrounds. Many were interested in how optics and quantum technologies work and how it will impact their lives in the near future.

A demonstration showing the birefringent properties of sticky tape observed through a linear polariser.

Outreach events are fundamental to inspiring the next generation of scientists, and communicating to a general audience the importance of our research. If you would like to find out more about our research visit http://www.bristol.ac.uk/physics/research/quantum/.

Pictured: PhD student Sam Morley-Short

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