Swansea University’s Oriel Science is back with a new exhibition venue in the heart of Swansea city centre and will open its doors on Saturday 22nd May.
Open from 10am-4pm on weekends and during school holidays, visitors of all ages will be able to discover the wonders of the world-class research that takes place at Swansea University.
This new venue will build on the success of Oriel Science’s pop-up venue on Princess Way which welcomed almost 16,000 visitors and over a thousand children during its 100 opening days in 2016-17.
The theme of that exhibition was ‘Time’, and exhibits included a mock-up of the Large Hadron Collider, and a ‘Back to the Future’ themed DeLorean sports car to highlight research into curved space-time.
Entry to the venue in Castle Street (a minute’s walk from Castle Square) is free and will feature two exhibitions entitled ‘Movement and Motion’ and ‘Swansea University’s Response to Covid-19’.
In ‘Movement and Motion’, visitors can see how glaciers are surging in the Arctic, learn how particles can be levitated with ultrasonic speakers, and measure their arms’ length against the wingspan of a condor. The Swansea University Race Car Simulator will once again be available for all to test their skills on the virtual track, as well as The Hydrogen Bike and the hydrogen fuelled Rasa car produced by Welsh zero-emission vehicle manufacturer Riversimple.
Exhibits and presentations in ‘Swansea University’s Response to Covid-19’ show the huge extent to which the University’s students and research staff have helped the local community and frontline workers respond to the pandemic. Exhibits include 3D printed visors, a ventilator, and paintings representing the dreams of key workers during the Covid-19 lockdown.
Professor Chris Allton, Director of Oriel Science said: “It is truly wonderful to open our new city centre venue to showcase the University’s research to people living in and around Swansea. Oriel Science uses this amazing research, packaged into fun and interactive exhibits, to inspire the younger generation so that they can become our future engineers, doctors, technologists and innovators.”
Professor Martin Stringer, Pro-Vice Chancellor at Swansea University added: “It is great to welcome the opening of Oriel Science’s new city centre venue. This is an important event, especially in this most difficult of years. The University has, in many ways, been at the forefront of work to tackle the social and medical impacts of COVID-19, as will be shown in the exhibition at the new venue, but more than that, the opening of this venue demonstrates a commitment to Swansea, and particularly to the next generation of budding scientists in the Swansea region that looks beyond COVID-19 and on towards the future.”
