A public artwork and workshop programme will bring quantum physics to local young people and community audiences across London in 2025 and 2026. The UK quantum sector faces a severe skills shortage, poor diversity, and a public that has heard of quantum computing but knows little else. Quantum mechanics is not on the curriculum for most secondary school students. This project tackles that gap by embedding an immersive art installation—*Echoes of Possibilities*—into Imperial College’s existing programme of public events. A cohort of ‘Young Producers’ from underrepresented local communities will lead reflective workshops, capturing public responses and comparing them with researchers’ own experiences of quantum science. If successful, the project could raise science confidence and career awareness among a diverse group of young people, while helping STFC-funded researchers communicate their work more effectively. The immediate impact is on public understanding and engagement, not on quantum technology itself. But by opening quantum opportunities to a broader generation of future scientists and innovators, the work supports the long-term pipeline of talent needed for the UK to compete in the global quantum race—a field that will eventually transform computing, telecommunications, and fundamental physics.
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A project bringing together STFC quantum researchers, experiential artists, and local young people to enable engagement with 2025’s UNESCO International Year of Quantum via immersive art and reflective workshops delivered across a programme of existing public and community engagement events Context The International Year of Quantum celebrates 100 years since the development of quantum mechanics. It arrives on the cusp of a second-generation of quantum technologies that will revolutionize computing and telecommunications, and advance scientific enquiry in physics, astrophysics and cosmology. Quantum’s immense potential has sparked a global investment race with the UK declaring quantum as a priority technology. The Challenge The UK quantum sector faces a huge engineering skills gap, a lack of interdisciplinary problem solving, and poor diversity at every level. Whilst the public may have come across phrases like quantum computing, the range of technologies and potential for new science is largely unknown, and quantum is not on the curriculum for the majority of secondary school children. Our overarching project aims 1. To raise public engagement, excitement, and awareness of what quantum is, and what it could mean for science and new technologies, and how this relates to peoples’ lives. 2. To support STFC-funded quantum researchers and colleagues to tell engaging research stories by drawing on creative approaches and young people’s perspectives. 3. To facilitate two-way engagement and shared perspectives between researchers and public participants. 4. To increase the science capital and science confidence of a diverse collection of young people (and their peer groups and networks) local to our campuses. We believe these ambitions support efforts to open up quantum opportunities to the next generation of scientists and innovators, and ensure developments in the field better respond to public interests, questions and needs. Approach, applications and benefits This proposal will fund an experiential and reflective quantum experience that will be incorporated into an existing Imperial programme of public and community events in 2025 and 2026. The experience will consist of three connected stages: 1. A unique, immersive, multisensory and interactive artwork – titled Echoes of Possibilities - to convey the wonder and excitement of the quantum world by bringing to life some of its unique phenomena and counter-intuitive physics in a way adults and children alike can engage with. 2. Connected to the artwork will be a reflective workshop led by a cohort of ‘Young Producers’ from our local community (building on a three-year programme bringing underrepresented perspectives into Imperial’s public programming]. Our Young Producers will capture the public’s experience of the quantum realm and compare those responses to our researchers’ own connections to quantum science. The activity takes inspiration from the Richard Feyman quote - “If you think you understand quantum mechanics, you don't understand quantum mechanics” - and will convey that a sense of surprise or even bafflement when confronted with quantum science does not mean you haven't ‘understood’ it - In fact, it might well be the opposite. 3. A collection of exhibits and live demonstrations to tell more specific stories of STFC funded quantum research which will be supported through training and advice from Imperial’s Public Engagement (PE) Team, and feedback workshops with our Young Producers. Elements of this project will feature throughout Imperial’s 18-month programme of public and community engagement events (part of Imperial’s in-kind support).
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