In this talk I discuss the benefits of actively pursuing informal public engagement opportunities within academia. I reflect on an electronics workshop I ran earlier in my PhD and a Computerphile video I completed recently as two very different case studies which enabled me to reach wider audiences whilst informing my current research and academic thinking. I conclude the talk by highlighting some of opportunities and resources available to us in the MRL and discussing some of the techniques I have used to get involved outreach projects throughout my PhD.
The talk will focus on the Mixed Reality Storytelling (MXRS) project which was born of an Impact Accelerator funding grant. The project culminated with a curated two-part exhibit, consisting of an Augmented Reality display and a 3D scanner, which was hosted at the National Videogame Arcade last February. The planning and development of the components will be detailed, as well as the experiences of working with project partners and running the exhibit in a public space. Finally, the impact and practical returns of the project will be discussed along with possible future directions.
University of Nottingham School of Computer Science Nottingham, NG8 1BB
email: mrl@cs.nott.ac.uk