400 students from 14 East London schools assembled at the ExCeL on Friday, 4th of November for London City Airport’s first ‘STEM in Aviation Day’ since the pandemic.
The theme of this year’s event was ‘Zero Emission Flight’, which aims to inspire the next generation of innovators and entrepreneurs into decarbonisation technologies, with a focus on aviation. The event was particularly timely, coinciding with COP27, the launch of the Department for Transport’s ‘Generation Aviation’ recruitment campaign and the publication of Project NAPKIN, a blueprint for achieving zero emission flight across the UK by 2040.
London City Airport’s STEM in Aviation event aims to give students insight into the current and future applications of science and technology in the aviation sector and inspire them to choose Science, Technology, Engineering and Math’s (STEM) subjects in school.
Addressing the UK’s STEM skills shortage will ensure the continued success of the aviation sector, which is one of the UK’s most successful industries, contributing at least £22 billion a year to the UK economy, along with over 230,000 jobs.
A number of organisations involved in the event included Boeing, GKN, Accenture, Arcadis, University of East London (UEL) and London City Airport, who hosted presentations and interactive sessions with the students, showcasing how important STEM-based skills are to the future of the sector.
Aviation Minister Baroness Vere said:
“A career in aviation promises to be creative, inspiring and rewarding, and now also provides a chance to shape our future for the better as we face up to the challenges of climate change. It’s therefore vital we help the next generation of workers to imagine a future in flight.
“This great initiative by London City Airport will help us to reach a new audience as we look to bring the best talent into the aviation industry, spark students’ ideas on real world issues, and support our new Generation Aviation recruitment campaign.”
A new supporter of the event this year is GKN who is at the forefront of future sustainable aviation. GKN’s Vice President, Technology, Max Brown said:
“GKN Aerospace is delighted to support this STEM event. We are committed to the development of sustainable aviation and in particular, zero emission flight as is being investigated in our 5 year, H2GEAR research programme. The ground-breaking technology of hydrogen fuelled aircraft promises to revolutionise aviation with a zero-emission flight capability and we are excited to have the opportunity to pass on our passion to the engineers, scientists and technologists of the future.”
University of East London (UEL) said:
“Students and staff from our Aeronautical Engineering course enjoyed delivering the session to the schools. They had an opportunity to see how engineering works in real life and to put theory into practice. It was great seeing the students engaging and thinking about STEM as a future career.”
