Children in Burnley can interview real-life 'Iron Man' during free online video talk

Richard Browning, founder and chief test pilot of gravity industries, will be giving a free online talk at 10-30am on Wednesday where children will be able to find out more about the jet powered suit that allows him to fly.

The talk is being hosted by the Primary Engineer project, a not-for-profit organisation based in Burnley that works across the UK bringing together teaching, engineering and data professionals to engage young people aged from three to 19 years old.

With schools closed, project leaders launched a home learning platform last month with free resources to help parents who are struggling to home school their children during the coronavirus pandemic.

Richard Browning's talk – which can be registered for here – is one of a number of live, online interviews taking place with engineering professionals from all sectors, including an astronaut from NASA, a brain engineer at King's College London and engineers from Facebook, Gatwick Airport and Ford UK.

Electrical engineer Kerrine Bryan, who is also the founder of Butterfly Books, is giving a talk today at 10-30am. Her aim is to educate, inspire and entertain through career themed children's picture books.

She will be reading an excerpt from her book ‘My mummy is an Engineer’ and people wishing to listen in can do so by registering here.

This will be followed by Chris Alpin, who at 1-30pm will be talking about how he creates computer visual models and uses his knowledge of materials of the earth to help design solutions that ensure railway tracks are suitable for trains to run as they should. Bookings can be made here.

CEO Susan Scurlock said: “The online interviews allow young people at home, the chance to speak and 'meet' with engineering professionals while schools are closed and allows them to discover things about engineering which they didn’t know before.

"Children are natural engineers and once they have investigated engineering and interviewed an engineer, their inventiveness, ingenuity and originality really does shine through in their designs."

Free Primary Engineer resources can be downloaded at www.leadersaward.com while news on all upcoming guest speakers will be posted on their social media pages.