Hundreds of local people descended on the University of Southampton to take part in a special astronomical event coinciding with the BBC’s Stargazing LIVE.

More than 200 people of all ages gathered at the University’s Highfield Campus to marvel at the wonders of the Universe as part of the free family event run by the Physics and Astronomy division.

Visitors were able to peer through the powerful rooftop telescopes at the night sky, enter the inflatable mobile planetarium – the Soton Astrodome - to learn about the visible Universe and what astronomers are doing to understand it. They also got to listen to talks from astronomy lecturers and astrophotography enthusiasts.

“This is the third year we have held this event in conjunction with the BBC’s Stargazing LIVE, every year we add more activities and I am always surprised by the numbers of people who turn up to find out more about astronomy, even when the weather has been bad for stargazing,â€? said organiser Dr Sadie Jones, Outreach Leader in Astronomy at the University of Southampton.

“It was wonderful to see so many people of all ages enjoying themselves and taking part in this great opportunity to investigate our local night sky and ponder the big questions of the Universe. Our talks on Black Hole Heartbeats and Saturn and Cassini proved very popular,â€? she added.

Also on offer throughout the evening were practical activities from the Astronautics Research Group who demonstrated their research into space debris and spacecraft systems engineering using interactive computer games, spacecraft test models and space activity packs.

While for the younger visitors there were hands-on fun activities where the students learnt about the moon phases and used inflatable planets and play doh to learn about the solar system.

The Stargazing LIVE event was just one of a number of different activities the Physics and Astronomy Outreach team organise every year. As well as visiting over 40 local schools every year they regularly take the Soton Astrodome to public places such as the Southampton City Art Gallery to encourage more young people and members of the public to gain an interest in discovering the secrets of the Universe.

For more information on the Soton Astrodome and its activities visit www.astrodome.soton.ac.uk or follow the team on Twitter @SotonAstrodome

Physics and Astronomy’s Public Engagement and Outreach Team is taking research out and about into the community to help raise people’s awareness of the exciting work being carried out – and the talks are proving extremely popular with recently packed-out venues.

Academics from the division have been invited to take part in a series of Café Scientifiques in the region that aim to give people the chance to explore the latest ideas in science and technology for the price of a cup of coffee or a glass of wine.

Café Scientifique is a long-running international initiative set up to run in cafes, bars, restaurants and even theatres, where the general public can come along to engage with a speaker to learn more about the latest research.

Recently researchers from Physics and Astronomy have been enthralling audiences with discussions about dark matter in the Universe, laser technology and holography. At one of the latest talks in Winchester dozens of people packed out the venue to hear researcher Dr Alexander Merle exploring the topic of how much dark matter there is in the Universe.

Public Engagement Leader Pearl John said: “In Physics and Astronomy we realise the importance of engaging people in the local community and wider afield in our exciting research. We have a long history with Café Scientifique locally and used to run one in Southampton.

“We are absolutely delighted that our recent talks have proved so popular with the public. Alex’s talk attracted so many interested participants that we have now arranged for him to hold another seminar in Winchester in March and he has also been invited to talk at the Southampton Café Scientifique.â€?

Contributing to the Café Scientifique talks are just one of the ways in which academics get involved in the extensive programme of outreach and public engagement activities many of which are run by the team in Physics and Astronomy.

“As a division we have a major responsibility to contribute to society through public engagement and we can also gain a lot from these events in return. My own research has benefited tremendously from the feedback and ideas I have got from giving talks to societies and interest groups,â€? said Pearl.

Physics and Astronomy are also working with their colleagues in Electronics and Computer Science who have recently set up a Virtual Café Scientifique – a cyber café where people can log on and find out about the exciting science and engineering research being carried out at the University.

To coincide with National Astronomy Week, the University of Southampton is hosting a special free astronomical event for all the family.

On Saturday 8 March from 5 to 9pm, members of the public are invited to see the stars and planets, in particular Jupiter which will be highly visible at this time, either from the comfort of the Soton Astrodome – the University’s inflatable mobile planetarium – or from the rooftop observatories.

The Astrodome will be running planetarium shows during the evening and there will be a number of tours to view the stars and planets through the roof telescopes. There will also be two ‘Zooniverse’ workshops, led by Dr Jen Gupta, to show people how they can become a ‘citizen scientist’ and contribute to real astrophysics research. As the event also takes place on International Women’s Day, there will be three talks on astronomy research by Dr Caitriona Jackman, Dr Sadie Jones and Professor Malcolm Coe with theme of celebrating ‘Women in Astronomy’.

The roof tours, planetarium shows, Zooniverse workshops and talks are free but require tickets, which can be booked in advance at http://womenastro.eventbrite.co.uk

There are lots of other free activities throughout the evening that do not require tickets. These include ‘World Wide Telescope’ tutorials and astrophotography workshops and the inflatable planets and play-doh solar system activities for young children, plus the Southampton Astronomical Society (SAS) will also be in the foyer with their telescopes.

Professor Malcolm Coe, Astronomer at the University of Southampton, says: “This free event will provide a great opportunity to investigate the night sky and encourage children, families and individuals to ponder the big questions of the universe. We also hope it will inspire more women into science by focusing on the great contributions female astronomers make to the subject.â€?

Come face-to-face with an interactive rhino, marvel at the wonders of the Universe, make your own robot, crack a code, explore gravitational waves, or build a bridge out of paper and sticky tape and see how many chocolate bars it can hold.

Take part in these and other exciting activities when you visit the University of Southampton’s stand at this year’s Big Bang Fair.

The Fair takes place at the NEC in Birmingham, from March 13 to 16, and a team from the University of Southampton will be on hand to challenge you in a range of interactive demonstrations exploring the innovative research taking place at the University:

Get up close to Erica the Rhino – 13-16 March She grunts and snorts and even responds to tweets. Erica the Rhino is an almost lifesize, fibreglass rhino that can react to the environment around her. Adapted by Electronics and Computer Science students, Erica is powered by Raspberry Pis, sensors, LEDs and sound output. Visit our stand to find out how we brought Erica to life.

Build a robot –14-15 March Ever wondered what it is like to build your own robot? Come along and get an interactive engineering and computing experience and find out how to make and control robots using hands-on demos and Raspberry Pis.

Explore the world of nanotechnology – 14-15 March Investigate engineering at a very small scale. Nanotechnology looks at materials that are smaller than a strand of hair. Experiments have to be carried out in clean rooms where no extra particles of dust and germs can contaminate the process. Head over to our stand to take part in a range of real experiments and experience what it is like to work in a clean room environment.

Marvel at the wonders of the skies –13-16 March Explore the secrets our Universe has to offer by stepping inside our mobile planetarium – the Soton Astrodome. Southampton students will guide you through the wonders of the night sky and explain more about the pioneering astrophysics research being carried out at the University.

Leading the way with laser technology – 16 March Be dazzled with our hands-on activities demonstrating how telephone, video and messaged data is sent around the world using lasers. Play with mirrors, lenses and transistors and learn more about our world-leading research into particle physics.

Constructing Bridges – 13 March Use four pieces of paper and a metre of sticky tape to construct your own bridge to span a 40cm gap. How many Mars bars will your construction take? Can you beat the record? Our exhibit helps demonstrate the fundamental principles of construction faced by civil engineers in their day-to-day roles.

Signal and Noise - 13-16 March How do we use mathematics to find patterns in the world? The world is full of information, but can we ignore the ‘noise’ we don't want and find the ‘signal’ that is hidden underneath?

• Can mathematics help us find out other people's secrets, and keep our own? Become an amateur mathematical James Bond and have a go at cracking a code. • Using only jelly beans, a kebab stick, and a small amount of sticky tape, we demonstrate how gravity is transmitted in the form of a wave. • Could you use statistics to win a million? Take part in various games of chance and see if you can find the pattern that allows you to predict the world, and win your first million.

To find out more about the world-leading research being carried out at the University of Southampton visit www.southampton.ac.uk.

A scientist from the University of Southampton will be helping to design and build the world’s largest telescope.

Professor Anna Scaife, from the University’s Astronomy Group, will join other UK scientists, engineers and industries in supporting the design of the Square Kilometre Array (SKA), which will be the largest and most sensitive radio telescope in the world.

Professor Scaife will lead the development of the Imaging Pipeline for the SKA as part of the Science Data Processor (SDP) work package consortium. She also has two postdoctoral research assistants, funded by the UK government, working on the project in Southampton, as well as leading a larger distributed team in the UK, South Africa, Australia and New Zealand.

Using a network of radio antennas around the world, SKA will advance radio astronomy in understanding how the Universe evolved and challenging Einstein’s theory of relativity. With receivers across Africa and Australia, its dishes and antennae will provide detailed information on the large scale 3D structure of the Universe.

The SKA radio telescope project will produce around 20 times the current global traffic of the internet in its internal telecommunications system. In fact, to play back a single day’s worth of SKA data on an MP3 player would take two million years.

Professor Scaife says: “We are very excited to be a part of the SKA project, which will stretch technology to its limits. The science done by SKA will help us to address some of the fundamental questions in astronomy, and we will be able to use this inspiring facility to transform the way we understand the Universe.â€?

The Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC) will manage the UK role in the project, which will be at the forefront of astronomy over the coming decade. This week, STFC confirmed £19m funding over the next four years to support the design of the SKA project. In addition, the Science Minister David Willetts has announced further funding of £100m for the SKA project as it moves towards construction from 2017. Thanks to the investment being made in the design phase, British scientists and industry partners are already helping to develop the central computing and data handling systems, which will read and process the huge volume of new data, meaning this project could lead to faster smartphones and increased internet speeds across the UK in the future.

Professor Phil Diamond, Director General of the SKA Organisation, said: “This is a really exciting announcement for the SKA and a solid proof that the project is now really underway. With such a major investment secured there is no stopping it.â€?

Students, academics and companies gathered at a special event at the University of Southampton to celebrate the outstanding achievement of Physics and Astronomy students on recent SEPnet internships.

Last summer SEPnet – the South East Physics Network – arranged 50 student placements at companies across the UK and 25 of these placements were awarded to Physics and Astronomy students from the University of Southampton.

SEPnet is a consortium of physics departments from nine world-class universities, including the University of Southampton, that are working together to promote excellence in Physics through high quality research, collaboration, teaching and outreach activities.

Clare Bodimeade, SEPnet employer engagement officer at the University of Southampton, said: “We were absolutely delighted that so many of our students were selected by SEPnet to take up their internships over the summer.

“We organised this event to celebrate the achievements of our students, showcase their work and raise the awareness, both with staff and students at the University and with local employers, about the opportunities these placements provide and the experience our students have gained during their work. It has been fantastic to see the students, interns and employers mixing and sharing their experiences

“We hope that by attending this event more students will be encouraged to apply for these internships and more employers will look to creating links with SEPnet to provide these internships in the future.â€?

Two of Southampton’s students – Amy Ennion and Azaria Coupe – were also celebrating recently winning awards at the annual SEPnet Students’ Expo. At the event the interns were asked to present posters on their summer placement projects and Amy and Azaria were recognised for their outstanding work.

Azaria, who worked on a CERN project for her internship, said: “I felt incredibly shocked when I heard I had won. It is excellent recognition and is something that will help me stand out and be respected by any future potential employers.

“The internship was an amazing opportunity. You gain far more experience, meet new people and can get involved in cutting edge research.â€?

For some Southampton students their internships have led to them gaining a job. MPhys Physics student Laura Benn, did a SEPnet internship at Magnetic Shields, in Kent, two years ago, and after graduating this summer she will be joining them as a Technical Consultant.

As well as staff and students, the celebration event also provided an opportunity for local employers to find out more about the benefits of providing SEPnet internships.

Derek Finch, a Senior Radar Systems Engineer at BAE Systems, at Cowes on the Isle of Wight, said: “I have found it really interesting to attend this event and see the internships that have been carried out. It is something we will be looking into for the future. It is a great way of giving young people the chance to gain an understanding about what sort of work goes on and see the different opportunities on offer, while as employers we are able to showcase what we do to potential graduates.â€?

Professor Bashir M. Al-Hashimi has been appointed as the new Dean of the Faculty of Physical Sciences and Engineering at the University of Southampton.

Professor Al-Hashimi, Associate Dean (Research) for the Faculty, will succeed Professor Dame Wendy Hall as Dean on 1 August 2014. Dame Wendy will take on a leading role in the University’s new Web Science Institute to be formally launched in June, as well as the new Centre for Doctoral Training in Web Science Innovation, which was recently announced by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC). “It is a great privilege to be appointed as Dean of the Faculty of Physical Sciences and Engineering,â€? said Professor Al-Hashimi who previously served as Deputy Head of Education, Electronics and Computer Science at Southampton (2005-2008). “This is an exciting time to lead the Faculty, which I fully expect to contribute strongly towards achieving the University’s ambitious plans for distinction, globalisation and growth. “I look forward to building on the world-leading reputation of the Faculty in providing an environment that supports and rewards excellence in all its endeavours, inspiring both staff and students to achieve their full potential, and enabling all of its academic units and institutes to succeed and prosper,â€? he continued.

Congratulating Professor Al-Hashimi on his appointment, Vice-Chancellor Professor Don Nutbeam said: “I am delighted to confirm Bashir’s appointment as the new Dean of Physical Sciences and Engineering. His outstanding track record in research, his clear commitment to education, and equally strong reputation in the electronics industry brings a formidable mix of experience to the post of Dean.

“I would also like to pay tribute to Dame Wendy for her leadership and contribution to the University’s success as a member of our Executive Group. She is one of the world’s trailblazers in Web Science and we look forward to her continued work in pushing out the boundaries in this field through the Web Science Institute and our Centre for Doctoral Training,â€? he continued.

The founder and director of the University’s Pervasive Systems Research Centre, Professor Al-Hashimi has a worldwide reputation for research into energy-efficient, reliable and testable digital hardware with a strong track record of innovation in system-level power management and power-constrained testing of systems-on-chip used in handheld devices. He is currently a member of the REF2014 panel Electrical, Electronic Engineering, Materials and Metrology.

Professor Al-Hashimi leads the £5.6 million EPSRC programme called PRiME – Power-efficient, Reliable, Many-core Embedded systems. The project brings together four world-leading universities and five industrial partners, to address major research challenges in future high performance and low-energy embedded computing systems.

He also has a long association with the innovative microelectronics group ARM headquartered in Cambridge, which sponsors his professorial chair and for whom he is the co-director of the ARM-ECS (Electronics and Computer Science) research centre at the University of Southampton.

In 2013, Professor Al-Hashimi was elected as a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering joining the country’s most eminent and distinguished engineers. In January this year, Professor Al-Hashimi was awarded a highly prestigious Wolfson Research Merit Award by the Royal Society, the UK’s national academy of science. He is a Fellow of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, a Fellow of the British Computer Society – the Chartered Institute for IT - and a Fellow of the Institute of Engineering and Technology.

In an industrial and academic career spanning 25 years, Professor Al-Hashimi has authored 300 publications, authored, co-authored and edited five research books in topics ranging from electronic circuits simulation to low-power test of integrated circuits, system-on-chip to energy-efficient embedded systems. He is very proud of the career development of his students (successfully supervising 32 PhD theses), many of whom now hold senior positions in industry and academia worldwide.

The Easter Bunny has followed hot on the heels of Derek the Teddy Bear who hit the headlines last year when he was launched to the edge of space.

The Bunny was the latest object to be sent into the stratosphere by Southampton Spaceflight Society.

The Society was set up by University of Southampton students and runs an exciting amalgamation of space related projects such as high altitude balloons and rockets carrying both scientific and unscientific payloads to the edge of space. They hope that by carrying out these events they will inspire young people to get involved in science and see how fascinating space is.

They first gained media recognition last March when they joined forces with pupils from Toynbee School, in Chandler’s Ford, to send Derek the Teddy Bear 21 miles up to the Earth’s stratosphere attached only to a helium balloon.

Now the Easter Bunny has followed suit jumping onto the Balloonberg payload that the team launched from Churchill College, in Cambridge, on behalf of the University of Southampton Physics Society (Physoc).

Society President Chris Frohmaier said: “The Balloonberg payload consisted of GPS trackers, a temperature sensor, a pressure sensor, a stills camera, a video camera, a cosmic ray detector, a radiation sensor, and a series of science experiments including a popcorn kernel, a marshmallow, a chocolate Easter Bunny, and a small container of water, to explore the effect of the high altitude on these objects.

“The video camera allowed us to observe the items the entire length of the trip, and the stills camera sent back a picture every two minutes. It flew for around two and a half hours and reached a maximum altitude of 38.5km before it popped.

At the same time the Society also launched another balloon in collaboration with Cedars Upper School, in Leighton Buzzard. The school organised the project to encourage children to study engineering, and sent trackers, a temperature sensor, a pressure sensor, a stills camera and a video camera up with their balloon. Teacher Paul Simmonds said that the pupils who took part were 'overwhelmed by the success of the project' and they have plans to inspire the rest of the school with a film from the launch.

Thousands of people discovered the wonders of the night sky inside the University of Southampton’s Astrodome at this year’s Big Bang Fair.

Visitors to the Physics and Astronomy stands marvelled as the secrets of the Universe were unveiled by astronomers in a series of shows in the Soton Astrodome.

The shows were just part of the range of activities at the exhibition in Birmingham showcasing the innovative research being carried out by Physics and Astronomy at the University.

The highlight of the event were the planetarium shows with hundreds of people queuing to book their places.

Dr Sadie Jones, Outreach Leader in Astronomy at the University, said: “The number of school children wanting to sign up for the shows was vast so we doubled the number of shows we were putting on to keep up with demand. We also ran mini astronomy shows on the screen outside the planetarium so people could find out more about our research.â€?

Families and schoolchildren who visited the stands could also discover more about the University’s research using the INTEGRAL gamma ray telescope by guessing the weight of the tungsten block. They also learned how the SCFED Project is developing supercritical fluid electrodeposition as a new way to produce nanowires that could be used in creating future types of transistors. Dr Kristian Thaller, the SCFED Project Programme Manager, said: “Knowing that so many people were able to share in research that may become the basis of every computer chip is very exciting for the entire team.â€?

Pupils from the Thomas Hardye School, in Dorset, joined researchers on the stand to share with young visitors the work they had been doing with the University of Southampton and the CERN@school project on transistor radios.

Sadie said: “We were overwhelmed with the amazing response we had to our demonstrations at the Big Bang Fair. Over the four days we had thousands of people and families enquiring about our research, taking part in our activities and watching our shows.

“We hope that by sharing the innovative research we are doing at Southampton we will spark an interest in more young people to apply to study Physics and Astronomy in the future.â€?

A company started by University of Southampton academic Simone De Liberato has just been sold to the NASDAQ listed company Criteo – a French ad tech firm.

Simone started AdQuantic three years ago, together with his colleague Cédric Chanal. Using their knowledge of physics and computer science they developed algorithms that could boost the performances of their clients’ search advertising campaigns.

Simone joined the University of Southampton in 2012 and he is a Royal Society Research Fellow in the Quantum, Light and Matter group, in Physics and Astronomy.

He said: “It is fantastic that AdQuantic has grown into such a successful company that it has been sought out and bought by a NASDAQ company. It is a reflection of the entrepreneurial work we did in launching our product and I am delighted that I am able to explore future opportunities at an entrepreneurial university like Southampton.â€?