Thursday 15 October - Hands-on STEM Challenges...
Day two of The Turing Conference brought together Year 9, 10 and 11 students from The Gryphon School, Sherborne Girls, Sherborne Boys, Harbour Vale School and Leweston School for an exciting day of hands-on STEM challenges at The Gryphon School.
The day opened with an introduction from Joe Miles, Associate Assistant Head for Digital Learning at The Gryphon School, before a team from Thales led a series of engaging innovation challenges. From constructing a wheelbarrow to programming and steering Sphero robots, students had the opportunity to put their creativity, problem-solving skills and teamwork to the test. The practical challenges proved a real hit with the students.
Unlocking the Future of Artificial Intelligence...
In the afternoon, nearly 200 students from the participating schools came together for an inspiring lecture by Professor Özgür Şimşek, Director of the Centre for Artificial Intelligence at the University of Bath.
Professor Şimşek explored the fascinating world of reinforcement learning, explaining how AI agents learn and improve through their own experiences. Using familiar games such as Tetris, Go and Breakout, she brought complex concepts to life and demonstrated how artificial intelligence can learn to make decisions and solve problems.
The second day of The Turing Conference highlighted the importance of giving young people opportunities to explore STEM beyond the classroom. Through practical challenges, collaboration and insights from leading experts, students were encouraged to think creatively, discover new interests and consider the exciting possibilities of future careers in science, technology, engineering and mathematics.
“I really enjoyed using the different parts to make a wheelbarrow. It was a great teamwork exercise.”
Alec, Student
“The day was really inspiring and has made me think a lot about the future and what careers are out there.”Kaja, Student
“It has been marvellous to see young people from so many local schools come together to innovate and challenge themselves. Many of them will go on to have careers in STEM fields, and today showed them a range of exciting pathways.”
Joe Miles, Associate Assistant Head for Digital Learning at The Gryphon School
