Big Bang Fair

Overview Interactive Activities Photo Gallery Video Gallery

Each year, Leonardo is proud to sponsor and attend The Big Bang Fair, offering visitors to our stand the chance to discover the exciting world of Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM).

The Big Bang Fair is the largest celebration of STEM for young people in the UK. It aims to show young people (primarily aged 7-19) how many exciting and rewarding opportunities there are out there for them with the right experience and qualifications.

Through the Big Bang Fair and a series of regional and local events, the organisation works with partner organisations – across business and industry, government and academia – such as Leonardo, to try and give a flavour of the real scale of engineering and science in the UK.

In 2023, Leonardo was again at the NEC in Birmingham (21-23 June), where The Big Bang Fair attracted thousands of young people and featured over 100 organisations from the public, private and voluntary sectors. It is led by EngineeringUK in partnership with the Royal Academy of Engineering, and supported by numerous sponsors from industry, academia and the public sector.

Watch highlights of The Big Bang Fair 2023.

Interactive Activities for Aspiring Engineers

Amongst the interactive activities we are showcasing on our stand this year are:

Rampaging Chariots

Once again, we showcased Rampaging Chariots at the Big Bang Fair in a custom-built arena featuring a Robot Wars style assault course. Visitors have the opportunity to test their skills putting some powerful and lightweight robots through a series of challenges, using their driving skills to navigate around the assault course and learning about electronic engineering techniques that are the basis of many of the many of the most complex engineering programmes being developed across the UK. Come along and see if you can you beat the clock and claim the day's best time.

Miysis: Sense and Detect

This exhibit simulates a real-life Miysis Direct Infrared Countermeasure, detecting threats and tracking them around the room. See it in action tracking down teddy bears and differentiating them from the safe humans. Teddy bears are somewhat less threatening than an infrared missile, but the concept provides a fun way for young people to understand the basics behind the award-winning Miysis DIRCM technology.

AW101 Search & Rescue

Can you locate and rescue those lost at sea with our AW101 exhibit, based on the Norwegian SAR AW101, fitted with Osprey Radar, which lifts, tilts and hovers around an axel to save people lost at sea? Cranking the handle will turn the miniature helicopter's blades and cause it to lift off, after which you need to steer it towards flashing red lights. Hovering over the lights will turn them green, saving the stranded seafarers.

Project Grid

Can you help prevent the cyber-attack before it is too late? This physical display demonstrates why a robust cyber resilience solution is so critical, when a cyber-attack is focused on critical national infrastructure (CNI) with the intention of causing a blackout across a region. The attack starts at a transmission substation and highlights how it would disrupt a commercial airport. While the airport still has crucial systems working, supplementary welfare systems such as water, light and heating would be affected, causing panic in the airport as a result of delays, flight cancellations and diversions for arriving aircraft.

On our stand, we provide the opportunity for visitors to chat to some of our apprentices, graduates and placement students about STEM careers, and learn about the exciting work we do around the world developing cutting-edge technology.