Last week we held the 6th Drapers - EDT event. The event was a great success with some 240 attendees. Our guest speaker was Peter Chivers of the National Composite Centre which incidentally was officially opened this week by Vince Cable - so very timely! The mix this year of students, teachers, companies and other supporters worked very well, and I think this is what led to the Drapers Company and others stating that this was probably the "best yet." The Drapers event is a great example of how effective such a collaboration can be; there is always a good mix of attendees and the right "chemistry" is acheived.
As always, profuse thanks to the Drapers Company and staff who once again did us proud; the venue is such an attraction and to be able to share it this year with the "King's Speech" was a double honour.
For the first time we awarded the EDT Teacher of the Year, with Peter Crompton of Fortismere school, Muswell Hill being the winner of the inaugural prize. The College of Teachers kindly sponsored this prize and we were delighted to welcome them to the evening's proceedings. We also had a number of excellent exhibits from companies at the forefront of Smart materials and Composites. The student winners were as always inspirational in the work they had carried out. This remains very topical not only because the UK is a leading player in this high tech sector, but because we need many more young people to take up an interest in materials science/technology.
This was brought home to me once again in the past few weeks when I watched the excellent programmes on television called "How to build a ........". All the three that I have seen (Airbus wings, Mclaren sports car, Rolls Royce engine) all rely heavily on new materials technology. So you can't get more topical than that!
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