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H2020Science and society2015

Light Night · Light Night

Horizon 2020 — Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions

Duration
2015-04-01 → 2015-10-31
EU contribution
€84,407
Participants
3
Scheme
CSA

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Results in brief

Light Night

Light Night coincided with the UNESCO Year of Light 2015, it will bring together the Aston Institute of Photonics Technology (AIPT), Aston University, with the Library of Birmingham and Community Arts Group, the Flatpack Film Festival, to deliver an afternoon and evening of public facing content, informed by EC funded research, to raise the enormous importance of photonics research to local schools, community groups and library visitors. Light Night was designed to engage adults and young people to enable them to identify the importance of light in their lives. Light Night celebrated the research of light, the application of light, and the way in which light is central to human society, pleasure and health. But Light Night went beyond engineering to engage the worlds of Education and the Arts. The Night has left a legacy of art, impact and education at all community levels of the importance of photonics, and the significance of the work that Aston University is leading to address future challenges to photonics impact on our lives. The Light Night presented to the general public how photonics impacts the citizens' everyday life and what researchers do in the laboratories from light science to photonics technology. The event provided an opportunity to show how broad photonics research is, covering topics from astrophysics and structure of our universe to DNA structure and links between light and life. Light Night made a powerful and contemporary appeal to heart and mind. For anyone who has admired a rainbow, downloaded a favourite video, benefitted from laser eye correction, or stopped to think about the application of light in science, Light Night proved a valuable concept.

Data: CORDIS, © European Union

Project objective

The 20th Century was characterised by a tremendous growth in our capability to develop ever more sophisticated electronic devices, which have fundamentally transformed the way society functions. We now sit on the threshold of a similar revolution due to developments in photonics, which seeks to exploit the photon – the elementary particle of light – in the same way that electronics is ultimately concerned with controlling the electron.Photonics has been identified as a “Key Enabling Technology” by the European Commission. Within Europe there are over 5,000 photonics based small companies and the sector employs nearly 300,000 people. In addition to forming the backbone of the Internet, the technology is already starting to revolutionise manufacturing, healthcare, lighting, displays and sensing.This proposed Researcher Night – Light Night - will coincide with the UNESCO Year of Light 2015, it will bring together the Aston Institute of Photonics Technology (AIPT), Aston University, with the Library of Birmingham and Community Arts Group, the Flatpack Film Festival, to deliver an afternoon and evening of public engaging content, informed by EC funded research, to raise the enormous importance of photonics research to local schools, community groups and library visitors.Light Night is designed to engage adults and young people in a programme which enables them to identify the importance of light to their lives, and experiment in light based activities. The Night will end with a performance by international sound electronic music artist Pantha du Prince, who will perform his most recent album Elements of Light at the Birmingham Symphony Hall.

Original text from CORDIS.

Participants

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Data: CORDIS, © European Union