Explorathon celebrates research in Europe

Published: 19 November 2020

The Explorathon Festival moves online for 2020

Explorathon 2020 takes place from 23 to 29 November, with University staff and students from all four colleges leading FREE events for all ages.

Explorathon is the Scottish arm of European Researchers’ Night, an EC-funded festival that is taking place in more than 300 cities across Europe. This year, the festival is going online to connect the public with university research through Zoom workshops, Twitter takeovers, Facebook Live events and more.

The events hosted by Glasgow include

  • family-friendly, interactive talks exploring the weird and wonderful world of illusions (Master of Illusions, 23 November)
  • festive food-themed language tasters (Winter Food Traditions, 28 November)
  • virtual laboratory tours (Rhythm and Brains, 25 November)
  • games (The Kidney Exchange Game)
  • engaging videos (Fantastic Proteins, 26 November) 

Ever cared for a virtual pet, mourned a favourite character, or agonised over which video game character to date? Facebook Live event Digital Feelz (28 November) will explore why we develop emotional attachments to imaginary characters. PhD researcher Gabe Elvery will lead the event online, which includes interactive gaming demonstrations.

Showcasing our research

Several events highlight cutting-edge health research, including Mapping out pain (27 November), aimed at anyone who wants to learn and talk about arthritis, and Stimulate, Image & Explore (25 November), exploring what pain looks like in the brain.

How conversation works (26 November) will bring together video game developers and writers to learn how linguistics research can be used to create more interactive dialogue in gaming. The event is led by Dr Steph Rennick of the School of Humanities, with Cardiff University linguist Dr Sean Roberts.

Explorathon celebrates research and collaboration across Europe. On 24 November, experts from Scotland, Sweden and Germany will join forces for More than 1+1, a workshop exploring how to support mathematically gifted pupils in the classroom.

#TeamUofG staff and students will also be taking part in pan-Scotland events on Twitter (Researcher Showcase, 27 November) and a research-infused Pecha Kucha (24 & 25 November). You can follow the fun at @ernscot and join the conversation with the hashtag #Explorathon2020.

Knit your own maths

Dr Zara Gladman, Public & Community Engagement Advisor says: “The pandemic has been a really challenging time for so many people. But what it has shown is a real adaptability and creativity among our University community.

"At Explorathon 2020, you can make your own microscope using your smartphone, learn a language, dip into the latest health research and even do mathematics-inspired knitting over Zoom!

"Public engagement helps us stay connected, which is 2020 is more important than ever.”

UofG at Explorathon 2020


First published: 19 November 2020