Harnessing personal and professional development through materials outreach
Contributing towards public engagement not only brings materials science and engineering a step closer to diverse audiences, it constitutes a symbiotic exchange. Durga has taken every opportunity to sharpen her communication skills while introducing others to a world of new scientific enquiry.
Students at the AMS CDT are required to undertake public engagement projects as part of their studies, and for Durga this began with a second year module focusing on communicating research to general audiences. Provided with a range of possible options, she chose to present four talks: two at her primary school and two at her high school in Pune, India, a programme which proved impactful not only for the students involved but for her personally.
Speaking with school and college-level students in Pune revealed that knowledge of materials science and its place in the curriculum was lower than expected, and that audiences for its study tended to be more male than female, in agreement with trends noted in other larger studies about gender disparity in the sciences, and also with her own experience. These factors encouraged Durga to consider how the field could approach curiosity and recruitment for the subject differently.
Spurred on by this experience, Durga volunteered to assist with the Sheffield Summer School in July 2024, organised by Dr Lewis Owen and Dr Jennifer Johnstone-Hack. This event provided a doorway to materials science for pre-university students in the UK, and consisted of introducing the participants to different aspects of materials research. Through these, they got a glimpse of experiments such as the chocolate impact tester, a car fuelled by hydrogen cells, and three-dimensional unit cell plastic structures. The students were also encouraged to interact with the apparatus on their own under supervision. This Summer School offered proof of just how important encountering the subject first-hand is to kindle fascination for materials in the minds of young audiences, but also raised questions of access and equity.
Eager to deepen her understanding of public outreach, Durga contacted the National Outreach Officer for Discover Materials UK (Dr Chris Hamlett) and has been an ambassador for the programme since 2024. As an ambassador, she has the opportunity to volunteer at various science festivals across the country and interact with a wide range of audiences, exhibiting interesting materials such as magnets, multiferroics, water repellent fabrics, and shape memory alloys. These materials are introduced to the audiences in the form of everyday objects such as paper clips, beads that fluoresce on exposure to UV light, and demonstrations are received with great excitement by the participants, more so because they have the opportunity to manipulate these materials themselves. She also actively contributes to a new web resource: the A to Z of Materials, where, alongside fellow Ambassadors, she curates written content to shine a spotlight on materials and their properties.
Outside of contributions to Discover Materials, she has also recorded an episode of Materials Unlocked, a podcast conceptualised by Rae Helm and Dr Lewis Owen for the Henry Royce Institute of Advanced Materials. As the student contributor, she had the opportunity to sit in on a free-flowing conversation on sustainability in materials with Dr Richard Thackray and Dr Owen. This experience of thinking aloud and asking questions in real time provided further confidence in her presentation skills.
In addition to becoming a better student and asking better, more pertinent questions, my time in the CDT has made me see that public engagement and science outreach holds great meaning for me.
Durga Tilak
For Durga, the best outcome, and where true value is created, is when both sides of an equation benefit proportionately from the exchange. While discovering materials through the lens of school and college students has been invaluable, one of the greatest takeaways for Durga has been her confidence as a communicator. Public engagement requires the speaker to deconstruct complex research ideas into simpler chunks that can be shared with audiences, proving Feynman’s technique in action: If I can explain something intricate in easy, understandable terms, I know that I have understood it myself.
Biography
Durga is a current research student with the Advanced Metallic Systems Centre for Doctoral Training, based at the University of Sheffield. Her research focuses on new methods to reduce eddy current losses in permanent magnets designed for EV vehicles.