Lectures and hands on activities about what is science and what is fiction in famous Star Wars movies and how Star Wars relates to STFC funded R&D

40 years ago, on 25 May 1977, Star Wars began its world-wide success story with the first movie being launched at 32 cinemas in the USA. Since then the famous series has sparked the imagination of generations. Through interactive workshops, we propose to engage STFC staff outside of accelerator science, as well as cohorts of secondary school children (years 7/8) with STFC science by immersing them into a Star Wars-themed environment.
On the event days, we will illustrate and explain what is science and what is fiction in the movies. This will include for example the physics behind the iconic light sabre, hyperspace, and of course...the force. In addition, we will link the Star Wars universe to current STFC-funded research in Liverpool's Physics Departments and show how this can be as exciting as what is shown in Star Wars. Finally, there will be many hands-on activities and opportunities to speak with our researchers.
This ties in perfectly with STFC public engagement strategy in that we will use Star Wars to explain the challenges our society currently faces, present recent research results and use the event to dispel misconceptions about how nature 'ticks' and show how innovative ideas are needed to overcome these challenges - improving the understanding of the importance of accelerator science as underpinning technology for current R&D. The events shall also motivate participants and the wider public through online campaigns supporting the events to consider further training and careers in research.

The event will be internationally communicated, using the existing network of Professor Welsch's group. Through ongoing research projects and as communication lead in many large scale international projects such as OMA, AVA, EuPRAXIA, EuroCirCol/FCC, etc. the Group have established links to several hundred research organisations, universities and schools in the UK and around the world. This includes links to their media and press offices which will help maximise the impact and reach of the events.

A pilot Physics of Star Wars event held on 27th November 2017 with a focus on EU research reached out to an audience of well above 1 Million people in the UK , EU and USA and the here-proposed event series shall further amplify reach and impact.

A dedicated website for the events and focused social media campaigns will allow transferring the atmosphere from the event to an international audience. Posters about all research areas that will be covered during the day as outlined above will be made available via this route. This way, they can be used as a learning and teaching resource by educators from around the world. We will work together with media professionals from Manchester Media City (Carbon Digital) and elsewhere in the UK (Holdsworth Associates, Cambridge) to further disseminate all event outcomes.

The existing collaboration with central university press office, as well as STFC's media team will provide additional support. The event success will be evaluated with regards to additional events, e.g. in the frame of an STFC Nucleus Award, extending this idea to a national scheme.