Jumping, lifting, life support against the clock and techy challenges galore at biggest-yet MDX New Scientist Live exhibit

MDX had a larger than ever presence at New Scientist Live 2025, with exhibits spread across three stands with a 312 square metre footprint in total.

One hundred and seventy-five students and staff facilitated the STEM challenges and attractions or helped with set-up, delivering 3412 and a half person-hours of public engagement over three days. There were long queues to 'ride' the MDX-developed VR rollercoaster, which combines a moving seat with computer visuals of a hair-raising theme park experience.

Other popular exhibits returned such as hugs from Baxter the robot; "chaotic selfies" against lightpaths from a randomly swinging double pendulum; a jump height monitor, and test of strength with an isometric gym rig; and the Taste of Chemistry competition to build molecular models against the clock.

Nursing and midwifery had its own stand for a second year, with a resuscitation challenge to give deep chest compressions to CPR manikins successfully training 1,224 people in basic life support. There were also opportunities to try out CAE Vimedix Augmented Reality headsets bringing basic anatomy to life, and step into a nurse's shoes in a VR 'virtual ward'.

Some new exhibits joined the line-up. The youngest children made mini robot arms pick up and move cubes, using block programming language. The Niyro accessible robots, recently acquired by MDX, can be instructed using a range of languages and frameworks, so they "serve us for multiple levels of practice," says Head of Design Engineering and Mathematics Professor Mehmet Karamanoglu.

"The pupils find it really cool" said second year computer science student Najifa Tahsin, facilitating the stand.

Her coursemate Fida Hussain, who elected to volunteer just on the final day of the show, was enjoying himself so much he said: "I think I made the wrong choice!

“If I had this chance when I was younger, I would have done more Computer Science at an early stage,” he said.

Working in essentially the same way, a FANUC industrial robot arm was  demonstrated by a team including 2024 WorldSkills international alumnus Jason Scott, now studying at MDX.

"I’m losing my voice because I’ve given the same speech about 500 times but it’s been really, really good,” Scott said at the end of Sunday’s session.

"The best thing about these events is you get to inspire the younger generation".

Biomedical Science ran a live experiment, to illustrate the threat of antimicrobial resistance. Student volunteers guided visitors on how to swab personal items like bags and phone cases, putting the samples in sterile tubes with liquid charcoal to keep the bacteria alive.

These were taken to the lab and transferred onto agar plates treated with antimicrobials and antifungals, so any remaining organisms showing up are resistant. Participants signed a permission form and can log in to see the results.

"It’s useful for kids to know about, as they are very susceptible to get stomach bugs. We had microbiologists at other unis themselves taking part," said Biomedical Science student Madelina Constantin.

Her coursemate Samah Ghanem said she had "loved" NS Live - "it's a great experience, you get to build lots of soft skills which you need after you graduate”.

There was also a presence from two ongoing STEM engagement projects. The Mathematics in Education, Society and History (MESH) Research Group demonstrated their prototype Space Maths Odyssey maths puzzle-based digital game. This has been co-designed with the help of around 1000 Barnet pupils on school visits - as "who knows best how to inspire with video games but students," says project education liaison Dr Brendan Masterson – with feedback showing participants are more likely to consider a career in science.

Meanwhile graduates working on science and arts public engagement social enterprise SMASHfest UK presented activities from the WILDFIRE!, FLOOD! and Transition immersive adventures, and debuted new pop-up experience, Beyond the Flooded Booth.

Designer Roisin Gearty, who has been working with SMASHfest since the pandemic said: “I love SMASHfest as it plants the seed of excitement into young people’s minds – I can be an engineer, a scientist, a first responder. It shows them they have power, the autonomy to decide things”.

MDX product design graduate Ilwad Sabriye said the group of pupils she was facilitating for 40 minutes “forgot about hard skills, maths and engineering as they were having fun, but they were still learning new things”.

Psychology Professor Mandeep Dhami spoke to a packed audience about how the criminal justice system handles the most serious offenders, referring to her research on juries’ understanding of ‘beyond reasonable doubt’ and sentencing disparities between those convicted of single and multiple crimes. She was impressed by the level of engagement and thoughtfulness of the questions. Meanwhile her ten year old enjoyed being able to walk around the show on his own and reporting back what he had learned.

Jo from Essex, mother of Aideen 12 and Ashling, 10, said that as soon as her daughters had got onto the train after day one of the show, they had asked to come back.

“This year it’s all been Middlesex, Middlesex, Middlesex,” she said. “At all the stalls it’s grown-ups talking to them, not talking down to them – it’s wonderful. They’re sponges, they’re taking it all in. I’d love to find the passion for something like this”. Husband Ivan said: “It normalises being interested in interesting things”.

Dean of the Faculty of Science and Technology Professor Balbir Barn, interviewed by MDX student Gary Braganca for a social media in Portuguese, said: “It’s really important that our young people engage with science early on, and understand the impact it’s going to have… Science drives our world”.

Vice-Chancellor Professor Shan Wearing, who found the MDX “buzzing” on her visit, said: “A massive thank you to Team MDX staff and students for making science, health and technology visible and fun”.

See our upcoming STEM Festival at MDX.