Virtual reality, robot chef and racing car star at Wolverhampton science festival

Sci-Fest, now in its tenth year, returned this year for two days of activities.

It hosted hundreds of school pupils from around the region on Friday at Wolverhampton University's City Campus.

And a family day was held on Saturday, offering a range of free workshops, experiments, games and drop-in activities, all designed to bring science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) subjects to life.

People had the chance to get up close and personal to a racing car, see a robot chef cook breakfast and venture into the planetarium, among a whole host of other activities.

There were more than 30 stalls to entice visitors.

Dr Martin Khechara, curator of Sci-Fest, said: "The idea of Sci-Fest is to break down the barriers between our community and academia.

"Many people around the Black Country might not think a career in STEM is for them and people in academia are posh.

"We want to break that mould by showing the university is right at the centre of the community and we can bring STEM to everyone in a way they understand.

"It was important this year to make it a happy event, it's the first one we've had since the pandemic and next year we hope it will be bigger.

"We have VR, chemistry, biology, CSI investigations, robots and the race team.

"Foxdog Studio’s Robot Chef is controlled by an audience member's mobile phone that cooks breakfast to rock music.

"The schools day was amazing; all the kids were enthusiastic and the planetarium was a favourite with a show about the evolution of the Earth."

Marie Gandy, of Wolverhampton, visited the event on Saturday with her son Lewis, 13, and mother Lyn Hyde.

She said: "Mum saw it advertised. Lewis is going into year nine and doing triple science.

"He's very interested in history and he does like science.

"Events like this are interesting and get young people involved, letting them get hands on."

Jim Miyamoto, of Wolverhampton, was with his wife, Pekwan, and eight-year-old daughter, Emi.

He said: "Emi is really interested in science. We went to The Big Bang in Birmingham and she liked it and is curious about chemistry.

"She wants to be a chemist in the future."

Mya Bagria is an apprentice at information technology company Capgemini and was helping to run a stall at the event.

The 20-year-old, from Wolverhampton, said: "We want to promote the apprenticeships and graduate schemes Capgemini provides.

"On Friday we had lots of schoolchildren come around and they all loved the VR headset.

"We had a few people asking to do work experience with us.

"The event is really good. It's interesting to see what other people are offering."