News Physics in Action: Students Engage with Undergraduate Projects and at Imperial College 09.06.2026

In June, seven Lower Sixth Physicists and six Year 10 IRIS researchers took the short journey to Imperial College in South Kensington for the Physics department’s exhibition of first year undergraduate student-led work.

There were over 60 projects to look at, practical based as well as computational, covering a wide range of topics such as Medical Physics, Magnetic Levitation, AI Images and the highly relevant “Can Physics win the World Cup?” which looked in detail at how balls spin. Our students were able to see a variety of techniques and equipment and were highly engaged in talking to the first year students about their projects. The Year 10s discovered out how cloud chambers can show particle trails, finding out more about particle physics and particle detectors they had come across in their IRIS projects whilst the Lower Sixth were seeing real world applications of topics covered in their lessons. They were also pleased to get tips from the first years about life at university and the application process. All students enjoyed the talk on neuromorphic computing, current Imperial research into making AI more efficient by using neural processing units (which aim to recreate how the brain works) instead of graphic processing units which require much more energy and use a lot more water.

The students enjoyed the trip tremendously, with several saying they would definitely recommend it to others. The Physics department is already looking forward to visiting again next year!