Hi Graham, I may have been a little harsh to generalise with my sentiments re “locked away” But it really does appear to look that way from an outsider such as me! The fact you taught almost 1000 students last year is commendable Graham. However, was the question ever asked of those students, what inspired them or what influenced them in choosing a career which would take them through university? As for Felix, the majority of public probably had never even heard of him until approximately a month or so prior to his jump and therefore highlights a fact that it was not this amazing feat that influenced your students thus inspiring them to choose a STEM career, it simply suggests that this was in the public domain at the time the question was asked and should tell you that, given the same media attention, another project/program could be in its stead. I agree it was brilliant, stunning, challenging, beautiful. But, almost completely pointless? I would have to disagree on this. It was a demonstration of how mankind is able to achieve what is presumed by many as impossible; exercising the brilliance and ingenuity of all those who worked on the program to bring Felix home safe!
The Sunswift project, like that run by SAE-Australasia, with their Formula 1000 car are brilliant programs which do inspire the students and assist in keeping them focused on the very difficult tasks which are placed before them. However, Bloodhound and The Bullet Project’s primary objective is to stimulate the uptake at school level, that’s way before they ever dream of Universities and career choices. The ALSR is a secondary objective!! Now I’m not saying UNSW is doing nothing to stimulate the interests outside of the University, what I am saying is that for all your efforts and for all the dollars you throw at your programs, you can only ever reach a minor percentage of the population. Something else is needed if we are to succeed in generating the interest in STEM on the scale it is required.
An Iconic program such as BloodhoundSSC has captured the imagination of the United Kingdom on a level unseen before! That is because it is exciting and unimaginable. To capture the mind of Australia, America, or any other Nation with the same enthusiasm and enormity as Bloodhound has in the UK, each Nation needs to have its own iconic program for the people to get behind and support with National pride. A supersonic showdown would inspire the World giving blanket coverage to target a global market. I too have a more than full time job Graham, I am not interested in getting my name in a record book, I have no wish to be in the public spotlight. I simply recognised that what Bloodhound has created is what is required on a global scale and decided that it was something I could become involved with, give it my best shot and maybe, just maybe, make a difference.
When the world record attempts where held at Daytona Beach, people flocked from across the USA to watch this amazing spectacle. The cars and their drivers where household names. The people did remember, six months down the line who held the WLSR. Unfortunately as the speeds increased the need for longer stretches of land took the sport away from the public gaze rendering it “out of sight, out of mind”. It was only on occasion that the news channels brought us information on a new world record challenger, other than that, it was down to groups of individuals to hold their own meetings and race for their love of the sport. Todays technology offers all LSR enthusiasts an opportunity to give the sport back to the public at large and reignite that which was lost; allowing public interaction once again.
The fight is to bring the next generation through into STEM careers but to say Bloodhound SSC provides an extensive and fantastic stockpile of educational tools and activities that can be used by anyone, anywhere is, in my opinion, somewhat untrue. It is a British Project which is potentially diluted on its journey to other shores. It may be useful for Universities to currently educate their students but it falls short in inspiring those outside of the UK where it is needed the most. To stimulate the minds of those who perhaps had never even given a STEM career option a thought is what I am trying to achieve. To inspire a young mind as the Lunar landings and the maiden flight of Concord did for me.