Ask an engineer – A live Q&A with Dr Larissa Suzuki

On Tuesday 7 July the QEPrize organised a special live Q&A with engineer Dr Larissa Suzuki for the students of St Christopher’s girls’ school in Hampstead. Students in years 4 and 5 joined from home and from the classroom and the event took place over Zoom.

The prize liaised with teachers and Larissa in advance to ensure that the event matched the school’s values and priorities (STEAM over STEM, challenge, collaboration, and fun for the girls). The students submitted questions the week before to help tailor the content and we received over 60 questions in total.

The session was interactive and covered a diverse range of topics. Students were invited at regular intervals to ask their questions live and Larissa was able to cover a fascinating array of topics to match. Examples included anecdotes from her childhood and early career, a short introduction to the principles behind machine learning, programming a robot to bring her tea, and showing the engineering skills behind her hobbies as a pianist and amateur anime artist. The event was also recorded and will be shared with other year groups, as well as schools in the local area.

The students, teachers, and presenter all had a fantastic time – the students' comments were particularly encouraging, as many were very enthusiastic about becoming engineers in the future.

Dr Larissa Suzuki is just one of many fantastic QEPrize ambassadors, a multinational network of early-career engineers who bring their own personality and passion for engineering to outreach events.

If you are an educator and would be interested in hosting a similar event for your pupils, please get in touch at [email protected].