This year the city of Birmingham played host to the annual IOM3 Younger Members' Matopoly event. Annabel Fitzgerald, IOM3 Younger Members' Committee member and Metallurgy and Materials PhD student tells us more.
This year the city of Birmingham played host to the annual IOM3 Younger Members’ Matopoly event, which despite the weather, was a great success and thoroughly enjoyed by those involved. The event was really well attended with a 45 strong crowd from a variety of backgrounds and locations assembled at St Philips Place eagerly awaiting their instructions for the day ahead. The teams were briefed on their task then released into the city to complete our materials science-themed Monopoly challenge against the clock. In essence, the challenge involves following a series of clues that relate to certain locations and landmarks around Birmingham. Each location visited earns the teams points and the teams with the highest number of points at the end of the day wins!
Four hours and an enriched knowledge of Birmingham later, the teams arrived back at the end venue where they were able to network with each other over a buffet and have a well-earned sit down while the scores were being calculated. It was team ‘TiCNi3’ from the School of Metallurgy and Materials at the University of Birmingham that walked away with this year’s title, having collected an extremely admirable 390 points! The event was very well received by our participants with one team enjoying ‘the chance for team building and cooperation’, while others relished the problem solving involved in ‘exploring and trying to optimise getting around’, as well as ‘discovering the connection of locations with materials’. It was also a good experience for residents of Birmingham, with one commenting on the satisfaction of ‘finding out the relevance of the landmarks in my home city.’
The Younger Members’ Committee would therefore like to say a huge thank you to everyone who attended the event and also to our very generous sponsors (The University of Birmingham School of Metallurgy and Materials, Jaguar Land Rover, Croda, Rolls-Royce and the East Midlands Materials Society) for their extremely valuable support and for making this event possible.
