Bringing Photonics to Life at Science and Engineering Day 2026

On Saturday 14th March, the CORNERSTONE Public Engagement Team took part in Science and Engineering Day 2026 at the University of Southampton, bringing hands-on photonics activities to families, students, and attendees across the campus. 

For this year’s event, CORNERSTONE piloted a new outreach activity designed to help visualise the concept of silicon photonics waveguides: the Photon Fun Marble Run. The interactive setup used parallel marble tracks to demonstrate how light is guided and propagates within silicon photonic structures.

Participants released marbles—used here as a visual analogy for photons travelling through a waveguide—down tracks with different surface roughness and curvature, noting that real waveguides confine light via refractive index contrast rather than physical boundaries. Some lanes were smooth and straight, representing ideal waveguides where light propagates with minimal loss. Others included rough textures, illustrating how imperfections can increase scattering losses, or tighter bends, demonstrating how bend losses can reduce the amount of light that reaches the end of a waveguide. Watching how many marbles arrived in each cup helped illustrate how fabrication precision and careful routing influence the performance of real photonic devices. Visitors also had the opportunity to examine real microchips under a microscope, helping connect the large-scale marble model with devices used in research and industry.

In collaboration with the Lightwave Outreach Team, led by Jack Homans, attendees could also explore a range of additional light-based demonstrations, including crafting a mobile Pepper’s Ghost illusion, an infinity mirror, and a laser telecommunications kit. By connecting playful demonstrations with real research, these activities highlighted how photonics underpins modern technologies—from optical communication to visual effects—and how light can be precisely controlled in practice.

The CORNERSTONE Public Engagement Team looks forward to building on the success of the ‘Photon Fun Marble Run’ and continuing to develop new ways to make photonics accessible and engaging for future audiences!