Final Report Summary - STIMULATE (STIMULATING THE PUBLIC ATTITUDE TOWARDS ADVANCED MATERIALS)
Executive Summary:
Stimulate was a 30 month duration project aiming to attract the general public to the field of advanced materials, highlighting the relevance of functional materials to the innovations that the market expects. To this end, we have successfully fulfilled the project’s goals for creating and disseminating a cross-platform media approach, integrating onto a web portal (www.materialsfuture.eu) online educational resources(education pack online encyclopedia etc.), a web-based serious game (“Materials Hunter”) and a character-led documentary film (“The secret Life of Materials”) that was translated in 23 official EU languages. The serious game and the documentary are designed so that they can also stand alone in the media markets i.e. they are able to be used also independently.
Our target audience for the game and educational pack is teenagers between 14 and 17 years old while the character-led documentary targets the general public.
The Main Themes where the project directs the audience’s attention are the following:
• the societal challenges/problems that drive the development of advanced material
• the multidisciplinary research and development on which this effort is based
• the economic impact of the work on advanced materials and their manufacturing
• the environmental impact
• the people behind materials R&D and their vision for the future
The story of “Materials Hunter” is about the evolution of a small society which is very primitive at the start of the game. This society is managed by the player who is quickly evolving with the game by completing quests given by the members of the society. As the game and storyline progress, the society quickly goes through periods of time and skips to the present time.
As regards the documentary, a wide variety of scientific topics (materials, applications, manufacturing processes etc.) were chosen to form the backbone of the documentary script. The film constitutes of eight different segments while the shooting was carried out in research centers and universities, private companies and other locations in six different European countries.
The education pack aims to generate interest, understanding and enthusiasm among secondary school students for the whole field of advanced materials and their many applications in our lives. The pack is divided into three parts. It starts with activities exploring the need for advanced materials, then moves on to discovering different types of advanced materials and finally looks at how students can get involved themselves.
Both game and documentary as well as the educational resources can be found at www.materialsfuture.eu.
STIMULATE project was carried out by seven participants. More specific, these participants were:
• National Technical University of Athens (Greece)
• National Center for Scientific Research “Demokritos” (Greece),
• Open University (United Kingdom)
• European Materials Research Society (France)
• Serious Game Interactive (Denmark)
• APT Film & Television Limited (United Kingdom)
• Television for the Environment (United Kingdom).
Project Context and Objectives:
Because of the complicated nature of their role as technology enablers, advanced materials many times miss the general public’s attention.
People tend to underestimate the importance of advanced materials, since they are mostly focused on the final consuming products, instead of appreciating the underlying materials technologies. In order to uncover this hidden role, we have created a set of media products where we are integrating onto a web portal, online educational resources, a web-based serious game and a character-led documentary film that will is translated in 23 official EU languages. To achieve this task we involved a multidisciplinary team of experts (in advanced materials, documentary filming, game based education, e-learning, scientific journalism etc) that have combined their expertise in order to create a coherent set of products.
The Main Themes where the project directs the audience’s attention are the following:
a) the societal challenges/problems that drive the development of advanced materials
b) the multidisciplinary research and development on which this effort is based
c) the economic impact of the work on advanced materials and their manufacturing
d) the environmental impact
e) the people behind materials R&D and their vision for the future
The educational, “Serious Game”, is targeted towards teenagers (between 14 and 17 years old) while the character-led documentary is targeted towards the general public and especially the younger people. Overlapping scientific content and cross-references between the two links them and promotes their distribution. We give our audience a clear vision for a sustainable future, based on Knowledge, Development and Innovation, with advanced materials at its core. We present all the sides of the materials community to the general public, including research, development and manufacturing, highlighting the role of materials innovation in the struggle of the European societies to face the current economic and environmental challenges.
The story of the game "Materials Hunter" is about the evolution of a small society, managed by the player. When the game starts the society is very primitive, but by completing quests given by the members of the society, it quickly evolves. The player is not alone though. Two teenagers aid the player; these are Max and Lilly, the characters that appear on the “Learn/Explore” section of the website. They comment on the evolution of the society and help explain core principles of the game and present the scientific content.
The society starts back when the people live in mud huts. Guided by the two kids the player quickly creates clay bricks. These are used to build brick walls and small brick houses are built to host the society.
As the game and storyline progress, the society quickly goes through periods of time and skips to the present time.
Soon more problems start to hit the little society. Pollution threatens the health of people and ecosystems, seemingly incurable diseases like cancer becomes the greatest killer and the player is tasked with the job of finding new advanced materials with properties that can help combat all these problems.
Throughout the process the two helpers guide the player to finally end up with a sustainable and happy future society that has arrived at this point by investing time and grey matter into tinkering with advanced materials and their application.
The storytelling is mainly done in-game by the boy and girl, but the visualization of the evolving society also tells a story of its own.
The final version of the game features 48 levels, highlighting 20 technologies that are enabled by the use of advanced materials.
The 60 min documentary is built around the following subjects:
Bionic hand segment
Filmed with Magnus Niska, the first and only person in Europe to have a long-term osseo integrated, myoelectrical prosthetic arm controlled by neuromuscular electrodes; at his house, with his family, at work driving a truck and at river fishing.
Violin segment
We follow the journey of discovery of a violin-maker as he sets out to use ALM to 3d-print a violin that will sound comparable to a traditional wooden one. We see the potential and the current limitations of the technology and the materials that are available to the violin maker.
Solar segment
We see how societal challenges and the vision of a scientist determined to find an alternative sources of sustainable energy, can be developed into a viable technology and how it can inspire further innovation within and outside the lab.
Desalination/Aquaporins segment
Filmed in the small agriculture village of Psari Forada, in southern Crete, to illustrate the importance of water and how it enabled the residents to farm intensively and develop their community. The increased agricultural needs impact the supply of underground water and the prospects for the future.
Graphene and nano-materials segment
Filmed at Manchester University and at the graphite wadholes of the Borrowdale valley to explain the production and properties of graphene and other “two-dimensional” material and structures. Filmed at Novalia in Cambridge the applications of nano-carbon conductive ink and graphene ink to produce interactive cardboard and plastic CD-covers and posters.
Materials Library segment
Filmed at the materials library with curator Zoe Laughlin who shows how an extraordinary range of materials have been created, through history, as a response to societal challenges and opportunities. She demonstrates how the properties of advanced material, such as shape-memory alloys and aerogel, reveal information about their structure, but also inspire and amaze.
Biomimetics segment
Filmed at the Cavendish Lab at Cambridge University with the research team behind the bio-inspired photonic material research that has ambitions to create colour without toxic pigments. Jeremy Baumberg explains structural colour as observed in opal stones and how they manufacture polymer opal material, managing to achieve coloration without pigmented dyes.
Adaptive Material segment
Filmed with Martin Hanzcyc at Trento to introduce the idea of responsive materials, as exemplified by simple chemical protocells interacting with their surroundings. Martin talks about the future vision for material that adapt to their environment.
Dissemination of these products takes place with the use of the most relevant mass media tools, with the use of the expertise of a Public Relations specialist and the exploitation of the network of the European Materials Research Society (E-MRS), a broad scientific society with thousands of members. Our effort is in line with the current EU policy on Materials Vision and its relation to the Key Enabling Technologies, promoting not only the role of the Materials Community (Academia and Industry) in the creation of a knowledge-based economy, but also its vision for a sustainable future. We have designed a set of media products that can have a real impact on the public’s perception of the advanced materials. We open a window of optimism and we uncover to the European Public the world of Material Science and Technology Applications, where we are finding solutions to everyday problems for the benefit of our Planet. Our main target is to stimulate the European public towards a positive attitude in the field of advanced materials and make it realise the role of Science in our life.
Our media products have 4 main objectives:
1) To decipher the role that the advanced materials play in innovative new products
2) To uncover the economic impact of working with advanced materials
3) To describe the environmental impact of working with advanced materials
4) To attract teenagers and younger people to the field (incl. nanomaterials)
Project Results:
The work that has been performed has been distributed within six Work Packages which are related to technical or management activities. Description of work on each work package and the results achieved, are summarised below:
WP1 Scientific input
The main objective of this work package was to select the exact scientific content to be included in the media products, i.e. in the script of the documentary and in the levels of the Serious Game. The themes have been defined with the contribution of all partners (except TVE, which entered the project in the 7 last months of the project) and the exploitation of the experience of many materials experts.
The main tasks of WP1 were:
• Task 1.1 Themes Development
The development of the themes for the documentary is defined in Task 1.1 of the DoW as follows:
"Refinement and finalizing of the categories, themes and the success stories to be featured, by the scientific research team and the scientific writers; the production team will be advising on the effectiveness and the narrative potential of the choices."
Several pathways were followed to accurately formulate the scientific content of the documentary: Firstly, the most interesting – from a scientific point of view - materials were chosen, always in correlation with their current or near-future applications, giving thus emphasis on the importance of advance materials in everyday life and their impact on the society. In a second level, we focused our research on interesting stories or other materials science related issues that could be potentially attractive to our target audience. Finally, people whose careers are involved with (advanced) materials were highlighted to showcase both the role of the materials scientists and their multidisciplinary approach to research and development as well as the entrepreneurial spirit that drives the transition from scientific knowledge to industrial production (i.e. from invention to innovation).
- Advanced Materials in the major Industrial Sectors
The specific topics for the documentary - always on a par with the above mentioned themes - were selected based on the sequence:
sector application technology/device (advanced) materials
More specifically, the following major industrial sectors served as a starting point:
A) information and communication technology
B) health
C) energy
D) environment
E) transportation/construction/housing
Note that, in accord with the specific topic call key text “Advanced Materials: our allies for a sustainable future”, sustainability issues were put at the forefront of our research within each sector. Thus, for each sector we outlined the applications that relate to common (or less common) examples and the underlying technology. Finally, we specified the state-of-the-art materials used in this technology/device as well as - in some case - the historical evolution of the materials that have been used so far with regard to those that are likely to replace them in the near future due to economical (cheaper), environmental (ecofriendlier) or societal (user-friendlier, better performance) reasons.
- Interesting stories & scientific topics
The scientific topics described above act as a pool of ideas from which the documentary production team has drawn inspiration. However, of more relevance to the composition of the shooting script was the collection of interesting stories around the above mentioned scientific topics. These could serve as a bait to capture the viewers’ attention and then engage them to the rest of the content. These stories were categorised as follows:
• Accidental discoveries
• Nature-inspired discoveries
• Advanced materials in sports
• Horizon2020 Flagships (Graphene, Brain Project)
• Nobel prizes (Europe-based)
• Ethical issues related to advanced materials
• List of inspiring videos/talks
Apart from the input provided by the scientific team, the documentary production team had also been performing parallel research to locate advanced materials-related stories that proved to be useful very useful for the final script.
- People (Europe-based)
To properly address all of the above mentioned themes, the contribution of the human factor was highlighted. From early-stage researchers to Nobel Laureates, from young (even undergraduates) innovation awards winners to successful entrepreneurs and from craftsmen to artists, the people in the forefront or behind the scenes are the stepping stones of the development of Advanced Materials.
The scientific input on the people (Europe-based) was categorised as follows:
• Scientists with interesting research careers
• Nobel Laureates
• Scientists with Entrepreneurial Skills
• Entrepreneurs
• List of Awards/Success stories/Events
• Other professionals whose careers are related to Advanced
Materials
Some representative examples are presented in topics included in shooting script below (end of Task 1.1).
- References
Online Resources
The selection of scientific topics/people of interest was mainly based on:
• ERC Grants awarded in 2013
• FET Flagships (Horizon2020)
• E-MRS 2013/2014 and EUROMAT 2013 scientific program and main topics therein
• Keywords in Materials Science related scientific journals: Advanced Materials journal series (Ed. Wiley), Journals of Materials Chemistry (Ed. RSC), Chemistry of Materials/ACS Nano/JACS (Ed. ACS), Nature Materials, Science etc. An example of the keywords used by the Advanced Materials journal series of Wiley Editions are given in APPENDIX 4 of Deliverable 1.2 . In this way, we reassured that the selected topics would be up-to-date, of relevance to the research community and current research priorities set by the EC, whereas we made an effort to include advanced materials that would be representative of a range of scientific fields.
Contact with experts
• Discussions with experts
We took advantage of our personal networks and interviewed many renowned scientists working in Materials Science related scientific fields with the aim to get a more objective view on the field. Some examples of the scientists that were contacted in the preliminary stage of the work are mentioned below:
G. Malliaras (bioelectronics), Th. Anthopoulos and P. Argitis (organic electronics and lithography), D. Niarchos (magnetic materials), G. Maniatis, and V. Kilikoglou (ancient material processes, ceramics), R.Martins and P. Tello (critical raw materials), G. Van Tendeloo (Microscopy), Horst Hahn (nanoceramics, batteries), N. Kehagias (nanoimprint lithography), L Kienle (metals), R White, F. Bonaccorso (graphene), I. Mavridou (crystallography), U. Soederval (nanofabrication).
The questions posed to these experts included their view on the future of materials science, which materials they consider promising for the next decade, any futuristic application they may be aware of and interesting stories that relate to a material’s discovery or to the progress of a technology.
• Survey conducted through Survey Monkey online platform
A short online questionnaire was sent to materials science experts through our personal networks to help us define the answers to the following basic questions:
“Which advanced materials technologies would you recommend to include in an outreach activity towards the general public?”
“Could you please name some european companies/research groups that work on these areas?”
• Discussion with members of the Advisory Board
All the members of the Advisory board have been contacted in several occasions for new ideas and to give us their opinion on the work done. In particular, the progress made in the scientific input with regard to the specified themes was discussed with the members of the Advisory Board (Prof. Claes-Goran Granqvist, Dr. Daniel Bensahel, Prof. Arokia Nathan) that were present at the Athens Meeting (14/03/2014) and their input was taken into serious consideration during elaboration of the stories included in the script.
The answers and total feedback from all the above discussions (online and face-to-face) were collected, categorized and evaluated by the scientific team. They contributed in setting the priorities to the scientific topics that are more suitable to be demonstrated in the documentary. It should be also noted here that at the beginning of the project we agreed with Anna Tampieri (expert for biomedical materials) to include her as a member of the Advisory board of STIMULATE, as was mentioned in the DoW: “A female expert for Materials for Health will be included in this Advisory Board.”
- Topics included in the Shooting Script
The scientific input was taken into account during the process that led to the hitherto development of the shooting script (see also D3.1). From all the scientific information provided by the scientific input team, the selection of scientific topics made by the production team was based on their effectiveness in being implemented in a coherent storyline as well as their ability to contribute to the narrative potential of the individual stories. To this end, the following scientific topics were chosen to form the backbone of the documentary script (for more details see D3.1):
• Materials
- Construction materials (steel, glass, bronze, ceramics, cloth, wood)
- (Fluorinated) Graphene/Graphene oxide - 2D structured materials
- Carbon nanotubes
- Carbon fibers
- Nanoparticles
- Electrolytes
- Perovskites
- Plastics/Thermoplastics/Opal polymers
- Aerogel
- Composites
- Alloys (Ti,...)
- Conductive Inks
• Applications
- Prosthetics
- Brain-Computer/Neural interfaces - Bionics
- Water desalination
- Solar energy
- Wearable electronics
- Energy storage
- Functionalised coatings/Varnishes
- Insulation
- (Nanostructured) Drug-delivery systems
• Manufacturing processes
- Characterization techniques (CT scanning, X-rays,...)
- Laser sintering, 3D printing (additive manufacturing)
- E-beam lithography
• Other stories
- Discoveries - Progress by serendipity (graphene, aluminium)
- Biomimetics - Lessons from nature
• Task 1.2 Filming Locations
The selection of the filming locations for the documentary is defined in Task 1.2 of the DoW as follows:
The selection will take into account the work and the resources of each institute/company, the scientists to be interviewed and their research as it applies to each theme to be addressed. The character traits of the researchers will affect the selection process, with input from the production team. Practical matters, such as ease of access to labs, permission to film and show work, feasibility of participation of our characters into the lab will also be considered.
The selection of scientific topics with regard to the themes for documentary (see Deliverable D1.2) drove the initial research for university departments, relevant innovation and research hubs, multi-site establishments (companies, large projects etc) and in general, places where substantial work on advanced materials is nowadays taking place. Example-wise, some representative large, SME and multinational companies, research centres and innovation hubs from around Europe are listed below.
Of particular relevance to the short-listing of these institutions was the workshop that was organised by the Open University and held online on our internal project management platform during the last week of October 2013. It included - among others - a discussion to what extent labs should be visited in order to find the right balance of scientific content and appeal of the film. In summary, the outcome of this workshop with regard to the filming locations was the following:
‘We want an exciting, engaging, compelling narrative that looks a material science in the context of real life, real challenges and what benefits we will get from it in the future... but how can you show laboratory based activity within that narrative without it destroying the flow?
There is one related point of debate around technical content and how that should be communicated. One view is to have this content at a simplistic level where it can bind up within the narrative; another is to use diagrams / animations to explain more complex technical concepts.’
This process consolidated the criteria and guidelines for the further development of the locations selection focusing on the exemplification of scientific innovation and applications addressing societal, economic and sustainability problems, as they are conveyed by the characters and narratives, whereas the labs and technical context should rather be kept to a minimum.
Locations Included in the Final Shooting Script
The development of the shooting script and the individual story-lines implemented in it (see also D3.1) led to the short-listing of the following filming locations. A significant effort has been put (a) to include a broad view of the field of advanced materials through presentation of not only universities, research centres and companies but also of non-science/ technology related sites and (b) to show representative work held in the four corners of Europe (e.g. from the UK, Scandinavia to Mediterranean countries, ).
Universities & Research Institutes
- Universita Campus Bio-medico, Rome, Italy
- University of Manchester, & National Graphene Institute, Manchester, UK
- Institute of Making, University College London, UK
- Ecole Polytechnic Federal de Lausanne, Switzerland
- Chalmers University of Technology, Gothenburgh, Sweden
- Sahlgrenska University Hospital, Sweden
- Warwick University, UK
- University of Nottingham, UK
- University of Cambridge, UK
- Centre for Integrative Biology (CIBIO), Università degli Studi di Trento // University of Trento, IT
- University of the Arts London , UK
Companies
- Solaronix, Switzerland
- Integrum AB, Gothenburgh, Sweden
- Aquaporin D/S, Copenhagen, Denmark
- Novalia, Cambridge, UK
- Shamees Aden, Materials Designer, London, UK
- Manolis Agapoulakis, Vice-Mayor (of water management), Ano Vianno, Crete, Greece
- Nikos Epitropakis, Farmer Crete, Greece
Other locations
- Magnus Niska, Haparanda, Sweden
- Dennis Sorenson, Aaalborg, Denmark
Main results of WP1
Scientific themes for both game and documentary were successfully defined and the feedback loop followed, was proved to be efficient.
WP2 Serious Game
The main objective of this work package was to develop a serious game, which provides awareness and information on the importance of materials science to 14-17 year old boys and girls in Europe. The game emphasizes on points a, d and e (esp. the vision for the future) of main themes presented in 4.1.2. It does not exclude the other points, but to be effective in its communication and learning effort the game has to be focused. The most realistic expectation for the game is that it will be best at helping us achieve objectives 3 and 4 (the objectives are shown in the executive summary). It also addresses objectives 1 and 2, where it makes sense. Given the specific target audience of the game, it is however safe to say that objective number 4 is very important to the game.
The Game design has been completed after several different designs have been examined to make sure they fit with the scientific content defined in WP1 and additional requirements identified as part of the planned audience, distribution and outreach activities in WP5.
The main tasks of WP2 were:
• Task 2.1 Game design
The story of the game "Materials Hunter" is about the evolution of a small society, managed by the player. When the game starts the society is very primitive, but by completing quests given by the members of the society, it quickly evolves. The player is not alone though. Two teenagers aid the player; these are Max and Lilly, the characters that appear on the “Learn/Explore” section of the website. They comment on the evolution of the society and help explain core principles of the game and present the scientific content.
The society starts back when the people live in mud huts. Guided by the two kids the player quickly creates clay bricks. These are used to build brick walls and small brick houses are built to host the society.
As the game and storyline progress, the society quickly goes through periods of time and skips to the present time.
Soon more problems start to hit the little society. Pollution threatens the health of people and ecosystems, seemingly incurable diseases like cancer becomes the greatest killer and the player is tasked with the job of finding new advanced materials with properties that can help combat all these problems.
Throughout the process the two helpers guide the player to finally end up with a sustainable and happy future society that has arrived at this point by investing time and grey matter into tinkering with advanced materials and their application.
The storytelling is mainly done in-game by the boy and girl, but the visualization of the evolving society also tells a story of its own.
The final version of the game features 48 levels, highlighting 20 technologies that are enabled by the use of advanced materials.
• Task 2.2 Game System programming
All necessary code elements for the game were created, where several go beyond the scope of the original task description. For example, a technology tree has been included and visual progression through an evolving city. The systems programmed includes the core game mechanics, visual narrative progression system, a points system, a reward system, a technology tree system an achievement system, a difficulty system, a level design generator, a new/save/load system and the implementation of the graphical user interface system.
All the systems work well together, and it is robust across all platforms.
• Task 2.3 Assets Production
A major assets library (graphics & sound) was created for the puzzles developed. Despite a larger scope than anticipated, it was realised fast as we found an efficient way to set up the content pipeline, and the graphical style were not too detailed and demanding to produce for. The assets include graphical user interface, background scenes, characters, visual effects and props. They also include sound and music. Beyond that, extra assets have been produced in the form of two videos that was not in the original scope.
• Task 2.4 - Level design
A balance has been searched between difficulty, complexity, subject matter and playability. This proved to be extremely challenging. At the end, all the levels, puzzles and game content is finished and setup based on the framework developed in game system programming and the assets available from assets production.
• Task 2.5– Localisation
A system was made to handle all localisations in the game, so they were automatically exported and imported. However, despite our efforts, the work required was dramatically larger than expected. At the end all localisations have been implemented in good quality. Major challenge was the fact that the translation was delivered in several steps by the translators due to delays. Therefore, the implementation couldn’t be completed in a single step, as the process had to be repeated several times with additional work required for each repetition.
• Task 2.6 – Integration
All systems have been integrated as planned. This task took longer than planned because SGI needed to resubmit several times as new languages became available.
• Task 2.7 - Game Manual
A game manual for the Materials Hunter game has been created as planned. This game manual assists the player on how to setup and play Materials Hunter.
More specifically, the manual provides all necessary information regarding the concept and gameplay of the game as well as browser and hardware requirements for playing the game in PC, MAC or mobile devices.
Main results of WP2:
• A locked down robust game design document that integrates both learning and playing serving the overall project purpose.
• Avery good level between learning content and game experience has been achieved, so players have a strong learning experience while being engaged.
• The game is available in 23 official EU languages, as described in the DoW, which is a major achievement. Most games are only available in the major languages, so as the game becomes known it should improve chances of pick-up, especially in schools.
WP3 Documentary
The objective of WP3 was the production of the documentary audiovisual material. According to the Description of Work, APT undertook research in parallel with NCSRD and NTUA in order to establish a two-way complementary approach for the development of the shooting script. The starting point and the constant reference point for the development was the scientific input compilation of sectors, applications and subsequent list of contributors and locations.
As detailed in D3.1 to effectively address the requirements and parameters of integrating educational media resources within both traditional and media-rich learning environments, while producing film content that conforms to broadcast-preferred formats (in terms of duration and engagement potential), the script was structured around a dual format of a 60 minute main film and 30 minutes of additional specifically-produced pedagogical film sections. The produced content supports, extends and enriches the broader themes and ideas and provides a range of audio-visual resources to facilitate the wider promotion and dissemination of the material.
The use of character-based real-life footage and exemplification of the concepts was favoured over archive footage and extensive graphics, in response to the evaluation and the test screenings feedback and in consultation with scientific educational content producers. The use of archive footage was limited to scenes/shots too expensive to be shot by APT and to past events that were impossible to re-shoot; graphics were used where necessary for illustration and clarification and for establishing an engaging aesthetic style. Part of the archive and graphics budget was allocated to filming additional footage to visually enhance the scientific content, provide real-life context to the ideas and concepts presented and use the characters and stories to maximize the audience engagement and the project’s impact.
The main tasks of WP3 were:
• Task 3.1 Casting / Contributors
The compiled lists were assessed for both the visual potential and the factual content – i.e. the work undertaken and sectors represented – and instigated an extensive research for additional contributors, stories and characters to drive the narrative and visual treatment.
Additional contributors from scientific, industry, entrepreneurial sectors and citizens directly experiencing and benefiting from the respective applications have been interviewed and researched to assess the engagement potential of the associated storylines and the exemplification of the materials development and the vision of the people driving materials development. Associated and additional locations were researched to provide the context and setting for showcasing the materials innovations, their application in the respective sectors, and their impact on societal issues and citizens’ lives. Visually strong filming locations were included to aesthetically engage the audience by balancing between informative content, visual style and enhancing the viewer experience, according to the DoW specifications. The list was re-assessed by the scientific team against the themes and the project objectives and checked for its scientific rigour, leading to the final selection.
• Task 3.2 Shooting Script
The history of human civilization is a history of materials. From the earliest tools, hewn from a single piece of stone more than 2.5 million years ago; to a modern-day aircraft built from cutting-edge composites, everything we have ever done as a species is tied closely to our use of materials. They are the stepping-stones we use to pick our way through history; and often, they are all that’s left when we’re gone – tantalizing clues as to who we were, what we did, and what we achieved. Today, our relationship with materials is on the cusp of a revolution. We are entering the Age of the Material, where any material can either be acquired from the planet or created from scratch, and then combined in any number of ways to perform any number of tasks. The revolution has been triggered by an entirely new branch of science, dedicated solely to how the structure of materials influences their function. Understand this relationship and anything is possible. Materials Science is set to define the next half-century of human history, and it promises to revolutionise every aspect of our lives.
The pool of potential stories from which the 6 themes of the movie were chosen included:
1 Dennis Sorenson – Robotic Prosthetics 1
- A young man gets to grips with a complex prosthetic limb.
- Advanced materials offer him a brighter future.
- His attempt to relearn his sense of touch reveals an innate curiosity of the material world that we all share.
2 Baby Alice
- Babies also have an innate curiosity of the material world.
- But their enthusiasm shows us how much of this curiosity we lose by the time we are adults.
3 The Ubiquity of Materials
- A few hours in a big city cements this idea – that we take our material surroundings completely for granted.
- There’s a vast array of materials all around us, doing amazing things.
4 The Graphene Revolution
- Not everyone takes materials for granted – and in Manchester, a materials revolution is happening.
- Graphene is a groundbreaking material – made of carbon, but in an arrangement previously undiscovered.
5 Progress by Serendipity
- Graphene is the wonder-material of our age, but nobody is quite sure how useful and successful it will be.
- Aluminium was once in a similar position – celebrated, but essentially ornamental.
- Aluminium is now ubiquitous. Will the same thing happen to graphene?
6 Graphene in Real Life
- Graphene’s mechanical, electronic, optical, thermal and chemical properties are extremely exciting.
- One of the most surprising initial applications of graphene is likely to be in thinner, stronger condoms.
- It neatly demonstrates the close alignment between the structure and function of a material.
7 The Character of Materials 1
- Materials lend character and personality to the items they are part of.
- Nowhere is this better demonstrated than in violins, where material choices mean everything.
- We attempt to use modern techniques and advanced materials to recreate a Stradivarius violin.
8 Bionic Plant
- The violin is a dead piece of wood, but materials science is also able to enhance living plants.
- Scientists are using carbon nanotubes to enhance plants’ photosynthetic capabilities.
- They are also creating plants that can sense and respond to chemicals.
9 Unused Energy Resources
- Making better use of resources like solar energy and water is essential for a sustainable future.
- The agricultural heartlands of the southern Mediterranean are deeply affected by such concerns.
- Modern materials offer the possibility of cheaper solar energy and energy efficient desalination.
- In turn agriculture, business and national economies will benefit.
10 Taking to the Skies
- At the apex of the business case for advanced materials is aviation.
- This is an industry in desperate need to improve sustainability and cut costs.
- The use of advanced materials in the new Airbus A350 shows just how cutting edge aviation now is.
- At the Farnborough Airshow, we see the A350 unveiled and the reaction to it.
11 The Materials Library
- The drive to create these astonishing materials has inspired some people to collect and catalogue them.
- Zoe Laughlin and her colleagues at the Materials Library at UCL are doing just that.
- The reason? To remind us of our deeper relationship with materials.
12 The Art of Materials Science
- The emotional connection to materials should not be underestimated – it’s also a major force for innovation.
- In the Czech Republic 27,000 years ago, ceramics were invented for artistic – not practical - reasons.
- And today, artists like David Černý continue this tradition – working with materials to an artistic end.
13 The Character of Materials 2 Continuation of the violin story.
- Scanning and additive manufacturing introduction.
STIMULATE FP7-NMP-2013-CSA-7 Appendix - page ii
14 Printing A Human
- Anna Gunarsson from Lund, Sweden, is benefitting from 3D printing in a life-changing way.
- The extreme level of precision this technique enables is transforming medicine.
- Anna, a Neurofibromatosis sufferer, is having a new titanium pelvis printed to sub-millimetre accuracy.
15 The Character of Materials 3 - Continuation of the violin story.
- Laser sintering is used to print the violin’s body, just like Anna’s pelvis.
16 Power Against the Stream
- The materials making up the violin and pelvic bones are inert and passive.
- Materials science is also paving the way for new active, energy-providing materials – advanced batteries.
- In the Baltic, researchers are using miniscule advanced batteries (the size of rice grains) to track salmon.
- Creating injectable batteries of this size and endurance opens up a world of possibilities.
17 Electronics and Energy Storage
- Electronics are an inescapable part of the modern world, but batteries are the major bottleneck for progress.
- Martin Niely is driving his father to hospital to have his brain-implant battery replaced.
- It will help control his Parkinson’s disease.
- Advanced fuel cells, energy-harvesting from the environment will transform the next generation of consumer devices.
18 The Character of Materials 4
Continuation of the violin story.
- The finishing treatment takes its cue from nature.
- Can the advanced materials of our new violin rival nature?
19 Lessons From Nature
- In the butterfly house of a major zoo, a Jeremy Baumberg examines the delicate wings of its inhabitants.
- He, too, wants to imitate nature – because often, evolution has done all the hard work.
- He is interested in structural colour – that is, colour derived not from pigments but from fine structure.
- Just like the wings of butterflies.
- The result are opal polymers – micro-structured materials whose colours are derived in exactly the same way.
20 Wearable Science
- Perhaps unsurprisingly, Baumberg’s amazing materials have caught the eye of the fashion world.
- Designer Rainbow Winters uses opal polymers, amongst many other advanced materials, as part of her designs.
- It seems advanced materials are reigniting something innate within us all.
- Joy and excitement. Loving materials simply for what they are and how they make us feel.
21 The Future is Now
- We conclude this thought by seeing the most bizarre and wonderful “living” and self-healing materials in existence.
- They prove that in many ways, in terms of advanced materials the future is already here.
22 Dennis Sorenson – Robotic Prosthetics 2
Conclusion of Dennis Sorenson’s story.
- We return to Dennis Sorenson. He’s testing his prosthetic arm by holding, touching and feeling materials.
- It has been years since he’s been able to do this.
- Advanced materials have changed his life.
23 The Character of Materials 5
Continuation of the violin story.
- A violin virtuoso compares our new violin with the original.
- It’s good. Very good. But not quite perfect.
- For all our attempts to replicate nature, there are some things we just can’t do.
- We can’t copy the intangible personality and character that some materials have.
24 A Blank Sheet of Paper
- We end in a roomful of young children. They are drawing, building and creating with materials.
- We imagine them in a few years time.
- Instead of playing with Lego and Meccano, they’re experimenting with graphene, polymers and ceramics.
- With these materials at their disposal, what might they create then?
• Task 3.3 Plan Shoot
Planning the shooting schedule and associated logistics involved:
· confirming availability of selected contributors and locations
· securing access to companies and locations and negotiating what can be filmed and disclosed
· doing screen-tests in recces and reviewing the recce footage and photographs gathered to confirm and refine the visual narrative
Changes in contributors’ circumstances, locations’ availability and factual details withheld intentionally or accidentally during prior arrangements were overcome by sourcing alternative options and adjusting the script. The crew schedule was organised based on the availability and the efficient allocation of travel and shooting dates for the crew. To minimize travel expenses, the locations were grouped together in terms of geography and dates. To maximise the resources used, smaller secondary crews have undertaken parts of the shoot that did not require a full crew and have concurrently covered locations and events that were constrained to specific dates, where needed and proved to be more efficient. Part of the planning included the scheduling of the post-production and the rushes/footage management for the subsequent editing. The delivery formats and the timescales for the postproduction and footage review in the duration of the shoot, informs the final schedule accordingly.
FILMED FOOTAGE
Bionic hand segment
Filmed with Magnus Niska, the first and only person in Europe to have a long-term osseo integrated, myoelectrical prosthetic arm controlled by neuromuscular electrodes; at his house, with his family, at work driving a truck and at river fishing. The collaborative work between surgeons, material scientists and micro-electronics specialists illustrate the multidisciplinary approach required for the project.
Filmed the testing and fitting of his prosthesis, with the researchers developing the technology: Max Ortiz Catalan and Rickard Branenmark of Chalmers University. They were interviewed on biocompatible material, on titanium osseointegration, on implants and communication between prosthetics and the body.
Filmed at Universita Biomedico Rome with Loredana Zollo, a biorobotic researcher that participated in the related Lifehand2 project, a more advanced but limited time trial of a prosthesis with sensory feedback. We interview Dennis Sorenson, the patient chosen to trial the Lifehand2, on his experience and the way it changed his outlook for future innovations.
Violin segment
We follow the journey of discovery of a violin-maker as he sets out to use ALM to 3d-print a violin that will sound comparable to a traditional wooden one. We see the potential and the current limitations of the technology and the materials that are available to the violin maker. The process of printing the violin provides an insight into the economic impact of the new technologies and materials within the manufacturing process.
Filmed at Warwick University, where we follow the violin-maker learning about the options and the material and struggling to find an equivalent substitute for wood. With the help of the experts he modifies the 3D-scanned model of a conventional instrument with an internal tubular structure to approximate the mechanical and vibrational behaviour of wood. We showcase the produced instrument as it performs successfully on stage.
Solar segment
We see how societal challenges and the vision of a scientist determined to find an alternative sources of sustainable energy, can be developed into a viable technology and how it can inspire further innovation within and outside the lab. We learn from Michael Graetzel about the development of dye-sensitised solar cells, the difficulties he faced, and the successful collaboration with Toby Meyers, an ex-student, that pursued further funding and set-up a spin-off company.
Filmed in both Solaronix and G24 companies, to explore the development and the difficulties of transferring the research results from the lab into a commercial marketable product. We illustrate the basics of dye-sensitised solar cells in a demonstration where we assemble a cell using raspberry juice as a sensitiser.
Desalination/Aquaporins segment
Filmed in the small agriculture village of Psari Forada, in southern Crete, to illustrate the importance of water and how it enabled the residents to farm intensively and develop their community. The increased agricultural needs impact the supply of underground water and the prospects for the future.
Filmed in Denmark where we learn how they manufacture water filtration membranes with embedded aquaporin proteins. The project developer, Sylvie Braekevelt explains the potential for lower-energy desalination and exemplifies the principle. We follow her out to Crete where she demonstrates the filtration of sea water for watering the crops to the locals.
Graphene and nano-materials segment
Filmed at Manchester University and at the graphite wadholes of the Borrowdale valley to explain the production and properties of graphene and other “two-dimensional” material and structures.
Filmed at Novalia in Cambridge the applications of nano-carbon conductive ink and graphene ink to produce interactive cardboard and plastic CD-covers and posters.
The interviewees, represent the people behind the R&D and are chosen from a range of grades, from current PhD students, to lecturers and graduates having transitioned to the
industry. They comment on the production challenges, the nature of work of a material scientist and the multidisciplinary requirements, but also on their vision for the future potential applications.
Materials Library segment
Filmed at the materials library with curator Zoe Laughlin who shows how an extraordinary range of materials have been created, through history, as a response to societal challenges and opportunities. She demonstrates how the properties of advanced material, such as shape-memory alloys and aerogel, reveal information about their structure, but also inspire and amaze.
Biomimetics segment
Filmed at the Cavendish Lab at Cambridge University with the research team behind the bio-inspired photonic material research that has ambitions to create colour without toxic pigments. Jeremy Baumberg explains structural colour as observed in opal stones and how they manufacture polymer opal material, managing to achieve coloration without pigmented dyes.
Filmed and interviewed Amy Winters, a young fashion designer using the polymer opal material to make clothes that shift colour as they stretch.
We further filmed with Sylvia Vingolini and she takes us through her research of using cotton cellulose to create layered material exhibiting structural colour properties.
Adaptive Material segment
Filmed with Martin Hanzcyc at Trento to introduce the idea of responsive materials, as exemplified by simple chemical protocells interacting with their surroundings. Martin talks about the future vision for material that adapt to their environment.
Filmed with designer Shamees Aden, who bases on this idea a concept trainer shoe that would respond to the surface it is used upon and the movements of the user. We end with these thoughts for a future where advanced materials can integrate into and co- exist with their environment.
Urban environment links
Filmed brief links in the urban environment and the people in the city, illustrating to the use of materials, and the societal needs and challenges that drive their development. This footage is exploited as links between stories and in the intro and outro, following to the input of reviewers and suggestions by the consortium and the project officer.
• Task 3.4. Filming
The filming (task 3.4) was executed according to the script (D3.1) and the schedule (D3.2) produced in the previous tasks (3.1 3.2 and 3.3). The filmed footage was constantly reviewed and evaluated against both D3.1 and the objectives of the projects to inform any necessary adjustments to the shooting script and the shooting schedule.
The outcome of the filming comprised deliverable D3.3–the total footage filmed, in the form of a report, a compilation of footage and of the entirety of footage available for viewing by the consortium and the officer.
• Task 3.5. Post-production
In the post-production process (task 3.5) the footage was assembled and the narrative and scientific content consolidated. The assembly of the footage is the actual visual checkpoint of the filmic storytelling. At the first stage of the edit, requirements for additional footage and further exemplification of the content were identified and were scheduled and filmed in parallel with the ongoing edit process. This was accommodated by the two-month extension requested from and granted by the project officer. The full details are further documented in said request document.
The edited film was assessed as to the narrative and factual objectives and against the engagement targets, with feedback and analysis from internal and external test screenings with content producers, scientists and target audience samples (as reported in the assessment deliverable D4.4). The results, input and recommendations informed the decisions on the final adjustments to the edit.
The last part of the post-production, the online process, comprises of the technical and aesthetic tasks for the finishing of the film: on-screen graphics and text compositing, voice-over recording, sound design and mixing, colour-correction, and finally, the encoding and exporting of deliverable D3.4 the final film in the original, English language.
All tasks 3.1 through to 3.5 comprise the industry standard process for any audio visual production, formulated into separate tasks for management, scheduling and reporting purposes.
• Task 3.6. Localisation
The translation of the film script in all EU languages was assigned to translation companies, as described in the DoW, after receiving several quotes. In order to realise and manage the localisation task more efficiently and cost-effectively, it was negotiated and approved (during the negotiation stage, before the beginning of the project) for the task to be led by the NCSRD partner. Work in all languages included translation and proofreading by native speakers and in some cases it included experienced materials scientists. The total number of words was about 11 000 for all films in the initial English version. NCSRD is located in Greece and faced serious difficulties in making the payments to the translation companies due to the capital controls that were imposed on the Greek Economy. Also some of the translating companies that were based in Greece had difficulties in making payments outside Greece and asked for cancellation of part of the work or to extend the delivery dates. For this reason several subcontracting agreements had to be modified. All of the work that was described on the DoW was done, in excellent quality; the only deviation was that for French we chose to make a subtitled version (instead of a dubbed version) because of the extremely tight time contrstraints that we had for the submission in the Pariscience Film Festival. All language versions were uploaded at the web portal www.materialsfuture.eu. High definition versions were sent to the European Commission by normal post due to their large file size.
Contributing to the work of the NCSRD partner and the subcontractor companies, APT’s personnel consulted and provided support to the initial part of the localisation process: advised and provided clarifications on the technical and aesthetic parameters of the subtitling and dubbing and reviewed and suggested a selection –within the limitations of a foreign language– of the proposed voice-over artists and actors for the different languages.
Highlights of most significant results in WP3
• The script has been finalised to form the conceptual map for the planning of the actual shoot.
• The completion of the filming across 6 European countries constitutes milestone MS5 for the project.
• The production process (tasks 3.1-3.4) culminated in a very high standard film, (D3.4) surpassing in many cases broadcast standards as affirmed by the successful audience reception in all screenings and by the festival circuit participation.
• The film has won to-date:
Best Film Award in International Science Film Festival Athens/Paros
Award of the Engineering Faculty in Life Sciences Film Festival, Prague
• The first 3D-printed acoustic violin with a tubular internal wall structure was built during the production tasks, and has been used extensively to engage audiences and enhance the dissemination of the project.
WP4 Evaluation
The objective of this WP was to find the right balance between the highest possible educational content and the engagement of the public in our products and especially the engagement of the younger people.
The main tasks of WP4 were:
• Task 4.1 Evaluation of the selected themes
Work was carried out, notably through the use of an online workshop involving all participants to establish a frame work against which the documentary proposal could be assessed. Themes were finalised at the 2nd meeting of the project team in March and have gone through further refinement. A questionnaire has been prepared for the evaluation of the themes through an online survey and a protocol has been written and approved by the Ethics committee of the Open University to allow the questionnaire to be distributed. This questionnaire had been distributed at the "Researcher's night 2014" held at NCSRD and the answers received, played a critical role to the final selection of themes.
• Task 4.2 - Evaluation of the serious game
SGI have completed survey work to test the first impression of the game play and mechanics of the first prototype. Then ,
as planned, the game has been extensively tested on all platforms to verify that it is working properly.
• Task. 4.3 Evaluation of the Documentary
As part of the project’s formative evaluation framework, the documentary film was evaluated through a questionnaire-based survey, in order to document their evaluative judgments of the project’s documentary in its non-finalized form, along several aesthetic, stylistic, content-related, and communication-related dimensions.
A questionnaire was prepared and distributed by NTUA and NCSRD members. The representative sample of audience consisted of 68 high school and graduate students. Professors and teachers also took part in the evaluation process and all the responders filled in a pre-screening and a post-screening questionnaire. Statistical and qualitative analysis of survey data identified areas of improvement with a view to enhancing the film’s overall acceptability and persuasive impact. It provided the team with a better understanding of intended and perceived audiences, a clearer sense of the elements of the film that worked and the ones that needed further refinement, as well as directions for the dissemination and promotion of the product. Multivariate empirical data were also gathered relating to audience beliefs towards the field of Advanced Materials in general, perceptions of sustainability, awareness and interest in scientific issues, media preference, etc.
Survey results and extracted recommendations were distributed to APT (producers of the documentary), suggesting areas of improvements in terms of the film content, structure, flow, narrative, message direction, message intensity, story sequencing, tone and style. APT took these recommendations into account and made certain changes which were implemented in the final version of the film.
• Task 4.4 Evaluation of the Audience Building and Distribution
Evaluation of the Audience Building and distribution based on a number of online and offline distribution activities. The main purpose of this process was to provide a guidance on future actions that could improve the outreach effectiveness. New strategies were suggested and carefully followed until the end of the project; they will be continued also after the end of the project, as EMRS has confirmed its DoW commitment to continue the dissemination activities after 12/2015.
One of the most critical decisions that were taken early in the project in order to aim the online distribution was to make the film in such a way so that its segments can be viewed also independently. There is now a 60 min main film, its 8 segments that can be viewed independently from each other and also the 6 “enhanced shorts” (i.e. the short educational films named “Behind the secret life of materials”); this decision increased significantly the effort for making the final translated versions.
Highlights of most significant results in WP4
• Workshop in October 2013 using an online environment 'Basecamp', provided by SGI. The results of this workshop, were then used in the development process as an evaluation tool for subsequent documentary proposals.
• • A questionnaire for the evaluation of the themes through an online survey has been prepared and approved to be sent out to potential participants.
• An effective distribution strategy was built after applying crucial corrective actions decided during the evaluation process.
• User tests provided a very useful guide on the final game structure.
• Detailed quantitative data (analytics) were presented and interpreted to highlight strengths and weaknesses and areas for improvement.
• Directions for future action were suggested: tasks and amendments to improve the campaign’s outreach effectiveness (e.g. through technical and medium-centered ameliorations, a more intense content strategy, tactics for increasing user-generated content, online media relations, network-building, outreach through third parties online, mobilization of professional European networks and partnerships and collaborations.
• Growth in the project’s media presence attributed to several enhancements that had been implemented on the project’s media was documented.
• Recommendations for improvement of traffic, bounce rate, and engagement metrics were provided for each one of the project’s online media.
• All offline activities of dissemination and audience-building were documented
• Extended recommendations for strengthening dissemination and enhancing reach of the project and its products were provided.
WP5 Audience Development and Distribution
The main objective of this work package was to create the web portal, translate it and effectively disseminate all the media products in order to reach their audience during the project and after its end.
The main tasks of WP5 were:
• Task 5.1 - Web-portal creation and update
The initial set-up of the web portal included the design of the template and the set-up of the social media accounts that are linked to it. The updates in the scientific portal (“Learn/Explore” area) were gradual in order to maintain the visitor’s interest. Currently, the web portal hosts all the project’s products: the game, the film, 11 educational articles with the stories of Max and Lily (mentioned above), an encyclopaedia, an educational pack and a guide for us of the media products for visits in materials science centers; they constitute an educational gate for deeper learning on advanced materials -related topics.
Following a project partner meeting in July 2015 proposing a number of amendments and improvements to the website, between September and December 2015, TVE and NCSRD implemented the following updates and changes to the website:
• Rearranging the site menus to form a more logical site structure;
• adding new pages:
- Film Page, including embedded video playlist showing 6 ‘enhanced shorts’, clips from the film and the complete documentary ‘Behind the secret life of materials’;
- a sub page list of contributors added for each of the various segments of the film;
- a subpage for the Reachout! Game Competition
- an education pack page
• optimising page layouts;
• improving the presentation of key content such as films;
• ensuring consistency across languages;
• adding further content:
- 6 ‘enhanced shorts’,
- clips from the film;
- the full documentary ‘Behind the secret life of materials’
- the education pack as a downloadable PDF;
- the Max and Lilly educational booklet;
- extending the encyclopaedia
• adding all the above new film and education content in 23 language versions;
• adding and amending the website in all 23 language versions.
• Task 5.2 - Distribution for the documentary and game products
Distribution started on M19 as expected. “Stimulate” project had a strong presence at a large number of events across Europe either by screening the film or introducing the game. Festivals and conferences targeted to the general public or the scientific community hosted the project’s products and attracted attention of a large number of attendees. The complete list of the events can be found at D5.6.
Broadcast distribution of the documentary
• APT approached through its own contacts the following broadcasters and have submitted the film for review to the following: ARTE, VPRO, BBC, RTBF, SVE, VIMEO
• APT has secured the interest of Flame Distribution in the film, complementing and extending the reach of the dissemination partner by making its own specialised dissemination contacts available (including broadcasters, educational resources providers and online channels). APT and TVE are currently evaluating the potential and negotiating the details, the requirements and the compliance with the project. (further up-to-date details and reporting is provided in the relevant dissemination report)
• APT has submitted the film to the science film festivals listed below:
• Int’l Science Festival Athens, “Best Film Award” winner, Greece
• Life sciences film festival, “Award of the Technical Faculty” winner, Czech Republic
• Goethe Science Film Festival, Official selection – In competition (award results end of December), International / Philippines
• Pariscience, France, Official Selection, France
• Imagine Science , Submitted, USA/International
• Festival Dei Popoli, Submitted , Italy
• Jihlava Int’l Doc Film Festival, Submitted , Czech Republic
• British Science Festival, Invited to submit to upcoming festival core programme 2016, UK
• Gothenburgh Science Festival, Submission in process - the film was invited in upcoming 2016 festival, Sweden
• AFO Int’l festival of science documentary films, Submitted, Czech Republic
• State: Experience Science, Berlin, Pending - Submission not open yet, Germany
• APT pursued contact with the Strad Magazine’s online content department for an online feature on the 3D-printed violin with interviews and visual material from contributors and film. Online Editor (Charlotte Smith) is reviewing the film
• Task 5.3 - E-MRS Competition
The EMRS, together with the NCSRD members built up the core and rules of the competition called “Reach.Out!.
The second “Reach.Out!” competition based on an improved model of the first one, was organised in the frame of the E-MRS Spring Meeting 2015, held from 11 to 15 May 2015 in Lille, France. The Award Ceremony of the 2ndReach.Out! Competition was held on Wednesday May 13th, during the plenary session of the EMRS Spring Meeting 2015. Each of the winning project was shortly presented to the audience, before Prof. Tsoukalas, Coordinator of the Stimulate project, awarded the prizes. 3 supporting dissemination activities followed: Publication of the results, Stimulate booth and Reach.Out! workshop.
In order to maximise the gained impact and recognition of the project and its products, the EMRS will carry on the organization of the competition in the years to come. With this purpose, the Reach.Out! Competition 2016 is planned for the upcoming E-MRS Spring Meeting, which will be held in Lille, France, from 2 to 6 of May 2016. This competition will aim at rewarding at least one outreach activity towards the general public where the different products of the Stimulate project (e.g. website, film, game) have been used.
• Task 5.4 - Audience development
The dissemination activities so far, aim both at building a strong online scientists' community and also starting approaching the general public.
The intention has been to direct as many people as possible from all EU countries to engage with the project’s media and educational resources through the project website, through its social media accounts or through direct screenings and events, with the overall aim to stimulate the public’s awareness of the project, and increase their understanding and appreciation of the field of Advanced Materials.
Project Website
From the launch of the website until 22 December 2015 there were 27,303 sessions (site visits) by 20,804 site users resulting in 53,346 page views.
Website Data – February 2014 - 22 December 2015 – Google Analytics
• Sessions: 27,303
• Users: 20,804
• Page views: 53,346
These metrics show a substantial increase in website visitors in the last four months of the project. This is likely to be as a result of: improvements and enhancements of the structure of the website carried out this last stage of the project; adding rich and engaging media and educational content to the project website (the film and associated ‘enhanced clips’, the educational Max and Lilly booklet, the education pack; completing the language versioning of the website and all its media content; SEO (search engine optimization) through the addition of keywords; the implementation of a series of social media campaigns intended to promote the project and its media resources and initial networking efforts by project stakeholders.
The STIMULATE project website has received views from users in all 28 EU countries.
Facebook
By regularly adding content, postings and using targeted paid promotion, the STIMULATE Facebook page has become a growing community of interest in the project.
In the week 12 Dec –18 Dec 2015, Facebook post reach was 350,041 users achieving engagement with 11,999 users and 2,639 ‘likes’ in the same period. Taken together these metrics show a very significantly increased Facebook reach from earlier stages of the project – perhaps largely because of a much wider range of events, activities and media content available for promotion.
Facebook reach in the period – 20 November -18 December was 642,363 users.
YouTube
The STIMULATE YouTube channel hosts the project’s film content in all available languages - a total of 259 different films, presented by language in 30 different playlists.
The STIMULATE Materials Future YouTube channel has 35 subscribers
There have so far been 42,301 views of all the project videos presented on the YouTube channel over the lifetime of the project, with a majority of these views taking place during the final two months of the project. YouTube analytics show that following the upload of all the content viewership of the channel is increasing substantially (25 percent of channel views in the 3 day period 20-22 December 2015) with the Materials Hunter game film proving especially popular.
Storify
In addition to the above social media channels, a Storify account was set up for the project. Storify is a social media app which helps make sense of what people post on social media by curating content from a variety of sources and using the Storify platform to turn them into stories.
• Task 5.5 Production and distribution of online educational materials:
During the first year of the project, all the classical project communication tools have been set up: logo, website, general information leaflet etc. Flyers, posters and a roll-up have also been printed and distributed in the frame of two major events:
1. Industrial Technologies 2014, Athens, Greece
2. E-MRS Spring Meeting 2014, Lille, France
Other communication materials (fill-in cards, pencils) were distributed during these events to encourage volunteers among the scientists who participated in the conference.
During the second year of the project, flyers and leaflets were updated and reprinted to be distributed on various events. A special flyer advertising the game was designed and printed by SGI and translated into Greek by NCSRD.
Highlights of most significant results in WP5
• The web portal (www.materialsfuture.eu) was created in Month 7 and revised in Month 9, although an early introductory version was online already since Month 1. The web portal was revised and enhanced again in Month 26-27.The revised web portal has a totally different visual appearance and the content has also changed compared to the first version.
• The first edition of the Reach.Out! competition was successful considering the lack of experience and the second edition was significantly improved. Preparations for the third competition have already started and it has been decided to award a special prize for the exploitation of project’s products.
• Project STIMULATE was successfully promoted to both scientific community and general public through a large number of dissemination activities. Many scientists declared willing to become volunteers and the followers at the social media are continuously increased.
Potential Impact:
As described in the Description of Work of the project (DoW), the intended impact of the STIMULATE project is:
1. Increased awareness of Europe's citizens of materials science and its importance;
2. A more positive attitude in Europe towards science, research and innovation in new materials;
3. Support of the relevant activities of various stakeholders such as researchers, industrialists, trainers and/or schools.
In the short term we expect to raise the public awareness in the field of materials science and to increase the visibility of the field. In the longer term we aim to create an increased interest towards the field among young people in every part of Europe including regions where Materials Science and Technology is having a great share of the economic activity. We aim also to contribute in an increased interest to teenagers and young people to study and work in this field. In turn this will have a positive impact on the effort of the materials industry to choose from a wider pool of employees. The Materials industry will also benefit from an increased visibility of the field. Additionally we are breaking prejudice against this field by drawing a line between “bad practices” that have caused environmental problems in the past with “good practices” that exist if we follow the route of scientific knowledge and public involvement.
For these reasons we created a web portal integrating a serious game, educational material and character-led films. All products introduce people to a world of invention and innovation. The game is targeted towards 14 to 17 year olds. The films are targeted towards the general public and especially the younger people, with the aim to introduce them to the field of Advanced Materials and (in the medium to long term) to attract them to it. The film is composed of smaller segments so that they are easy to download separately from the internet.
In the following we look at which impact points are realistic for the game.
Increased awareness of Europe’s citizens
• The game helps increase awareness mainly within its target group which is 14-17 year old teenagers. It also has the ability to impact teachers and the general public, but probably less so than the identified target group.
• The game increases awareness through key messages about materials science and its importance.
• The key messages are delivered through gameplay and as such it is of paramount importance that the game is an entertaining product for the target audience, as the amount of exposure they get to the subject is directly linked to how much they play.
• More positive attitude towards science
• The game adopts a positive attitude towards science and it shows science as a means to improve quality of life and create a sustainable civilization.
• The amount of impact the game has on the more positive attitude toward science will most likely depend on the amount of exposure to the game’s content and as such it is important that the game is engaging for the target audience.
Support of the relevant activities of stakeholders
The game has an impact on the 14-17 year olds, but there is no reason it shouldn’t have the same impact on stakeholders and general public should they pick it up and choose to spend time with the game. We already have the first indications of teachers choosing it for much younger pupils and also of players older than 18 years of age.
The game supports the activities of school teachers as it is a requirement that the games content can “facilitate take-up in schools”.
Our products, are designed in such a way so that they can be very effective for online distribution in order to ensure that they will be used long after the end of this project. We did not only select their content according to this requirement but we also chose their size and the option to use them as separately from each other as possible. As free online products they can be exploited in the years to come with minimum cost.
The fact that our products have been translated in 23 EU languages is by itself a very good reason to believe that their reach will be very large in the next years. We are still not aware of similar products online, and esp for educational games, that usually can be found in 2-3 major languages.
The multi-disciplinary nature of the “Stimulate” consortium is a real added value for the project, which has ensured and will ensure dissemination of the products to as many as possible different audiences. Each of the partners works in areas where the products of this project are very useful, therefore all of them have already planned relevant activities. Also they have started already to integrate the project's products in their next actions.
Further exploitation of Educational Resources
NCSRD and NTUA, are already integrating the project's products into their educational and outreach activities. STEM Education professionals from the current project Irresistible (http://www.irresistible-project.eu) are studying the products of the project in order to integrate them into new ways of teaching. NCSRD has planned already 10 school visits only for the first 3 months of 2016, (compared to the 1 visit per 2 months for this scientific field) and has set up a new team of young scientists that will host the schools. We expect that similar activities will take place around Europe and we have good indications that similar exploitation of our products will take place soon in Spain (by the members of COSCE, http://www.cosce.org) and the countries where EMRS has the closest collaborations. Especially for this reason we have created the map at http://www.materialsfuture.eu/en/community/ where everybody can find materials research labs to visit around the EU.
Additionally NCSRD is coorganising film screenings (for the “Secret Life of Materials”) coupled with discussions with scientists. It is also coorganising the presence of Materials Scientists in at least 2 Innovation and Sustainability events organised by ECOWEEK and their network. We expect that also this collaboration will be very fruitful and long lasting, as both sides share the same excitement for creating and applying sustainable technologies for the social good. Similar events are expected to take place around Europe and NCSRD is ready to provide to ECOWEEK contacts to local Materials Scientists.
There are many cases that the STIMULATE products have created large interest. From our experience and the evaluation results we have seen that they are great tools for convincing people of various backgrounds and ages for the benefits of working in this great scientific field that is shaping a sustainable world. We believe that this trend will continue and that many more dissemination activities will take place after the end of the project.
Further Exploitation of the Materials Community engagement
EMRS has confirmed its DoW commitment to take over the role of supporting the site and increase the materialsfuture's audience through its network. The EMRS plans to continue also the REACH.OUT! Competition and has already taken the initiative to run the 2016 event. The third Reach.Out! science communication competition winners will be announced at the E-MRS Conference, 2016 Spring Meeting in Lille France. The awards ceremony will be presented to an audience of at least 2000 people.
The competition aims to motivate the scientific community to participate in public outreach actions and act as multipliers of the project, and awards the members of the European Materials Science community (students, scientists, engineers, researchers etc) who have designed, organized and implemented a public outreach activity in the EU.
Further Exploitation of online media channels
At the time of writing this report two online media opportunities remain:
The Guardian science section online is considering whether to feature the ‘enhanced shorts’.
The Strad magazine, a specialist journal for musicians and instrument makers expressed interest in running a feature on 3D-printed violin with interviews and visual material from contributors and film.
It is anticipated that some of this momentum can be maintained after the end of the project, if project partners (which have substantial networks themselves) continue to link to and promote the STIMULATE Materials Future project website. The project website and some of its outputs such as the education pack have a high ranking on the google search engine, which will help new audiences find the website through online searches.
A useful indication that the online marketing promotion and networking is increasing the profile of the STIMULATE education pack is shown by the high ranking of the web page in a Google internet search. Using the search terms ‘Materials’ ‘Science’ ‘Education’ and ‘Pack’, the STIMULATE webpage appears in second place in the ranking.
Further Exploitation of the Film
The main documentary film, The Secret Life of Materials has been placed with a specialist film distribution company to provide the best opportunity for long term distribution to educational television broadcasters in Europe and worldwide. Television content distribution is a specialist field and it can be very difficult to match one individual programme to the very detailed and specific requirements of a broadcaster. These requirements are based on their individual channel identity and the specific way a broadcaster markets itself towards its target audience. Furthermore, distributing a documentary typically takes place over several years.
For all of the above reasons the strategic decision was taken to place the film with a specialist factual film distributor. Both APT and tve estimated that placing the documentary with a broadcast programme distribution company offered the greatest opportunities over the long term of attracting broadcasters and therefore reaching television audiences. Flame Distribution has agreed to market the documentary to broadcasters in Europe and worldwide and have placed the programme into their distribution catalogue.
Broadcast distribution is a long term activity and until Flame has marketed the film at the key broadcaster markets taking place during 2016, it will not be possible to know which European broadcasters are likely to acquire the programme. However APT and tve consider that this approach to broadcast distribution gives the best opportunity for the documentary to reach mainstream television audiences across Europe over the medium term.
Furthermore, there are more high profile public screenings and presentations ‘in the pipeline’ with ‘The Secret Life of Materials’ now confirmed at a number of high profile European film festival screenings in 2016, after the official end of the project, which will also continue to maintain the profile of the project, its web site and its media and education outputs.
List of Websites:
www.materialsfuture.eu
contact@materialsfuture.eu
www.facebook.com/materialsfuture
twitter.com/MaterialsFutur1
plus.google.com/u/0/104946840989696993992/posts
www.youtube.com/channel/UCGBRntleleTzoELq5f-EZhQ/videos
Stimulate was a 30 month duration project aiming to attract the general public to the field of advanced materials, highlighting the relevance of functional materials to the innovations that the market expects. To this end, we have successfully fulfilled the project’s goals for creating and disseminating a cross-platform media approach, integrating onto a web portal (www.materialsfuture.eu) online educational resources(education pack online encyclopedia etc.), a web-based serious game (“Materials Hunter”) and a character-led documentary film (“The secret Life of Materials”) that was translated in 23 official EU languages. The serious game and the documentary are designed so that they can also stand alone in the media markets i.e. they are able to be used also independently.
Our target audience for the game and educational pack is teenagers between 14 and 17 years old while the character-led documentary targets the general public.
The Main Themes where the project directs the audience’s attention are the following:
• the societal challenges/problems that drive the development of advanced material
• the multidisciplinary research and development on which this effort is based
• the economic impact of the work on advanced materials and their manufacturing
• the environmental impact
• the people behind materials R&D and their vision for the future
The story of “Materials Hunter” is about the evolution of a small society which is very primitive at the start of the game. This society is managed by the player who is quickly evolving with the game by completing quests given by the members of the society. As the game and storyline progress, the society quickly goes through periods of time and skips to the present time.
As regards the documentary, a wide variety of scientific topics (materials, applications, manufacturing processes etc.) were chosen to form the backbone of the documentary script. The film constitutes of eight different segments while the shooting was carried out in research centers and universities, private companies and other locations in six different European countries.
The education pack aims to generate interest, understanding and enthusiasm among secondary school students for the whole field of advanced materials and their many applications in our lives. The pack is divided into three parts. It starts with activities exploring the need for advanced materials, then moves on to discovering different types of advanced materials and finally looks at how students can get involved themselves.
Both game and documentary as well as the educational resources can be found at www.materialsfuture.eu.
STIMULATE project was carried out by seven participants. More specific, these participants were:
• National Technical University of Athens (Greece)
• National Center for Scientific Research “Demokritos” (Greece),
• Open University (United Kingdom)
• European Materials Research Society (France)
• Serious Game Interactive (Denmark)
• APT Film & Television Limited (United Kingdom)
• Television for the Environment (United Kingdom).
Project Context and Objectives:
Because of the complicated nature of their role as technology enablers, advanced materials many times miss the general public’s attention.
People tend to underestimate the importance of advanced materials, since they are mostly focused on the final consuming products, instead of appreciating the underlying materials technologies. In order to uncover this hidden role, we have created a set of media products where we are integrating onto a web portal, online educational resources, a web-based serious game and a character-led documentary film that will is translated in 23 official EU languages. To achieve this task we involved a multidisciplinary team of experts (in advanced materials, documentary filming, game based education, e-learning, scientific journalism etc) that have combined their expertise in order to create a coherent set of products.
The Main Themes where the project directs the audience’s attention are the following:
a) the societal challenges/problems that drive the development of advanced materials
b) the multidisciplinary research and development on which this effort is based
c) the economic impact of the work on advanced materials and their manufacturing
d) the environmental impact
e) the people behind materials R&D and their vision for the future
The educational, “Serious Game”, is targeted towards teenagers (between 14 and 17 years old) while the character-led documentary is targeted towards the general public and especially the younger people. Overlapping scientific content and cross-references between the two links them and promotes their distribution. We give our audience a clear vision for a sustainable future, based on Knowledge, Development and Innovation, with advanced materials at its core. We present all the sides of the materials community to the general public, including research, development and manufacturing, highlighting the role of materials innovation in the struggle of the European societies to face the current economic and environmental challenges.
The story of the game "Materials Hunter" is about the evolution of a small society, managed by the player. When the game starts the society is very primitive, but by completing quests given by the members of the society, it quickly evolves. The player is not alone though. Two teenagers aid the player; these are Max and Lilly, the characters that appear on the “Learn/Explore” section of the website. They comment on the evolution of the society and help explain core principles of the game and present the scientific content.
The society starts back when the people live in mud huts. Guided by the two kids the player quickly creates clay bricks. These are used to build brick walls and small brick houses are built to host the society.
As the game and storyline progress, the society quickly goes through periods of time and skips to the present time.
Soon more problems start to hit the little society. Pollution threatens the health of people and ecosystems, seemingly incurable diseases like cancer becomes the greatest killer and the player is tasked with the job of finding new advanced materials with properties that can help combat all these problems.
Throughout the process the two helpers guide the player to finally end up with a sustainable and happy future society that has arrived at this point by investing time and grey matter into tinkering with advanced materials and their application.
The storytelling is mainly done in-game by the boy and girl, but the visualization of the evolving society also tells a story of its own.
The final version of the game features 48 levels, highlighting 20 technologies that are enabled by the use of advanced materials.
The 60 min documentary is built around the following subjects:
Bionic hand segment
Filmed with Magnus Niska, the first and only person in Europe to have a long-term osseo integrated, myoelectrical prosthetic arm controlled by neuromuscular electrodes; at his house, with his family, at work driving a truck and at river fishing.
Violin segment
We follow the journey of discovery of a violin-maker as he sets out to use ALM to 3d-print a violin that will sound comparable to a traditional wooden one. We see the potential and the current limitations of the technology and the materials that are available to the violin maker.
Solar segment
We see how societal challenges and the vision of a scientist determined to find an alternative sources of sustainable energy, can be developed into a viable technology and how it can inspire further innovation within and outside the lab.
Desalination/Aquaporins segment
Filmed in the small agriculture village of Psari Forada, in southern Crete, to illustrate the importance of water and how it enabled the residents to farm intensively and develop their community. The increased agricultural needs impact the supply of underground water and the prospects for the future.
Graphene and nano-materials segment
Filmed at Manchester University and at the graphite wadholes of the Borrowdale valley to explain the production and properties of graphene and other “two-dimensional” material and structures. Filmed at Novalia in Cambridge the applications of nano-carbon conductive ink and graphene ink to produce interactive cardboard and plastic CD-covers and posters.
Materials Library segment
Filmed at the materials library with curator Zoe Laughlin who shows how an extraordinary range of materials have been created, through history, as a response to societal challenges and opportunities. She demonstrates how the properties of advanced material, such as shape-memory alloys and aerogel, reveal information about their structure, but also inspire and amaze.
Biomimetics segment
Filmed at the Cavendish Lab at Cambridge University with the research team behind the bio-inspired photonic material research that has ambitions to create colour without toxic pigments. Jeremy Baumberg explains structural colour as observed in opal stones and how they manufacture polymer opal material, managing to achieve coloration without pigmented dyes.
Adaptive Material segment
Filmed with Martin Hanzcyc at Trento to introduce the idea of responsive materials, as exemplified by simple chemical protocells interacting with their surroundings. Martin talks about the future vision for material that adapt to their environment.
Dissemination of these products takes place with the use of the most relevant mass media tools, with the use of the expertise of a Public Relations specialist and the exploitation of the network of the European Materials Research Society (E-MRS), a broad scientific society with thousands of members. Our effort is in line with the current EU policy on Materials Vision and its relation to the Key Enabling Technologies, promoting not only the role of the Materials Community (Academia and Industry) in the creation of a knowledge-based economy, but also its vision for a sustainable future. We have designed a set of media products that can have a real impact on the public’s perception of the advanced materials. We open a window of optimism and we uncover to the European Public the world of Material Science and Technology Applications, where we are finding solutions to everyday problems for the benefit of our Planet. Our main target is to stimulate the European public towards a positive attitude in the field of advanced materials and make it realise the role of Science in our life.
Our media products have 4 main objectives:
1) To decipher the role that the advanced materials play in innovative new products
2) To uncover the economic impact of working with advanced materials
3) To describe the environmental impact of working with advanced materials
4) To attract teenagers and younger people to the field (incl. nanomaterials)
Project Results:
The work that has been performed has been distributed within six Work Packages which are related to technical or management activities. Description of work on each work package and the results achieved, are summarised below:
WP1 Scientific input
The main objective of this work package was to select the exact scientific content to be included in the media products, i.e. in the script of the documentary and in the levels of the Serious Game. The themes have been defined with the contribution of all partners (except TVE, which entered the project in the 7 last months of the project) and the exploitation of the experience of many materials experts.
The main tasks of WP1 were:
• Task 1.1 Themes Development
The development of the themes for the documentary is defined in Task 1.1 of the DoW as follows:
"Refinement and finalizing of the categories, themes and the success stories to be featured, by the scientific research team and the scientific writers; the production team will be advising on the effectiveness and the narrative potential of the choices."
Several pathways were followed to accurately formulate the scientific content of the documentary: Firstly, the most interesting – from a scientific point of view - materials were chosen, always in correlation with their current or near-future applications, giving thus emphasis on the importance of advance materials in everyday life and their impact on the society. In a second level, we focused our research on interesting stories or other materials science related issues that could be potentially attractive to our target audience. Finally, people whose careers are involved with (advanced) materials were highlighted to showcase both the role of the materials scientists and their multidisciplinary approach to research and development as well as the entrepreneurial spirit that drives the transition from scientific knowledge to industrial production (i.e. from invention to innovation).
- Advanced Materials in the major Industrial Sectors
The specific topics for the documentary - always on a par with the above mentioned themes - were selected based on the sequence:
sector application technology/device (advanced) materials
More specifically, the following major industrial sectors served as a starting point:
A) information and communication technology
B) health
C) energy
D) environment
E) transportation/construction/housing
Note that, in accord with the specific topic call key text “Advanced Materials: our allies for a sustainable future”, sustainability issues were put at the forefront of our research within each sector. Thus, for each sector we outlined the applications that relate to common (or less common) examples and the underlying technology. Finally, we specified the state-of-the-art materials used in this technology/device as well as - in some case - the historical evolution of the materials that have been used so far with regard to those that are likely to replace them in the near future due to economical (cheaper), environmental (ecofriendlier) or societal (user-friendlier, better performance) reasons.
- Interesting stories & scientific topics
The scientific topics described above act as a pool of ideas from which the documentary production team has drawn inspiration. However, of more relevance to the composition of the shooting script was the collection of interesting stories around the above mentioned scientific topics. These could serve as a bait to capture the viewers’ attention and then engage them to the rest of the content. These stories were categorised as follows:
• Accidental discoveries
• Nature-inspired discoveries
• Advanced materials in sports
• Horizon2020 Flagships (Graphene, Brain Project)
• Nobel prizes (Europe-based)
• Ethical issues related to advanced materials
• List of inspiring videos/talks
Apart from the input provided by the scientific team, the documentary production team had also been performing parallel research to locate advanced materials-related stories that proved to be useful very useful for the final script.
- People (Europe-based)
To properly address all of the above mentioned themes, the contribution of the human factor was highlighted. From early-stage researchers to Nobel Laureates, from young (even undergraduates) innovation awards winners to successful entrepreneurs and from craftsmen to artists, the people in the forefront or behind the scenes are the stepping stones of the development of Advanced Materials.
The scientific input on the people (Europe-based) was categorised as follows:
• Scientists with interesting research careers
• Nobel Laureates
• Scientists with Entrepreneurial Skills
• Entrepreneurs
• List of Awards/Success stories/Events
• Other professionals whose careers are related to Advanced
Materials
Some representative examples are presented in topics included in shooting script below (end of Task 1.1).
- References
Online Resources
The selection of scientific topics/people of interest was mainly based on:
• ERC Grants awarded in 2013
• FET Flagships (Horizon2020)
• E-MRS 2013/2014 and EUROMAT 2013 scientific program and main topics therein
• Keywords in Materials Science related scientific journals: Advanced Materials journal series (Ed. Wiley), Journals of Materials Chemistry (Ed. RSC), Chemistry of Materials/ACS Nano/JACS (Ed. ACS), Nature Materials, Science etc. An example of the keywords used by the Advanced Materials journal series of Wiley Editions are given in APPENDIX 4 of Deliverable 1.2 . In this way, we reassured that the selected topics would be up-to-date, of relevance to the research community and current research priorities set by the EC, whereas we made an effort to include advanced materials that would be representative of a range of scientific fields.
Contact with experts
• Discussions with experts
We took advantage of our personal networks and interviewed many renowned scientists working in Materials Science related scientific fields with the aim to get a more objective view on the field. Some examples of the scientists that were contacted in the preliminary stage of the work are mentioned below:
G. Malliaras (bioelectronics), Th. Anthopoulos and P. Argitis (organic electronics and lithography), D. Niarchos (magnetic materials), G. Maniatis, and V. Kilikoglou (ancient material processes, ceramics), R.Martins and P. Tello (critical raw materials), G. Van Tendeloo (Microscopy), Horst Hahn (nanoceramics, batteries), N. Kehagias (nanoimprint lithography), L Kienle (metals), R White, F. Bonaccorso (graphene), I. Mavridou (crystallography), U. Soederval (nanofabrication).
The questions posed to these experts included their view on the future of materials science, which materials they consider promising for the next decade, any futuristic application they may be aware of and interesting stories that relate to a material’s discovery or to the progress of a technology.
• Survey conducted through Survey Monkey online platform
A short online questionnaire was sent to materials science experts through our personal networks to help us define the answers to the following basic questions:
“Which advanced materials technologies would you recommend to include in an outreach activity towards the general public?”
“Could you please name some european companies/research groups that work on these areas?”
• Discussion with members of the Advisory Board
All the members of the Advisory board have been contacted in several occasions for new ideas and to give us their opinion on the work done. In particular, the progress made in the scientific input with regard to the specified themes was discussed with the members of the Advisory Board (Prof. Claes-Goran Granqvist, Dr. Daniel Bensahel, Prof. Arokia Nathan) that were present at the Athens Meeting (14/03/2014) and their input was taken into serious consideration during elaboration of the stories included in the script.
The answers and total feedback from all the above discussions (online and face-to-face) were collected, categorized and evaluated by the scientific team. They contributed in setting the priorities to the scientific topics that are more suitable to be demonstrated in the documentary. It should be also noted here that at the beginning of the project we agreed with Anna Tampieri (expert for biomedical materials) to include her as a member of the Advisory board of STIMULATE, as was mentioned in the DoW: “A female expert for Materials for Health will be included in this Advisory Board.”
- Topics included in the Shooting Script
The scientific input was taken into account during the process that led to the hitherto development of the shooting script (see also D3.1). From all the scientific information provided by the scientific input team, the selection of scientific topics made by the production team was based on their effectiveness in being implemented in a coherent storyline as well as their ability to contribute to the narrative potential of the individual stories. To this end, the following scientific topics were chosen to form the backbone of the documentary script (for more details see D3.1):
• Materials
- Construction materials (steel, glass, bronze, ceramics, cloth, wood)
- (Fluorinated) Graphene/Graphene oxide - 2D structured materials
- Carbon nanotubes
- Carbon fibers
- Nanoparticles
- Electrolytes
- Perovskites
- Plastics/Thermoplastics/Opal polymers
- Aerogel
- Composites
- Alloys (Ti,...)
- Conductive Inks
• Applications
- Prosthetics
- Brain-Computer/Neural interfaces - Bionics
- Water desalination
- Solar energy
- Wearable electronics
- Energy storage
- Functionalised coatings/Varnishes
- Insulation
- (Nanostructured) Drug-delivery systems
• Manufacturing processes
- Characterization techniques (CT scanning, X-rays,...)
- Laser sintering, 3D printing (additive manufacturing)
- E-beam lithography
• Other stories
- Discoveries - Progress by serendipity (graphene, aluminium)
- Biomimetics - Lessons from nature
• Task 1.2 Filming Locations
The selection of the filming locations for the documentary is defined in Task 1.2 of the DoW as follows:
The selection will take into account the work and the resources of each institute/company, the scientists to be interviewed and their research as it applies to each theme to be addressed. The character traits of the researchers will affect the selection process, with input from the production team. Practical matters, such as ease of access to labs, permission to film and show work, feasibility of participation of our characters into the lab will also be considered.
The selection of scientific topics with regard to the themes for documentary (see Deliverable D1.2) drove the initial research for university departments, relevant innovation and research hubs, multi-site establishments (companies, large projects etc) and in general, places where substantial work on advanced materials is nowadays taking place. Example-wise, some representative large, SME and multinational companies, research centres and innovation hubs from around Europe are listed below.
Of particular relevance to the short-listing of these institutions was the workshop that was organised by the Open University and held online on our internal project management platform during the last week of October 2013. It included - among others - a discussion to what extent labs should be visited in order to find the right balance of scientific content and appeal of the film. In summary, the outcome of this workshop with regard to the filming locations was the following:
‘We want an exciting, engaging, compelling narrative that looks a material science in the context of real life, real challenges and what benefits we will get from it in the future... but how can you show laboratory based activity within that narrative without it destroying the flow?
There is one related point of debate around technical content and how that should be communicated. One view is to have this content at a simplistic level where it can bind up within the narrative; another is to use diagrams / animations to explain more complex technical concepts.’
This process consolidated the criteria and guidelines for the further development of the locations selection focusing on the exemplification of scientific innovation and applications addressing societal, economic and sustainability problems, as they are conveyed by the characters and narratives, whereas the labs and technical context should rather be kept to a minimum.
Locations Included in the Final Shooting Script
The development of the shooting script and the individual story-lines implemented in it (see also D3.1) led to the short-listing of the following filming locations. A significant effort has been put (a) to include a broad view of the field of advanced materials through presentation of not only universities, research centres and companies but also of non-science/ technology related sites and (b) to show representative work held in the four corners of Europe (e.g. from the UK, Scandinavia to Mediterranean countries, ).
Universities & Research Institutes
- Universita Campus Bio-medico, Rome, Italy
- University of Manchester, & National Graphene Institute, Manchester, UK
- Institute of Making, University College London, UK
- Ecole Polytechnic Federal de Lausanne, Switzerland
- Chalmers University of Technology, Gothenburgh, Sweden
- Sahlgrenska University Hospital, Sweden
- Warwick University, UK
- University of Nottingham, UK
- University of Cambridge, UK
- Centre for Integrative Biology (CIBIO), Università degli Studi di Trento // University of Trento, IT
- University of the Arts London , UK
Companies
- Solaronix, Switzerland
- Integrum AB, Gothenburgh, Sweden
- Aquaporin D/S, Copenhagen, Denmark
- Novalia, Cambridge, UK
- Shamees Aden, Materials Designer, London, UK
- Manolis Agapoulakis, Vice-Mayor (of water management), Ano Vianno, Crete, Greece
- Nikos Epitropakis, Farmer Crete, Greece
Other locations
- Magnus Niska, Haparanda, Sweden
- Dennis Sorenson, Aaalborg, Denmark
Main results of WP1
Scientific themes for both game and documentary were successfully defined and the feedback loop followed, was proved to be efficient.
WP2 Serious Game
The main objective of this work package was to develop a serious game, which provides awareness and information on the importance of materials science to 14-17 year old boys and girls in Europe. The game emphasizes on points a, d and e (esp. the vision for the future) of main themes presented in 4.1.2. It does not exclude the other points, but to be effective in its communication and learning effort the game has to be focused. The most realistic expectation for the game is that it will be best at helping us achieve objectives 3 and 4 (the objectives are shown in the executive summary). It also addresses objectives 1 and 2, where it makes sense. Given the specific target audience of the game, it is however safe to say that objective number 4 is very important to the game.
The Game design has been completed after several different designs have been examined to make sure they fit with the scientific content defined in WP1 and additional requirements identified as part of the planned audience, distribution and outreach activities in WP5.
The main tasks of WP2 were:
• Task 2.1 Game design
The story of the game "Materials Hunter" is about the evolution of a small society, managed by the player. When the game starts the society is very primitive, but by completing quests given by the members of the society, it quickly evolves. The player is not alone though. Two teenagers aid the player; these are Max and Lilly, the characters that appear on the “Learn/Explore” section of the website. They comment on the evolution of the society and help explain core principles of the game and present the scientific content.
The society starts back when the people live in mud huts. Guided by the two kids the player quickly creates clay bricks. These are used to build brick walls and small brick houses are built to host the society.
As the game and storyline progress, the society quickly goes through periods of time and skips to the present time.
Soon more problems start to hit the little society. Pollution threatens the health of people and ecosystems, seemingly incurable diseases like cancer becomes the greatest killer and the player is tasked with the job of finding new advanced materials with properties that can help combat all these problems.
Throughout the process the two helpers guide the player to finally end up with a sustainable and happy future society that has arrived at this point by investing time and grey matter into tinkering with advanced materials and their application.
The storytelling is mainly done in-game by the boy and girl, but the visualization of the evolving society also tells a story of its own.
The final version of the game features 48 levels, highlighting 20 technologies that are enabled by the use of advanced materials.
• Task 2.2 Game System programming
All necessary code elements for the game were created, where several go beyond the scope of the original task description. For example, a technology tree has been included and visual progression through an evolving city. The systems programmed includes the core game mechanics, visual narrative progression system, a points system, a reward system, a technology tree system an achievement system, a difficulty system, a level design generator, a new/save/load system and the implementation of the graphical user interface system.
All the systems work well together, and it is robust across all platforms.
• Task 2.3 Assets Production
A major assets library (graphics & sound) was created for the puzzles developed. Despite a larger scope than anticipated, it was realised fast as we found an efficient way to set up the content pipeline, and the graphical style were not too detailed and demanding to produce for. The assets include graphical user interface, background scenes, characters, visual effects and props. They also include sound and music. Beyond that, extra assets have been produced in the form of two videos that was not in the original scope.
• Task 2.4 - Level design
A balance has been searched between difficulty, complexity, subject matter and playability. This proved to be extremely challenging. At the end, all the levels, puzzles and game content is finished and setup based on the framework developed in game system programming and the assets available from assets production.
• Task 2.5– Localisation
A system was made to handle all localisations in the game, so they were automatically exported and imported. However, despite our efforts, the work required was dramatically larger than expected. At the end all localisations have been implemented in good quality. Major challenge was the fact that the translation was delivered in several steps by the translators due to delays. Therefore, the implementation couldn’t be completed in a single step, as the process had to be repeated several times with additional work required for each repetition.
• Task 2.6 – Integration
All systems have been integrated as planned. This task took longer than planned because SGI needed to resubmit several times as new languages became available.
• Task 2.7 - Game Manual
A game manual for the Materials Hunter game has been created as planned. This game manual assists the player on how to setup and play Materials Hunter.
More specifically, the manual provides all necessary information regarding the concept and gameplay of the game as well as browser and hardware requirements for playing the game in PC, MAC or mobile devices.
Main results of WP2:
• A locked down robust game design document that integrates both learning and playing serving the overall project purpose.
• Avery good level between learning content and game experience has been achieved, so players have a strong learning experience while being engaged.
• The game is available in 23 official EU languages, as described in the DoW, which is a major achievement. Most games are only available in the major languages, so as the game becomes known it should improve chances of pick-up, especially in schools.
WP3 Documentary
The objective of WP3 was the production of the documentary audiovisual material. According to the Description of Work, APT undertook research in parallel with NCSRD and NTUA in order to establish a two-way complementary approach for the development of the shooting script. The starting point and the constant reference point for the development was the scientific input compilation of sectors, applications and subsequent list of contributors and locations.
As detailed in D3.1 to effectively address the requirements and parameters of integrating educational media resources within both traditional and media-rich learning environments, while producing film content that conforms to broadcast-preferred formats (in terms of duration and engagement potential), the script was structured around a dual format of a 60 minute main film and 30 minutes of additional specifically-produced pedagogical film sections. The produced content supports, extends and enriches the broader themes and ideas and provides a range of audio-visual resources to facilitate the wider promotion and dissemination of the material.
The use of character-based real-life footage and exemplification of the concepts was favoured over archive footage and extensive graphics, in response to the evaluation and the test screenings feedback and in consultation with scientific educational content producers. The use of archive footage was limited to scenes/shots too expensive to be shot by APT and to past events that were impossible to re-shoot; graphics were used where necessary for illustration and clarification and for establishing an engaging aesthetic style. Part of the archive and graphics budget was allocated to filming additional footage to visually enhance the scientific content, provide real-life context to the ideas and concepts presented and use the characters and stories to maximize the audience engagement and the project’s impact.
The main tasks of WP3 were:
• Task 3.1 Casting / Contributors
The compiled lists were assessed for both the visual potential and the factual content – i.e. the work undertaken and sectors represented – and instigated an extensive research for additional contributors, stories and characters to drive the narrative and visual treatment.
Additional contributors from scientific, industry, entrepreneurial sectors and citizens directly experiencing and benefiting from the respective applications have been interviewed and researched to assess the engagement potential of the associated storylines and the exemplification of the materials development and the vision of the people driving materials development. Associated and additional locations were researched to provide the context and setting for showcasing the materials innovations, their application in the respective sectors, and their impact on societal issues and citizens’ lives. Visually strong filming locations were included to aesthetically engage the audience by balancing between informative content, visual style and enhancing the viewer experience, according to the DoW specifications. The list was re-assessed by the scientific team against the themes and the project objectives and checked for its scientific rigour, leading to the final selection.
• Task 3.2 Shooting Script
The history of human civilization is a history of materials. From the earliest tools, hewn from a single piece of stone more than 2.5 million years ago; to a modern-day aircraft built from cutting-edge composites, everything we have ever done as a species is tied closely to our use of materials. They are the stepping-stones we use to pick our way through history; and often, they are all that’s left when we’re gone – tantalizing clues as to who we were, what we did, and what we achieved. Today, our relationship with materials is on the cusp of a revolution. We are entering the Age of the Material, where any material can either be acquired from the planet or created from scratch, and then combined in any number of ways to perform any number of tasks. The revolution has been triggered by an entirely new branch of science, dedicated solely to how the structure of materials influences their function. Understand this relationship and anything is possible. Materials Science is set to define the next half-century of human history, and it promises to revolutionise every aspect of our lives.
The pool of potential stories from which the 6 themes of the movie were chosen included:
1 Dennis Sorenson – Robotic Prosthetics 1
- A young man gets to grips with a complex prosthetic limb.
- Advanced materials offer him a brighter future.
- His attempt to relearn his sense of touch reveals an innate curiosity of the material world that we all share.
2 Baby Alice
- Babies also have an innate curiosity of the material world.
- But their enthusiasm shows us how much of this curiosity we lose by the time we are adults.
3 The Ubiquity of Materials
- A few hours in a big city cements this idea – that we take our material surroundings completely for granted.
- There’s a vast array of materials all around us, doing amazing things.
4 The Graphene Revolution
- Not everyone takes materials for granted – and in Manchester, a materials revolution is happening.
- Graphene is a groundbreaking material – made of carbon, but in an arrangement previously undiscovered.
5 Progress by Serendipity
- Graphene is the wonder-material of our age, but nobody is quite sure how useful and successful it will be.
- Aluminium was once in a similar position – celebrated, but essentially ornamental.
- Aluminium is now ubiquitous. Will the same thing happen to graphene?
6 Graphene in Real Life
- Graphene’s mechanical, electronic, optical, thermal and chemical properties are extremely exciting.
- One of the most surprising initial applications of graphene is likely to be in thinner, stronger condoms.
- It neatly demonstrates the close alignment between the structure and function of a material.
7 The Character of Materials 1
- Materials lend character and personality to the items they are part of.
- Nowhere is this better demonstrated than in violins, where material choices mean everything.
- We attempt to use modern techniques and advanced materials to recreate a Stradivarius violin.
8 Bionic Plant
- The violin is a dead piece of wood, but materials science is also able to enhance living plants.
- Scientists are using carbon nanotubes to enhance plants’ photosynthetic capabilities.
- They are also creating plants that can sense and respond to chemicals.
9 Unused Energy Resources
- Making better use of resources like solar energy and water is essential for a sustainable future.
- The agricultural heartlands of the southern Mediterranean are deeply affected by such concerns.
- Modern materials offer the possibility of cheaper solar energy and energy efficient desalination.
- In turn agriculture, business and national economies will benefit.
10 Taking to the Skies
- At the apex of the business case for advanced materials is aviation.
- This is an industry in desperate need to improve sustainability and cut costs.
- The use of advanced materials in the new Airbus A350 shows just how cutting edge aviation now is.
- At the Farnborough Airshow, we see the A350 unveiled and the reaction to it.
11 The Materials Library
- The drive to create these astonishing materials has inspired some people to collect and catalogue them.
- Zoe Laughlin and her colleagues at the Materials Library at UCL are doing just that.
- The reason? To remind us of our deeper relationship with materials.
12 The Art of Materials Science
- The emotional connection to materials should not be underestimated – it’s also a major force for innovation.
- In the Czech Republic 27,000 years ago, ceramics were invented for artistic – not practical - reasons.
- And today, artists like David Černý continue this tradition – working with materials to an artistic end.
13 The Character of Materials 2 Continuation of the violin story.
- Scanning and additive manufacturing introduction.
STIMULATE FP7-NMP-2013-CSA-7 Appendix - page ii
14 Printing A Human
- Anna Gunarsson from Lund, Sweden, is benefitting from 3D printing in a life-changing way.
- The extreme level of precision this technique enables is transforming medicine.
- Anna, a Neurofibromatosis sufferer, is having a new titanium pelvis printed to sub-millimetre accuracy.
15 The Character of Materials 3 - Continuation of the violin story.
- Laser sintering is used to print the violin’s body, just like Anna’s pelvis.
16 Power Against the Stream
- The materials making up the violin and pelvic bones are inert and passive.
- Materials science is also paving the way for new active, energy-providing materials – advanced batteries.
- In the Baltic, researchers are using miniscule advanced batteries (the size of rice grains) to track salmon.
- Creating injectable batteries of this size and endurance opens up a world of possibilities.
17 Electronics and Energy Storage
- Electronics are an inescapable part of the modern world, but batteries are the major bottleneck for progress.
- Martin Niely is driving his father to hospital to have his brain-implant battery replaced.
- It will help control his Parkinson’s disease.
- Advanced fuel cells, energy-harvesting from the environment will transform the next generation of consumer devices.
18 The Character of Materials 4
Continuation of the violin story.
- The finishing treatment takes its cue from nature.
- Can the advanced materials of our new violin rival nature?
19 Lessons From Nature
- In the butterfly house of a major zoo, a Jeremy Baumberg examines the delicate wings of its inhabitants.
- He, too, wants to imitate nature – because often, evolution has done all the hard work.
- He is interested in structural colour – that is, colour derived not from pigments but from fine structure.
- Just like the wings of butterflies.
- The result are opal polymers – micro-structured materials whose colours are derived in exactly the same way.
20 Wearable Science
- Perhaps unsurprisingly, Baumberg’s amazing materials have caught the eye of the fashion world.
- Designer Rainbow Winters uses opal polymers, amongst many other advanced materials, as part of her designs.
- It seems advanced materials are reigniting something innate within us all.
- Joy and excitement. Loving materials simply for what they are and how they make us feel.
21 The Future is Now
- We conclude this thought by seeing the most bizarre and wonderful “living” and self-healing materials in existence.
- They prove that in many ways, in terms of advanced materials the future is already here.
22 Dennis Sorenson – Robotic Prosthetics 2
Conclusion of Dennis Sorenson’s story.
- We return to Dennis Sorenson. He’s testing his prosthetic arm by holding, touching and feeling materials.
- It has been years since he’s been able to do this.
- Advanced materials have changed his life.
23 The Character of Materials 5
Continuation of the violin story.
- A violin virtuoso compares our new violin with the original.
- It’s good. Very good. But not quite perfect.
- For all our attempts to replicate nature, there are some things we just can’t do.
- We can’t copy the intangible personality and character that some materials have.
24 A Blank Sheet of Paper
- We end in a roomful of young children. They are drawing, building and creating with materials.
- We imagine them in a few years time.
- Instead of playing with Lego and Meccano, they’re experimenting with graphene, polymers and ceramics.
- With these materials at their disposal, what might they create then?
• Task 3.3 Plan Shoot
Planning the shooting schedule and associated logistics involved:
· confirming availability of selected contributors and locations
· securing access to companies and locations and negotiating what can be filmed and disclosed
· doing screen-tests in recces and reviewing the recce footage and photographs gathered to confirm and refine the visual narrative
Changes in contributors’ circumstances, locations’ availability and factual details withheld intentionally or accidentally during prior arrangements were overcome by sourcing alternative options and adjusting the script. The crew schedule was organised based on the availability and the efficient allocation of travel and shooting dates for the crew. To minimize travel expenses, the locations were grouped together in terms of geography and dates. To maximise the resources used, smaller secondary crews have undertaken parts of the shoot that did not require a full crew and have concurrently covered locations and events that were constrained to specific dates, where needed and proved to be more efficient. Part of the planning included the scheduling of the post-production and the rushes/footage management for the subsequent editing. The delivery formats and the timescales for the postproduction and footage review in the duration of the shoot, informs the final schedule accordingly.
FILMED FOOTAGE
Bionic hand segment
Filmed with Magnus Niska, the first and only person in Europe to have a long-term osseo integrated, myoelectrical prosthetic arm controlled by neuromuscular electrodes; at his house, with his family, at work driving a truck and at river fishing. The collaborative work between surgeons, material scientists and micro-electronics specialists illustrate the multidisciplinary approach required for the project.
Filmed the testing and fitting of his prosthesis, with the researchers developing the technology: Max Ortiz Catalan and Rickard Branenmark of Chalmers University. They were interviewed on biocompatible material, on titanium osseointegration, on implants and communication between prosthetics and the body.
Filmed at Universita Biomedico Rome with Loredana Zollo, a biorobotic researcher that participated in the related Lifehand2 project, a more advanced but limited time trial of a prosthesis with sensory feedback. We interview Dennis Sorenson, the patient chosen to trial the Lifehand2, on his experience and the way it changed his outlook for future innovations.
Violin segment
We follow the journey of discovery of a violin-maker as he sets out to use ALM to 3d-print a violin that will sound comparable to a traditional wooden one. We see the potential and the current limitations of the technology and the materials that are available to the violin maker. The process of printing the violin provides an insight into the economic impact of the new technologies and materials within the manufacturing process.
Filmed at Warwick University, where we follow the violin-maker learning about the options and the material and struggling to find an equivalent substitute for wood. With the help of the experts he modifies the 3D-scanned model of a conventional instrument with an internal tubular structure to approximate the mechanical and vibrational behaviour of wood. We showcase the produced instrument as it performs successfully on stage.
Solar segment
We see how societal challenges and the vision of a scientist determined to find an alternative sources of sustainable energy, can be developed into a viable technology and how it can inspire further innovation within and outside the lab. We learn from Michael Graetzel about the development of dye-sensitised solar cells, the difficulties he faced, and the successful collaboration with Toby Meyers, an ex-student, that pursued further funding and set-up a spin-off company.
Filmed in both Solaronix and G24 companies, to explore the development and the difficulties of transferring the research results from the lab into a commercial marketable product. We illustrate the basics of dye-sensitised solar cells in a demonstration where we assemble a cell using raspberry juice as a sensitiser.
Desalination/Aquaporins segment
Filmed in the small agriculture village of Psari Forada, in southern Crete, to illustrate the importance of water and how it enabled the residents to farm intensively and develop their community. The increased agricultural needs impact the supply of underground water and the prospects for the future.
Filmed in Denmark where we learn how they manufacture water filtration membranes with embedded aquaporin proteins. The project developer, Sylvie Braekevelt explains the potential for lower-energy desalination and exemplifies the principle. We follow her out to Crete where she demonstrates the filtration of sea water for watering the crops to the locals.
Graphene and nano-materials segment
Filmed at Manchester University and at the graphite wadholes of the Borrowdale valley to explain the production and properties of graphene and other “two-dimensional” material and structures.
Filmed at Novalia in Cambridge the applications of nano-carbon conductive ink and graphene ink to produce interactive cardboard and plastic CD-covers and posters.
The interviewees, represent the people behind the R&D and are chosen from a range of grades, from current PhD students, to lecturers and graduates having transitioned to the
industry. They comment on the production challenges, the nature of work of a material scientist and the multidisciplinary requirements, but also on their vision for the future potential applications.
Materials Library segment
Filmed at the materials library with curator Zoe Laughlin who shows how an extraordinary range of materials have been created, through history, as a response to societal challenges and opportunities. She demonstrates how the properties of advanced material, such as shape-memory alloys and aerogel, reveal information about their structure, but also inspire and amaze.
Biomimetics segment
Filmed at the Cavendish Lab at Cambridge University with the research team behind the bio-inspired photonic material research that has ambitions to create colour without toxic pigments. Jeremy Baumberg explains structural colour as observed in opal stones and how they manufacture polymer opal material, managing to achieve coloration without pigmented dyes.
Filmed and interviewed Amy Winters, a young fashion designer using the polymer opal material to make clothes that shift colour as they stretch.
We further filmed with Sylvia Vingolini and she takes us through her research of using cotton cellulose to create layered material exhibiting structural colour properties.
Adaptive Material segment
Filmed with Martin Hanzcyc at Trento to introduce the idea of responsive materials, as exemplified by simple chemical protocells interacting with their surroundings. Martin talks about the future vision for material that adapt to their environment.
Filmed with designer Shamees Aden, who bases on this idea a concept trainer shoe that would respond to the surface it is used upon and the movements of the user. We end with these thoughts for a future where advanced materials can integrate into and co- exist with their environment.
Urban environment links
Filmed brief links in the urban environment and the people in the city, illustrating to the use of materials, and the societal needs and challenges that drive their development. This footage is exploited as links between stories and in the intro and outro, following to the input of reviewers and suggestions by the consortium and the project officer.
• Task 3.4. Filming
The filming (task 3.4) was executed according to the script (D3.1) and the schedule (D3.2) produced in the previous tasks (3.1 3.2 and 3.3). The filmed footage was constantly reviewed and evaluated against both D3.1 and the objectives of the projects to inform any necessary adjustments to the shooting script and the shooting schedule.
The outcome of the filming comprised deliverable D3.3–the total footage filmed, in the form of a report, a compilation of footage and of the entirety of footage available for viewing by the consortium and the officer.
• Task 3.5. Post-production
In the post-production process (task 3.5) the footage was assembled and the narrative and scientific content consolidated. The assembly of the footage is the actual visual checkpoint of the filmic storytelling. At the first stage of the edit, requirements for additional footage and further exemplification of the content were identified and were scheduled and filmed in parallel with the ongoing edit process. This was accommodated by the two-month extension requested from and granted by the project officer. The full details are further documented in said request document.
The edited film was assessed as to the narrative and factual objectives and against the engagement targets, with feedback and analysis from internal and external test screenings with content producers, scientists and target audience samples (as reported in the assessment deliverable D4.4). The results, input and recommendations informed the decisions on the final adjustments to the edit.
The last part of the post-production, the online process, comprises of the technical and aesthetic tasks for the finishing of the film: on-screen graphics and text compositing, voice-over recording, sound design and mixing, colour-correction, and finally, the encoding and exporting of deliverable D3.4 the final film in the original, English language.
All tasks 3.1 through to 3.5 comprise the industry standard process for any audio visual production, formulated into separate tasks for management, scheduling and reporting purposes.
• Task 3.6. Localisation
The translation of the film script in all EU languages was assigned to translation companies, as described in the DoW, after receiving several quotes. In order to realise and manage the localisation task more efficiently and cost-effectively, it was negotiated and approved (during the negotiation stage, before the beginning of the project) for the task to be led by the NCSRD partner. Work in all languages included translation and proofreading by native speakers and in some cases it included experienced materials scientists. The total number of words was about 11 000 for all films in the initial English version. NCSRD is located in Greece and faced serious difficulties in making the payments to the translation companies due to the capital controls that were imposed on the Greek Economy. Also some of the translating companies that were based in Greece had difficulties in making payments outside Greece and asked for cancellation of part of the work or to extend the delivery dates. For this reason several subcontracting agreements had to be modified. All of the work that was described on the DoW was done, in excellent quality; the only deviation was that for French we chose to make a subtitled version (instead of a dubbed version) because of the extremely tight time contrstraints that we had for the submission in the Pariscience Film Festival. All language versions were uploaded at the web portal www.materialsfuture.eu. High definition versions were sent to the European Commission by normal post due to their large file size.
Contributing to the work of the NCSRD partner and the subcontractor companies, APT’s personnel consulted and provided support to the initial part of the localisation process: advised and provided clarifications on the technical and aesthetic parameters of the subtitling and dubbing and reviewed and suggested a selection –within the limitations of a foreign language– of the proposed voice-over artists and actors for the different languages.
Highlights of most significant results in WP3
• The script has been finalised to form the conceptual map for the planning of the actual shoot.
• The completion of the filming across 6 European countries constitutes milestone MS5 for the project.
• The production process (tasks 3.1-3.4) culminated in a very high standard film, (D3.4) surpassing in many cases broadcast standards as affirmed by the successful audience reception in all screenings and by the festival circuit participation.
• The film has won to-date:
Best Film Award in International Science Film Festival Athens/Paros
Award of the Engineering Faculty in Life Sciences Film Festival, Prague
• The first 3D-printed acoustic violin with a tubular internal wall structure was built during the production tasks, and has been used extensively to engage audiences and enhance the dissemination of the project.
WP4 Evaluation
The objective of this WP was to find the right balance between the highest possible educational content and the engagement of the public in our products and especially the engagement of the younger people.
The main tasks of WP4 were:
• Task 4.1 Evaluation of the selected themes
Work was carried out, notably through the use of an online workshop involving all participants to establish a frame work against which the documentary proposal could be assessed. Themes were finalised at the 2nd meeting of the project team in March and have gone through further refinement. A questionnaire has been prepared for the evaluation of the themes through an online survey and a protocol has been written and approved by the Ethics committee of the Open University to allow the questionnaire to be distributed. This questionnaire had been distributed at the "Researcher's night 2014" held at NCSRD and the answers received, played a critical role to the final selection of themes.
• Task 4.2 - Evaluation of the serious game
SGI have completed survey work to test the first impression of the game play and mechanics of the first prototype. Then ,
as planned, the game has been extensively tested on all platforms to verify that it is working properly.
• Task. 4.3 Evaluation of the Documentary
As part of the project’s formative evaluation framework, the documentary film was evaluated through a questionnaire-based survey, in order to document their evaluative judgments of the project’s documentary in its non-finalized form, along several aesthetic, stylistic, content-related, and communication-related dimensions.
A questionnaire was prepared and distributed by NTUA and NCSRD members. The representative sample of audience consisted of 68 high school and graduate students. Professors and teachers also took part in the evaluation process and all the responders filled in a pre-screening and a post-screening questionnaire. Statistical and qualitative analysis of survey data identified areas of improvement with a view to enhancing the film’s overall acceptability and persuasive impact. It provided the team with a better understanding of intended and perceived audiences, a clearer sense of the elements of the film that worked and the ones that needed further refinement, as well as directions for the dissemination and promotion of the product. Multivariate empirical data were also gathered relating to audience beliefs towards the field of Advanced Materials in general, perceptions of sustainability, awareness and interest in scientific issues, media preference, etc.
Survey results and extracted recommendations were distributed to APT (producers of the documentary), suggesting areas of improvements in terms of the film content, structure, flow, narrative, message direction, message intensity, story sequencing, tone and style. APT took these recommendations into account and made certain changes which were implemented in the final version of the film.
• Task 4.4 Evaluation of the Audience Building and Distribution
Evaluation of the Audience Building and distribution based on a number of online and offline distribution activities. The main purpose of this process was to provide a guidance on future actions that could improve the outreach effectiveness. New strategies were suggested and carefully followed until the end of the project; they will be continued also after the end of the project, as EMRS has confirmed its DoW commitment to continue the dissemination activities after 12/2015.
One of the most critical decisions that were taken early in the project in order to aim the online distribution was to make the film in such a way so that its segments can be viewed also independently. There is now a 60 min main film, its 8 segments that can be viewed independently from each other and also the 6 “enhanced shorts” (i.e. the short educational films named “Behind the secret life of materials”); this decision increased significantly the effort for making the final translated versions.
Highlights of most significant results in WP4
• Workshop in October 2013 using an online environment 'Basecamp', provided by SGI. The results of this workshop, were then used in the development process as an evaluation tool for subsequent documentary proposals.
• • A questionnaire for the evaluation of the themes through an online survey has been prepared and approved to be sent out to potential participants.
• An effective distribution strategy was built after applying crucial corrective actions decided during the evaluation process.
• User tests provided a very useful guide on the final game structure.
• Detailed quantitative data (analytics) were presented and interpreted to highlight strengths and weaknesses and areas for improvement.
• Directions for future action were suggested: tasks and amendments to improve the campaign’s outreach effectiveness (e.g. through technical and medium-centered ameliorations, a more intense content strategy, tactics for increasing user-generated content, online media relations, network-building, outreach through third parties online, mobilization of professional European networks and partnerships and collaborations.
• Growth in the project’s media presence attributed to several enhancements that had been implemented on the project’s media was documented.
• Recommendations for improvement of traffic, bounce rate, and engagement metrics were provided for each one of the project’s online media.
• All offline activities of dissemination and audience-building were documented
• Extended recommendations for strengthening dissemination and enhancing reach of the project and its products were provided.
WP5 Audience Development and Distribution
The main objective of this work package was to create the web portal, translate it and effectively disseminate all the media products in order to reach their audience during the project and after its end.
The main tasks of WP5 were:
• Task 5.1 - Web-portal creation and update
The initial set-up of the web portal included the design of the template and the set-up of the social media accounts that are linked to it. The updates in the scientific portal (“Learn/Explore” area) were gradual in order to maintain the visitor’s interest. Currently, the web portal hosts all the project’s products: the game, the film, 11 educational articles with the stories of Max and Lily (mentioned above), an encyclopaedia, an educational pack and a guide for us of the media products for visits in materials science centers; they constitute an educational gate for deeper learning on advanced materials -related topics.
Following a project partner meeting in July 2015 proposing a number of amendments and improvements to the website, between September and December 2015, TVE and NCSRD implemented the following updates and changes to the website:
• Rearranging the site menus to form a more logical site structure;
• adding new pages:
- Film Page, including embedded video playlist showing 6 ‘enhanced shorts’, clips from the film and the complete documentary ‘Behind the secret life of materials’;
- a sub page list of contributors added for each of the various segments of the film;
- a subpage for the Reachout! Game Competition
- an education pack page
• optimising page layouts;
• improving the presentation of key content such as films;
• ensuring consistency across languages;
• adding further content:
- 6 ‘enhanced shorts’,
- clips from the film;
- the full documentary ‘Behind the secret life of materials’
- the education pack as a downloadable PDF;
- the Max and Lilly educational booklet;
- extending the encyclopaedia
• adding all the above new film and education content in 23 language versions;
• adding and amending the website in all 23 language versions.
• Task 5.2 - Distribution for the documentary and game products
Distribution started on M19 as expected. “Stimulate” project had a strong presence at a large number of events across Europe either by screening the film or introducing the game. Festivals and conferences targeted to the general public or the scientific community hosted the project’s products and attracted attention of a large number of attendees. The complete list of the events can be found at D5.6.
Broadcast distribution of the documentary
• APT approached through its own contacts the following broadcasters and have submitted the film for review to the following: ARTE, VPRO, BBC, RTBF, SVE, VIMEO
• APT has secured the interest of Flame Distribution in the film, complementing and extending the reach of the dissemination partner by making its own specialised dissemination contacts available (including broadcasters, educational resources providers and online channels). APT and TVE are currently evaluating the potential and negotiating the details, the requirements and the compliance with the project. (further up-to-date details and reporting is provided in the relevant dissemination report)
• APT has submitted the film to the science film festivals listed below:
• Int’l Science Festival Athens, “Best Film Award” winner, Greece
• Life sciences film festival, “Award of the Technical Faculty” winner, Czech Republic
• Goethe Science Film Festival, Official selection – In competition (award results end of December), International / Philippines
• Pariscience, France, Official Selection, France
• Imagine Science , Submitted, USA/International
• Festival Dei Popoli, Submitted , Italy
• Jihlava Int’l Doc Film Festival, Submitted , Czech Republic
• British Science Festival, Invited to submit to upcoming festival core programme 2016, UK
• Gothenburgh Science Festival, Submission in process - the film was invited in upcoming 2016 festival, Sweden
• AFO Int’l festival of science documentary films, Submitted, Czech Republic
• State: Experience Science, Berlin, Pending - Submission not open yet, Germany
• APT pursued contact with the Strad Magazine’s online content department for an online feature on the 3D-printed violin with interviews and visual material from contributors and film. Online Editor (Charlotte Smith) is reviewing the film
• Task 5.3 - E-MRS Competition
The EMRS, together with the NCSRD members built up the core and rules of the competition called “Reach.Out!.
The second “Reach.Out!” competition based on an improved model of the first one, was organised in the frame of the E-MRS Spring Meeting 2015, held from 11 to 15 May 2015 in Lille, France. The Award Ceremony of the 2ndReach.Out! Competition was held on Wednesday May 13th, during the plenary session of the EMRS Spring Meeting 2015. Each of the winning project was shortly presented to the audience, before Prof. Tsoukalas, Coordinator of the Stimulate project, awarded the prizes. 3 supporting dissemination activities followed: Publication of the results, Stimulate booth and Reach.Out! workshop.
In order to maximise the gained impact and recognition of the project and its products, the EMRS will carry on the organization of the competition in the years to come. With this purpose, the Reach.Out! Competition 2016 is planned for the upcoming E-MRS Spring Meeting, which will be held in Lille, France, from 2 to 6 of May 2016. This competition will aim at rewarding at least one outreach activity towards the general public where the different products of the Stimulate project (e.g. website, film, game) have been used.
• Task 5.4 - Audience development
The dissemination activities so far, aim both at building a strong online scientists' community and also starting approaching the general public.
The intention has been to direct as many people as possible from all EU countries to engage with the project’s media and educational resources through the project website, through its social media accounts or through direct screenings and events, with the overall aim to stimulate the public’s awareness of the project, and increase their understanding and appreciation of the field of Advanced Materials.
Project Website
From the launch of the website until 22 December 2015 there were 27,303 sessions (site visits) by 20,804 site users resulting in 53,346 page views.
Website Data – February 2014 - 22 December 2015 – Google Analytics
• Sessions: 27,303
• Users: 20,804
• Page views: 53,346
These metrics show a substantial increase in website visitors in the last four months of the project. This is likely to be as a result of: improvements and enhancements of the structure of the website carried out this last stage of the project; adding rich and engaging media and educational content to the project website (the film and associated ‘enhanced clips’, the educational Max and Lilly booklet, the education pack; completing the language versioning of the website and all its media content; SEO (search engine optimization) through the addition of keywords; the implementation of a series of social media campaigns intended to promote the project and its media resources and initial networking efforts by project stakeholders.
The STIMULATE project website has received views from users in all 28 EU countries.
By regularly adding content, postings and using targeted paid promotion, the STIMULATE Facebook page has become a growing community of interest in the project.
In the week 12 Dec –18 Dec 2015, Facebook post reach was 350,041 users achieving engagement with 11,999 users and 2,639 ‘likes’ in the same period. Taken together these metrics show a very significantly increased Facebook reach from earlier stages of the project – perhaps largely because of a much wider range of events, activities and media content available for promotion.
Facebook reach in the period – 20 November -18 December was 642,363 users.
YouTube
The STIMULATE YouTube channel hosts the project’s film content in all available languages - a total of 259 different films, presented by language in 30 different playlists.
The STIMULATE Materials Future YouTube channel has 35 subscribers
There have so far been 42,301 views of all the project videos presented on the YouTube channel over the lifetime of the project, with a majority of these views taking place during the final two months of the project. YouTube analytics show that following the upload of all the content viewership of the channel is increasing substantially (25 percent of channel views in the 3 day period 20-22 December 2015) with the Materials Hunter game film proving especially popular.
Storify
In addition to the above social media channels, a Storify account was set up for the project. Storify is a social media app which helps make sense of what people post on social media by curating content from a variety of sources and using the Storify platform to turn them into stories.
• Task 5.5 Production and distribution of online educational materials:
During the first year of the project, all the classical project communication tools have been set up: logo, website, general information leaflet etc. Flyers, posters and a roll-up have also been printed and distributed in the frame of two major events:
1. Industrial Technologies 2014, Athens, Greece
2. E-MRS Spring Meeting 2014, Lille, France
Other communication materials (fill-in cards, pencils) were distributed during these events to encourage volunteers among the scientists who participated in the conference.
During the second year of the project, flyers and leaflets were updated and reprinted to be distributed on various events. A special flyer advertising the game was designed and printed by SGI and translated into Greek by NCSRD.
Highlights of most significant results in WP5
• The web portal (www.materialsfuture.eu) was created in Month 7 and revised in Month 9, although an early introductory version was online already since Month 1. The web portal was revised and enhanced again in Month 26-27.The revised web portal has a totally different visual appearance and the content has also changed compared to the first version.
• The first edition of the Reach.Out! competition was successful considering the lack of experience and the second edition was significantly improved. Preparations for the third competition have already started and it has been decided to award a special prize for the exploitation of project’s products.
• Project STIMULATE was successfully promoted to both scientific community and general public through a large number of dissemination activities. Many scientists declared willing to become volunteers and the followers at the social media are continuously increased.
Potential Impact:
As described in the Description of Work of the project (DoW), the intended impact of the STIMULATE project is:
1. Increased awareness of Europe's citizens of materials science and its importance;
2. A more positive attitude in Europe towards science, research and innovation in new materials;
3. Support of the relevant activities of various stakeholders such as researchers, industrialists, trainers and/or schools.
In the short term we expect to raise the public awareness in the field of materials science and to increase the visibility of the field. In the longer term we aim to create an increased interest towards the field among young people in every part of Europe including regions where Materials Science and Technology is having a great share of the economic activity. We aim also to contribute in an increased interest to teenagers and young people to study and work in this field. In turn this will have a positive impact on the effort of the materials industry to choose from a wider pool of employees. The Materials industry will also benefit from an increased visibility of the field. Additionally we are breaking prejudice against this field by drawing a line between “bad practices” that have caused environmental problems in the past with “good practices” that exist if we follow the route of scientific knowledge and public involvement.
For these reasons we created a web portal integrating a serious game, educational material and character-led films. All products introduce people to a world of invention and innovation. The game is targeted towards 14 to 17 year olds. The films are targeted towards the general public and especially the younger people, with the aim to introduce them to the field of Advanced Materials and (in the medium to long term) to attract them to it. The film is composed of smaller segments so that they are easy to download separately from the internet.
In the following we look at which impact points are realistic for the game.
Increased awareness of Europe’s citizens
• The game helps increase awareness mainly within its target group which is 14-17 year old teenagers. It also has the ability to impact teachers and the general public, but probably less so than the identified target group.
• The game increases awareness through key messages about materials science and its importance.
• The key messages are delivered through gameplay and as such it is of paramount importance that the game is an entertaining product for the target audience, as the amount of exposure they get to the subject is directly linked to how much they play.
• More positive attitude towards science
• The game adopts a positive attitude towards science and it shows science as a means to improve quality of life and create a sustainable civilization.
• The amount of impact the game has on the more positive attitude toward science will most likely depend on the amount of exposure to the game’s content and as such it is important that the game is engaging for the target audience.
Support of the relevant activities of stakeholders
The game has an impact on the 14-17 year olds, but there is no reason it shouldn’t have the same impact on stakeholders and general public should they pick it up and choose to spend time with the game. We already have the first indications of teachers choosing it for much younger pupils and also of players older than 18 years of age.
The game supports the activities of school teachers as it is a requirement that the games content can “facilitate take-up in schools”.
Our products, are designed in such a way so that they can be very effective for online distribution in order to ensure that they will be used long after the end of this project. We did not only select their content according to this requirement but we also chose their size and the option to use them as separately from each other as possible. As free online products they can be exploited in the years to come with minimum cost.
The fact that our products have been translated in 23 EU languages is by itself a very good reason to believe that their reach will be very large in the next years. We are still not aware of similar products online, and esp for educational games, that usually can be found in 2-3 major languages.
The multi-disciplinary nature of the “Stimulate” consortium is a real added value for the project, which has ensured and will ensure dissemination of the products to as many as possible different audiences. Each of the partners works in areas where the products of this project are very useful, therefore all of them have already planned relevant activities. Also they have started already to integrate the project's products in their next actions.
Further exploitation of Educational Resources
NCSRD and NTUA, are already integrating the project's products into their educational and outreach activities. STEM Education professionals from the current project Irresistible (http://www.irresistible-project.eu) are studying the products of the project in order to integrate them into new ways of teaching. NCSRD has planned already 10 school visits only for the first 3 months of 2016, (compared to the 1 visit per 2 months for this scientific field) and has set up a new team of young scientists that will host the schools. We expect that similar activities will take place around Europe and we have good indications that similar exploitation of our products will take place soon in Spain (by the members of COSCE, http://www.cosce.org) and the countries where EMRS has the closest collaborations. Especially for this reason we have created the map at http://www.materialsfuture.eu/en/community/ where everybody can find materials research labs to visit around the EU.
Additionally NCSRD is coorganising film screenings (for the “Secret Life of Materials”) coupled with discussions with scientists. It is also coorganising the presence of Materials Scientists in at least 2 Innovation and Sustainability events organised by ECOWEEK and their network. We expect that also this collaboration will be very fruitful and long lasting, as both sides share the same excitement for creating and applying sustainable technologies for the social good. Similar events are expected to take place around Europe and NCSRD is ready to provide to ECOWEEK contacts to local Materials Scientists.
There are many cases that the STIMULATE products have created large interest. From our experience and the evaluation results we have seen that they are great tools for convincing people of various backgrounds and ages for the benefits of working in this great scientific field that is shaping a sustainable world. We believe that this trend will continue and that many more dissemination activities will take place after the end of the project.
Further Exploitation of the Materials Community engagement
EMRS has confirmed its DoW commitment to take over the role of supporting the site and increase the materialsfuture's audience through its network. The EMRS plans to continue also the REACH.OUT! Competition and has already taken the initiative to run the 2016 event. The third Reach.Out! science communication competition winners will be announced at the E-MRS Conference, 2016 Spring Meeting in Lille France. The awards ceremony will be presented to an audience of at least 2000 people.
The competition aims to motivate the scientific community to participate in public outreach actions and act as multipliers of the project, and awards the members of the European Materials Science community (students, scientists, engineers, researchers etc) who have designed, organized and implemented a public outreach activity in the EU.
Further Exploitation of online media channels
At the time of writing this report two online media opportunities remain:
The Guardian science section online is considering whether to feature the ‘enhanced shorts’.
The Strad magazine, a specialist journal for musicians and instrument makers expressed interest in running a feature on 3D-printed violin with interviews and visual material from contributors and film.
It is anticipated that some of this momentum can be maintained after the end of the project, if project partners (which have substantial networks themselves) continue to link to and promote the STIMULATE Materials Future project website. The project website and some of its outputs such as the education pack have a high ranking on the google search engine, which will help new audiences find the website through online searches.
A useful indication that the online marketing promotion and networking is increasing the profile of the STIMULATE education pack is shown by the high ranking of the web page in a Google internet search. Using the search terms ‘Materials’ ‘Science’ ‘Education’ and ‘Pack’, the STIMULATE webpage appears in second place in the ranking.
Further Exploitation of the Film
The main documentary film, The Secret Life of Materials has been placed with a specialist film distribution company to provide the best opportunity for long term distribution to educational television broadcasters in Europe and worldwide. Television content distribution is a specialist field and it can be very difficult to match one individual programme to the very detailed and specific requirements of a broadcaster. These requirements are based on their individual channel identity and the specific way a broadcaster markets itself towards its target audience. Furthermore, distributing a documentary typically takes place over several years.
For all of the above reasons the strategic decision was taken to place the film with a specialist factual film distributor. Both APT and tve estimated that placing the documentary with a broadcast programme distribution company offered the greatest opportunities over the long term of attracting broadcasters and therefore reaching television audiences. Flame Distribution has agreed to market the documentary to broadcasters in Europe and worldwide and have placed the programme into their distribution catalogue.
Broadcast distribution is a long term activity and until Flame has marketed the film at the key broadcaster markets taking place during 2016, it will not be possible to know which European broadcasters are likely to acquire the programme. However APT and tve consider that this approach to broadcast distribution gives the best opportunity for the documentary to reach mainstream television audiences across Europe over the medium term.
Furthermore, there are more high profile public screenings and presentations ‘in the pipeline’ with ‘The Secret Life of Materials’ now confirmed at a number of high profile European film festival screenings in 2016, after the official end of the project, which will also continue to maintain the profile of the project, its web site and its media and education outputs.
List of Websites:
www.materialsfuture.eu
contact@materialsfuture.eu
www.facebook.com/materialsfuture
twitter.com/MaterialsFutur1
plus.google.com/u/0/104946840989696993992/posts
www.youtube.com/channel/UCGBRntleleTzoELq5f-EZhQ/videos