The Southampton ScienceÌýand Engineering Festival was first launched in 2002.
Since then, events have taken place every March across theÌýUniversity's campuses and the City of Southampton.
Since May 2020 we also developed a digital presence online that allows us to engage with national and international audiences.
Southampton Science and Engineering Festival 2025
Our largest yet, Southampton Science and Engineering Festival took place betweenÌýFriday 7th to Sunday 16th March 2025ÌýfeaturingÌýScience and Engineering DayÌýonÌýSaturday 15th March 2025, 10:30 - 16:30, at Highfield Campus and Boldrewood Innovation Campus attracting over 5,000 visitors, featuring 159 activities and 1,100 + contributors.
Southampton Science and Engineering Festival 2024
Southampton Science and Engineering Festival took placeÌýfrom Friday 8th to Sunday 17th March 2024ÌýfeaturingÌýScience and Engineering DayÌýtook place onÌýSaturday 16th March 2024, 10:30 - 16:30, at Highfield Campus and Boldrewood Innovation Campus.Ìý
Southampton Science and Engineering Festival took placeÌýfrom Friday 10th to Sunday 19th March 2023ÌýfeaturingÌýScience and Engineering DayÌýonÌýSaturday 18th March 2023Ìý, 10:30 - 16:30, at Highfield Campus and Boldrewood Innovation Campus.
Southampton Science and Engineering FestivalÌýran fromÌýFriday 11th to Sunday 20th March 2022. ​The wider festival programme includedÌýa selection of online activities and events taking place across ten days, with the return of some in-person events too. All digital contentÌýwas madeÌýavailable on the official website atÌý.ÌýResources and recordings of some of the Festival events are still available for you to enjoy, on the festival website and on theÌý.Ìý
After a break in the previous two years, Science and Engineering DayÌýreturned on Saturday 7th May alongside the last Offer Holder Visit Day at the University of Southampton. Highfield Campus and Boldrewood Innovation Campus hosting 570 exhibitors, 93 activities, across 9 themed areas, including interactive exhibits, workshops, laboratory tours, live shows, exhibitions and talks. Approx. 2,000 visitors joined us on the day from the centre and south of England.
SOTSEF Goes Digital 2021 ran as a full online edition of Southampton Science and Engineering Festival and took placeÌýfromÌýFriday 5th to Sunday 14th March 2021, with downloadable resources, content on-demand, live debates, talks, quizzes, workshops, shows and art performances!
​Thousands of people joined us from across the world, with 250,000+ website views from 5 different continents.
All digital contentÌýwas madeÌýavailable on the official website at .
Recordings of some of the Festival events are still available for you to enjoy from the safety from your home, wherever you are in the world, on the on the UoS Festival YouTube channel.
In 2020, Science and Engineering Week was planned for March 6th - 15th. On March 9th the University regretted to announce that it was postponing the remaining events for SOTSEF, including Science and Engineering Day originally scheduled for Saturday 14th March.
Due to many requests from researchers and the public, Southampton Science and Engineering Festival 2020Ìýwas then re-developed and launched as 'SOTSEF Goes Digital' in May.
SOTSEF Goes Digital ranÌýfrom Friday 22nd May until Saturday 25th July with a variety of different activities, from downloadable resources, virtual tours, talks and podcasts to live talks, workshops and Q&A sessions, with more than 22,000 people acrossÌý6 continents visiting the website.
Content on-demandÌýis still available to watch on theÌýSOTSEF Goes Digital 2020 dedicated playlists on the .
The 2019 Science and Engineering Festival ran between 8th - 17th March 2019.ÌýThis year edition saw aÌýweek full of events across the city of Southampton and was concluded by Science and Engineering Day on Saturday 16th March.ÌýWe had more that 5,000 people joining us on Science and Engineering Day, coming from as far as Manchester. More than 850 volunteers between students and staff across the University of Southampton made all this possible.
Wider Festival events included:
Watch the following video to find out what Science and Engineering Day at SOTSEF is all about from senior leaders and researchers at the University of Southampton and hear about how it helped changing perspectives from festival attendees and our visitors too.
The 2018 Science and Engineering FestivalÌýran between 9th - 18th March 2018. Although Science and Engineering Day did not take place due to the sector wide industrial action over pensions, the week was full of events across Southampton:
The 2017 Science and Engineering Day event was our largest to date as we welcomed over 7000 people to our Boldrewood and Highfield campuses to participate in overÌý130 hands on demonstrations, shows, talks, and toursÌýrun by University research staff and students.
Of the 130 activities, we hadÌý87 brand new activitiesÌýsuch as theÌýScience Soundwalk Experience,ÌýFrom Glowing Sea Anemones to Medical Research,ÌýMaths on the MoveÌýand theÌýPlaneterella. We also welcomed severalÌýbrand new zones:Ìýthe Biodiversity HubÌý(in Valley Gardens),Ìýthe Alumni Zone, andÌýthe Teachers Zone.ÌýAnd, if that wasn't enough, we alsoÌýopened up more of the state-of-the-art research facilitiesÌýat our Boldrewood campus for public exploration for the first time ever.
In addition to all these new activities, we welcomed back long-standingÌýSOTSEF favouritesÌýlike the highlyÌýcompetitiveÌýAnnual Mars Bar Bridge Building Challenge,Ìýthe Archaeology Village,ÌýandÌýMinecraft Engineering. We once again had the R J Mitchell wind tunnel and the 138m Towing Tanks open with live demonstrations occurring throughout the day.
Southampton Science and Engineering Festival 2016
WatchÌýthe following video, courtesy from That's Solent TV, to see what happened at Science and Engineering Day 2016.
Watch also the following video, courtesy of Total Scoop.