I Love Science Festival: The free science and new technologies festival unveils its programme
The first edition of the I Love Science festival will be held at Tour & Taxis from 27 to 29 April 2018. Our little scientists in training will get to participate in many educational and fun activities, allowing them to learn while having fun and stimulating their minds. It’s time to unveil the weekend’s science and technology programme.
On the initiative of the Secretary of State for the Brussels-Capital Region, Fadila Laanan, visit.brussels, and Innoviris created the “I Love Science Festival”, a science and technology festival accessible to everyone.
For this first edition, the festival is taking up residence in Tour et Taxis, in Brussels. This educational event immerses visitors in the world of science and new technologies. The “I Love Science Festival” is also the result of a collaboration with Brussels operators including Bruxelles-Environnement and BOZAR, which will organise several activities around the theme “When Art Meets Science”.
From creating a drone to programming a robot, or even constructing a rocket, young and old can become literal participants in the festival by taking part in the many original activities on offer.
Here’s an overview of the activities and entertainment on offer:
Science Trucks Festival – Cap Sciences (FR-NL)
With the Science Trucks Festival, some fifteen trucks, vans and other vehicles transformed into mobile laboratories will gather to spread scientific culture. Expect activities that will delight curious people of all ages and from all walks of life who dream of interaction and new experiences.
ScienceInfuse – UCL (FR)
ScienceInfuse reveals all the secrets of electricity: its production, different energy sources and their advantages and disadvantages. This workshop is also an opportunity to question our increasingly greedy electricity consumption and to understand the issues of this hyper- connected world.
Science Expo – Young Scientists of Belgium & Wtnschp-VUB (FR-NL)
Science Expo is the show for budding Belgian inventors. On the programme: more than 100 activities and experiments: 3D printers, chemistry labs, bacterial transformation, programmable robots, build a rocket … discover it with your family or with your school.
Cerclo Sapiens – Spoutnik 45 (FR)
Cerclo Sapiens is a magical show. The acrobat and his hoops will take young and old into the unknown world of mathematics and reveal the fascinating world of the circle.
Aquaponics and bio-hydrometallurgy – Meurice R & D (FR-NL)
Raise fish with garden plants that will purify their water. Using bacteria to extract the gold and silver contained in electronic waste is what young and old will discover through the “aquaponics” and “bio-hydrometallurgy” shows, two wonderful examples of a circular economy.
Alfabeta – Ensemble Leporello (NL)
Science, like art, is a pathway to the invisible forces that inhabit visible nature. In Alfabeta, the Leporello Ensemble will be explaining and illustrating some crucial principles of the positive sciences. On the stage, an ingenious installation alternates between being a laboratory and a demonstration space. The show marries genuine scientific expertise (β) with poetry (α).
Ontleed de stad! – VUB (NL-FR)
The Ontleed de stad project! (Dissect the city!) invites young and old to discover architectural engineering, and shows in interactive mode how the buildings of our daily life conceal many more secrets than you can see at first glance. 5 shows of about fifteen minutes will allow the visitors to experience and manipulate these concepts. One of them will focus on a virtual 3D space where the visitor can interact with this digital environment and create their own space.
Apis Bruoc Sella (FR)
Apis Bruoc Sella transports the visitor to the world of flowers and bees that have been living a love and pollen story for 100 million years. Feel, see or taste like a bee through multi-sensory experiences. The workshop allows you to observe the life of a bee colony, the specificity of the relationship between flower and pollinator and their consequences for human beings.
The funny little science village of Les Petits Débrouillards (FR-NL)
Les Petits Débrouillards will plant their inventive village so that participants can experiment, discover and be passionate about the world of science that punctuates our daily lives. Teachers, Brussels schoolchildren and (older) curious pupils will leave with 1000 ideas to reproduce at home or in class.
Erasmus Hoogeschool Brussels (NL-FR-AN)
The budding scientists are invited to put on their white coats and get to work in the pop-up lab of the Open BioLab Brussels. How many microbes proliferate on our mobile phones? What does DNA look like? These are the kinds of questions that Erasmus Hoogeschool Brussels will answer with their assistant learners.
Science & Magic? – Département Inforsciences – Chemistry and Physics Experiments from the ULB (FR)
The fascinating show “Science & Magic? “Will take you below the cards and the magic tricks … With their experiences and their physical and chemical explanations, professional actors take you on a journey into the land of unveiled enigmas.
The Scientothèque (FR)
On the Friday, the Scientothèque will introduce schoolchildren – and curious young people aged 8 and up over the weekend – to the universe of the coding and algorithmic basics through a playful language, and through programming small robots of all kinds.
Odisee (NL-FR)
The Philomobile is landing in Brussels. The Philomobile is a spaceship inhabited by Explonauts, curious extraterrestrials fascinated by the Earth and its inhabitants. They invite children to join them for research. With the children’s help, they want to study strange questions about science, nature and technology.
Round tables
A series of public debates with Brussels scientists will be organised. The idea is to show that in Brussels, science and research come in many forms, and that it is fascinating, rich, exciting and … concerns everyone in their daily lives. The language used will be simple and imaginative. These debates will truly be accessible to all.
Gaming and drone piloting
The festival gives pride of place to technology and isn’t leaving out gaming fans. With a photo tour tracing the history of video games, a Formula 1 simulator, and demonstrations of cult video games (Pacman, Super Mario…), gamers won’t want to tear themselves away from their screens.
You can’t talk about new technology without talking about drones. Indeed, these ever more advanced machines are gradually invading the public space. The festival offers the public the unique opportunity to discover the origin and evolution of the drone. From their construction to drone races, including learning to fly them, you’ll learn all there is to know about these machines.
Augmented reality experience
The augmented reality experience will give visitors the opportunity to travel in the human body and learn to understand it better.
Soft mobility workshop
Throughout the Tour et Taxis site, young and old alike will have the chance to test a series of soft mobility devices such as Segways, hoverboards or electric scooters.
The multiaxis chair – Eurospace Center
The famous rotating chair used in astronaut training and which demonstrates the disorientation you’d experience in space aboard a capsule will also be present at the festival.
“When Art Meets Science” – BOZAR
During the “I Love Science” festival, for three days BOZAR will be exploring the explicit and hypothetical links between art and science. Exhibitions, workshops, lectures, debates, experimental walks and music will introduce the “fames and failures” of scientists, artists and directors. Explore the notion of Time in a reading-performance or dive into the virtual reality of BOZAR LAB. The public will be able to take part in a conference on artificial intelligence or go on an immersion trip to discover olfactory pop-ups and sounds of the city.
BOZAR is organising these activities at the Palais des Beaux-Arts and at the Tour et Taxis site.
Good to know:
Dates: 27-29 April 2018
Hours:10am to 6pm
Place: Tour et Taxis
Festival free and open to all
