Over 10 000 visitors across three days were welcomed across UCLan’s threshold to participate in a series of highly interactive workshops, hear about deadly jelly fish, get up close and personal with a dinosaur.

– Or in the case of the Civic drone Centre, equip a drone with an array of sensors designed to detect gasses or find people buried under rubble after a natural disaster.

It’s all part of the Civic Drone Centre’s mission to understand and explain the myriad of different civic uses for Unmanned Aerial Vehicles – or drones.

Paul Egglestone said: “The Lancashire Science Festival has grown to become one of the biggest events of its kind in the North West. We’re always blown away by how really up to the minute people are on the latest developments in drone tech when they come over and chat to us. They have a real interest in what we’re doing and an in-depth understanding of many of the challenges for drone use – from the need for kit that can fly in poor weather to assist in search and rescue operations to the legal and ethical issues of using drones for journalism”.

At the table-top ‘dronehack’ hosted by the Civic Drone Centre’s Siamak Tavakoli Science Festival visitors coupled together sensors and mounted them onto a drone platform whilst those waiting for their opportunity for some hands on electronics tried their hand at piloting a virtual drone.

Paul Egglestone said; ‘last year we gave people the opportunity to fly real drones but the incredible numbers of people attending the festival this year were so huge we really wouldn’t know where to start this time. I’d love us to do a dronehack workshop next year.”.