In the ever-evolving world of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM), diversity isn’t just a buzzword — it’s a catalyst for innovation. Yet, for many LGBTQ+ individuals, the path into these fields remains fraught with challenges.

Recent research revealed that nearly 30% of LGBTQ+ young people in the UK avoid pursuing STEM careers due to fears of discrimination. But amid these statistics, a new generation of LGBTQ+ scientists and engineers is breaking barriers, redefining norms, and inspiring others to follow suit. 

Shrouk El-Attar: Engineering change and advocating for refugees

Born in Alexandria, Egypt, Shrouk El-Attar is an electronics engineer and a passionate advocate for LGBTQ+ and refugee rights. After seeking asylum in the UK, she pursued her education at Cardiff University, where she combined her technical expertise with activism. Shrouk’s unique approach includes performing as a belly dancer under the moniker “Dancing Queer” to raise funds for LGBTQ+ individuals facing persecution in Egypt.

Her contributions haven’t gone unnoticed. In 2018, she was named one of the BBC’s 100 Most Influential Women, and in 2021, she received the Institution of Engineering and Technology’s Young Woman Engineer of the Year award. Shrouk’s journey underscores the power of resilience and the impact of combining technical skills with advocacy.

Professor David K. Smith: Making chemistry accessible and inclusive

At the University of York, Professor David K. Smith is not only renowned for his work in nanochemistry but also for his commitment to making science accessible. An openly gay academic, David has been a vocal advocate for LGBTQ+ representation in STEM. Through his engaging YouTube channel, he demystifies complex chemical concepts, making them relatable to a broader audience. 

David’s outreach efforts aim to challenge stereotypes about scientists and encourage young LGBTQ+ individuals to see themselves in scientific roles. His work exemplifies how visibility and education can go hand-in-hand to foster inclusivity in STEM fields.

Dr. André K. Isaacs: Fusing science with choreography

Dr. André K. Isaacs, a Jamaican-born chemist based in the United States, is redefining science communications. Known for his viral TikTok videos that combine chemistry lessons with choreographed dances, André brings a fresh and engaging approach to education. His signature rainbow lab coat isn’t just a fashion statement — it’s a symbol of pride and inclusivity in the lab.

Beyond social media, André is dedicated to mentoring students and creating supportive environments for LGBTQ+ individuals in science. His innovative methods demonstrate that embracing one’s identity can enhance, rather than hinder, scientific outreach and education.

The importance of representation in STEM

The stories of Shrouk, David, and André highlight the profound impact that representation can have in STEM fields. When individuals see themselves reflected in their professions, it establishes a sense of belonging and encourages diverse perspectives, which are essential for innovation.

However, challenges persist. A study by the Institute of Physics found that 28% of LGBTQ+ physical scientists in the UK have considered leaving their workplace due to discrimination. Additionally, research indicates that transgender and gender non-conforming students continue in STEM majors at a rate roughly 10% lower than their cisgender peers.

These statistics underscore the need for continued efforts to create inclusive environments where all individuals can thrive.

Inspiring the next generation

Fostering diversity in STEM is crucial for driving progress and innovation. By supporting underrepresented groups through scholarships, outreach programmes, and educational initiatives, we aim to break down barriers and open doors for the next generation of scientists and engineers.

Rainbow flags, big celebrations, music, dancing — for a lot of people, that’s the heart of Pride. It’s joy, community and unapologetic self-expression.

But Pride is also about pushing for change, especially where LGBTQ+ people still struggle to feel seen and heard. And yes, that includes STEM — science, technology, engineering and maths.

Now imagine the ideas, breakthroughs, and discoveries that might have been lost because someone didn’t feel welcome to get involved…

So, why does this matter?

Because STEM shapes the world we live in. From tackling climate change to designing new tech, the people working in these fields have a big influence on how we live, work, and solve the problems of today.

Also, here’s the thing: diverse teams are better at solving problems. And that’s backed by evidence. A 2018 study found that when people from different backgrounds and identities bring their own perspectives to the table, the results speak for themselves.

But this can only happen when people feel welcome to show up as themselves.

Pride is a year-round celebration of identity, community, and allyship

It’s about celebrating identity — of course — but also about challenging systems that still don’t work for everyone. In STEM, that means looking at how workplaces, schools, and even outreach programmes are built. Who gets the opportunities? Who gets to lead? Who gets listened to?

It also means giving LGBTQ+ pupils and young people visible role models, not just once a year, but every day. Representation matters, especially for young people figuring out where they belong.

Inclusivity isn’t a tick-box exercise. It’s something that should be built into everything you do. We need to open doors for underrepresented groups in STEM — whether that’s girls in engineering, black and global majority students in science, or LGBTQ+ young people who don’t yet see themselves reflected in the field.

STEM should be for everyone. Not just because it’s fair, but because it makes sense!

Imagine being passionate about science, but feeling like there’s no space for you in it. That’s the reality for many LGBTQ+ people working in STEM (science, technology, engineering and maths). In fact, research published in Science Advances shows LGBTQ+ scientists are more likely to experience discrimination and feel professionally devalued than their straight, cisgender peers. Some even consider leaving their careers altogether.

That’s a big loss for the whole sector. 

Birmingham Pride is on 24 and 25 May, making it a perfect time to highlight some of the incredible LGBTQ+ people who’ve made a lasting impact on STEM.

Alan Turing is a good place to start. As one of the greatest minds of the 20th century, his codebreaking work at Bletchley Park helped end the Second World War. Yet, he was persecuted for being gay, eventually leading to his death. Today, though, he’s remembered as a national hero and even features on the Bank of England’s £50 note. And rightly so.

There’s also Dr Jessica Esquivel, a particle physicist working at Fermilab in the United States. Her work helps us better understand the fundamental particles that make up the universe — now that’s the kind of science that shapes the future.

And then there’s Dr Lynn Conway, a pioneering computer scientist and transgender woman, whose innovations in microchip design paved the way for much of the technology we use today. Her contributions transformed computing, yet for years she was written out of the story.

At Millennium Point, we believe everyone should have access to opportunities in STEM — regardless of their background, gender or identity. That’s why our Trust supports underrepresented young people across the West Midlands, through scholarships, funding and outreach work that helps to level the playing field.

Have you got a favourite LGBTQ+ scientist or engineer? Or maybe someone local who’s breaking boundaries in their field? We’d love to hear who inspires you.

Millennium Point has announced a new free event for schools on 23rd June – the SciENGINEERING Showcase. The landmark building will be full of fun shows and interactive workshops showcasing the exciting side of engineering.

School groups from across the West Midlands are invited to book free places. Students will be able to take part in fun activities and enjoy live performances, all themed around engineering. Plus, industry leaders will be appearing to discuss their work and give career advice.

SciENGINEERING is the fourth of Millennium Point’s annual SciSERIES events, developed to showcase the wealth of career opportunities in STEM (science, technology, engineering and maths) industries. Over 3000 children have already enjoyed a free SciSERIES event and this year’s event is expected to be equally popular. The SciSERIES events are part of Millennium Point Trust’s wider aim to support the growth of STEM skills in education, for which it has already invested over £40 million into the region.

Millennium Point CEO, Abbie Vlahakis commented: “Engineering not only provides exciting careers, but also the opportunity to physically improve your local community and maybe even the whole world. The SciENGINEERING Showcase will be fun day out and may even inspire the next prominent aerospace engineer.”

The SciENGINEERING Showcase takes place at Millennium Point on Monday 23rd June and is perfect for school years 5 to 10. If you would like to book free places for your school, or if you would like to promote your company to over 1000 local young people, email [email protected].

Building on the success of our SciSeries events which saw 2,000 students visit Millennium Point. We are excited to announce our next event – the SciTECH Showcase on 10th June!

Last year, we welcomed students from over 20 schools across the region to SciMED where they participated in a range of thrilling activities, workshops, and talks delivered by organisations and personalities from the world of STEM and medicine.

To get an idea what’s in store, watch below how SciMED went –

The SciTECH Showcase is open to upper primary (years 5 and 6) and lower secondary (years 7 and 8). To confirm your place book here – www.elevationx.uk/scitech-event

SciTECH – Showcasing the importance of STEM in the Technology industry

The SciTECH event that takes place Monday 10th June 2024, seeks to inspire the next generation of STEM students with all things technology – from the traditional careers of Programmers, Analysts and Designers, through to the wider STEM related sectors such as IT Service Management, App Developers and Business Analysts, whilst showcasing technology and engineering advances in all associated sectors.

Students will be able to explore:

– Interactive workshops

– Digital activities

– Technological advancements

Sign up to book your school’s place and discover all things STEM and Tech!

Get your company involved

There is still time for your team to get involved with SciMED. Promote your company and showcase your innovations to young people from schools across the region. With lots of exciting organisations already joining us, now is the time to book your place to ensure you get the chance to connect with the future of your industry. Email our event partners Elevation X to secure your spot – [email protected] or call 07379769722.

This is just one of the ways we’re supporting STEM in the region

Our multi-award-winning Charitable Trust invests more than £4.5m each year towards furthering STEM education within the West Midlands.

Over the years we have provided funding to Scholarships, Grants, and projects that benefit the region. Find our more about our Trust and how we can work together for a better future.

Encouraging STEM education as a part of early learning is an important stepping stone in helping children build a career path in STEM. STEM subjects help contribute toward innovation, creativity and improved quality of life. That’s why we here at Millennium Point are working hard to create opportunities that encourage the younger generation to get into the industry. Our STEM grant and scholarship help students and not-for-profit organisations bring projects to life and study university courses that truly boost their experiences within STEM. 

What is STEM? 

STEM is an acronym for Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths and is a combined approach where all subjects are taught together and not separately. This helps equip students with the right skills to undertake a career within the industry. 

Creating equal opportunities in STEM

Despite STEM subjects being prominent in a range of industries, a lot of them are unfortunately lacking a female presence. For example, only 25% of computing jobs and 15% of technology jobs are occupied by women. 

To truly achieve successful benefits for society a diverse workforce should be created within the STEM industry. Currently, only 28% of the workforce is formed of women. Some factors causing the gender gap in STEM include:

How can the gender gap be closed in the STEM industry?

It’s important that the gender gap is closed within STEM industries, especially within business, culture, government and legislation. Welcoming all genders and cultures within the industry will bring diverse experiences and help further innovation and creativity. 

The following steps can help close the gender gap in STEM:

Prioritising attracting and retaining women 

By attracting and retaining more women, the gender gap will start to narrow. To do this, more needs to be done to shout about how great STEM subjects, jobs and sectors are. Through improving marketing and advertising and getting more people talking about the industry, STEM benefits from a well-skilled, diverse workforce. 

Break down stereotypes

Unfortunately, there are still lots of stereotypes surrounding women’s intellect and STEM being a male industry. As a result, a greater effort needs to be made to break down stereotypes suggesting that STEM subjects are better suited to boys. When this is achieved, girls should feel more confident to study and undertake careers in the industry.

Improve workplace cultures

In order to encourage more women to join the workforce, businesses must improve their workplace culture. By removing gender pay gaps, hostile work environments and creating better career progression for women, the gender gap will start to close.

The benefits of STEM

STEM education has a range of benefits including:

Millennium Point’s STEM Grant 

The Millennium Point Charitable Trust provides funding annually to not-for-profit organisations, schools, and colleges across the West Midlands Combined Authority area. Applicants can apply for up to £20,000 to fund their STEM-related project subject to meeting the eligibility criteria and demonstrating a measurable impact in STEM education and / or STEM career choice. We also welcome applications for smaller grants from £1,000.

Find out more about our Grants here. 

Millennium Point’s STEM Scholarship

We’ve partnered with Birmingham City University to give a fully funded undergraduate degree at their Faculty of Computing, Engineering and the Built Environment. 

To be eligible for our STEM scholarship you will need to meet the following criteria:

Applications open Monday 8th January and can be found here. 

It’s already widely known that females are massively underrepresented in STEM education. Currently, females make up 28% of the science, engineering, technology and maths workforce. At Millennium Point Trust, we are trying to change the percentage with the help of Scholarships, Grants and projects such as SciMED.

As a charity supporting STEM education in the West Midlands, we also aim to support other organisations and shine a spotlight on their work to further promote the importance of STEM.

Below, provided by Twinkl, we see 4 inspiring women in STEM talk about their careers including Millennium Point CEO Abbie Vlahakis. The videos, perfect for younger audiences, educators and staff working in schools can help students learn about different career options in STEM.

Abbie Vlahakis, CEO Millennium Point

Dr Jenny Arthur, Glaciologist – Glaciologist, Dr Jenny Arthur

Dr Jenny Arthur shares her tips on scientist skills and the life of a glaciologist, studying the ice shelves of Antarctica.

Science is a wonderful way to learn about the world. But what skills do you need? Where do you get these skills and knowledge to be a scientist. Well Dr Jenny Arthur shares some very cool ways she uses her scientist skills in Glaciology.

Dr Felicity McDowall, Archaeologist – Archaeologist, Dr Felicity McDowall

Dr Felicity McDowall shares her story of being an archaeologist and how she uses dates and evidence to understand the past. She’s even studies people from The Stone Age.

Archaeology is Dr Felicity McDowall’s specialist subject. And she uses a lot of scientific skills as an archaeologist and anthropologist.

Clare Brown, Biologist – Biologist, Clare Brown

Start exploring science with curator, Clare Brown as she shares her story of studying biology with schools and working to preserve thousands of plants and animals at the Leeds Discovery Centre.

Imagine exploring science and seeing thousands of different animal bones and fossils? For biologist, Clare Brown, that’s her job. Everyday!

Get involved with Millennium Point

Our multi-award-winning charitable trust invests more than £3m each year towards furthering STEM education within the West Midlands.

Over the years we have provided funding to Scholarships, Grants, and projects that benefit the region. Find out more about our Trust and see how you can get involved here.

Background

Lyng Primary School’s vision is to provide a nurturing, happy, and safe environment. Surrounded by caring adults, pupils are provided with opportunities to become the best they can be. The school strive to ensure that every pupil leaves feeling confident, self-motivated, and independent so that they are ready for the next stage in their lives.

Aim of the project

Lyng Primary School’s aim was to engage all pupils in STEM by encouraging them to become ‘Lyng Architects’. They were given a design brief asking them to design and build their perfect Lyng community. The brief included a strong enthesis on being eco-friendly, promoting rewilding, and sustainability. The pupils responded with innovative designs for the community.

The designs and creations were achieved by using CAD software. The work was then 3D-printed to display in the school foyer alongside handmade examples. The project was also supported by parents who came in to help their children build their designs.

The Millennium Point Trust Grant provided the grant that allowed the school to purchase 3D printers, laptops and resources to make the project happen.

What impact has it made?

Over 500 students benefited from the Millennium Point Trust Grant. It has provided staff with amazing opportunities to plan and deliver an exciting STEM project for their class. Over 95% of students never have had the opportunity to use 3D printers or CAD software before. The grant allowed them to learn about career options that may not have been accessible to them prior.

Parents who got involved in the project had high praises for the project, one parent said ‘kids get more fun by seeing their parents working with them inside school, sitting with them together’. Another said ‘it was nice to be invited into school and involved with my child’s afternoon, I thoroughly enjoyed it! Thank you.’

Governors were also invited to the ‘Inspire’ afternoons, one comment received mentioned ‘I really enjoyed the afternoon, it’s always great to come in and get involved with what they are working on. I thought the project was brilliant and the children had so many great ideas, I think there might be some budding engineers amongst them and clearly some pupils are cut out to be supervisors! It was great to see them all working together and making their ideas come to life. Really great event, would love to see more of these.’

Get involved with Millennium Point Trust

Our multi-award-winning charitable trust invests more than £3m each year towards furthering STEM education within the West Midlands.

Over the years we have provided funding to Scholarships, Grants, and projects that benefit the region. Find out more about our Trust and see how you can get involved here.

Background

Sandwell College is the largest provider of 16-19 year old study programmes in the West Midlands. Their mission is to ensure that every young person has the opportunity to reach their full potential, achieving a successful career in their chosen field.

Aim of the project

The aim of the project was to set up a 3D Immersive Learning Lab, introducing exciting, engaging and innovative STEM-related learning projects across the colleges curriculum, using emerging technologies such as virtual reality programming.

A series of workshops will be run to inspire students to become more engaged in STEM, promoting careers through virtual reality workplace tours, connecting with those who previously might not of seen STEM careers.

What impact has it made?

The project has begun with great success, giving students a fantastic insight into 3D modelling and virtual reality activities around STEM.

The college has partnered with Cadbury College in Kings Norton to use some of their facilities to host the equipment for students.

Through the use of iPads and VR, the students have taken part in a number of exciting activities to enhance their STEM learning. These include entering new worlds and visualising scientific concepts and diagrams, such as life-sized DNA structures.

They have also tested out Augmented Reality Cubes, which combined with a VR headset allows the students to hold the cube and they visualise holographic 3D models (such as engines, the human brain and CAD drawings) in the palm of their hands. As they rotate these around they can view them from all angles.

Moving forward the college are looking to attract more students to study STEM courses, using the equipment to engage them in a fun and effective way.

Get involved with Millennium Point Trust

Our multi-award-winning charitable trust invests more than £3m each year towards furthering STEM education within the West Midlands.

Over the years we have provided funding to Scholarships, Grants, and projects that benefit the region. Find out more about our Trust and see how you can get involved here.

Exhibitions are a great way to show off your products or skills, while being able to network and meet new potential clients. They’re also a great way to reach new audiences and boost sales.

Due to this we’ve put together a few tips to help you plan your next event.

How to plan an exhibition 

Art exhibitions are successful when planned carefully. This includes creating a visual plan and focusing on your marketing. When planning an exhibition you should consider:

If you’re looking to plan a trade show you want to make sure you fully promote your unique selling point (USP). When planning your show you want to think about:

Other things to consider include:

The venue 

Your venue determines the number of guests and exhibitors you can have at your event. You also want to make sure you choose a venue that reinforces the image you want to portray. 

Marketing

When planning an exhibition you need to consider how much money and effort you will need to put toward marketing. This will include marketing to exhibitors and attendees to persuade them on why they should attend/take part. 

Are you going to include any special guests?

Guest speakers are great for conducting seminars or talks . This can provide great talking points throughout the exhibition helping to boost networking and increase your clientele list. 

How are attendees going to get there?

When looking for a venue it’s important that you book somewhere that has easy access, transport links and parking. This will help increase attendee numbers as they’re more likely to attend if they can get there easily. 

Why host an exhibition in Birmingham? 

There are many benefits to hosting an exhibition in Birmingham, such as it having great access to transport links. There are many bus and train routes, as well as Birmingham airport being a short distance from the city centre for those travelling internationally. 

There’s also a wide range of hotel options to choose from to suit all budgets. This is especially useful if you have people travelling long distances.

Furthermore, Birmingham has loads of cultural spots to offer, such as museums and galleries, which is especially great if you’re holding an art exhibition as this will further emphasise the event you’re holding. 

Another great reason for holding your exhibition in Birmingham is the large number of businesses in the area. This poses great opportunities to increase attendance and further boost networking and future client opportunities.

Why choose Millennium Point to host your exhibition?

Millennium Point is situated right in the city centre of Birmingham near Moor Street and New Street station, as well as having lots of bus routes nearby. Those travelling by plane can also go straight from Birmingham International station to New Street station in just a couple of minutes, making it an ideal location to hold your next exhibition.

Hosting your exhibition at Millennium Point is also a great option as it’s close to various hotels like the Clayton Hotel, meaning attendees don’t need to travel far before and after the exhibition ends.

Millennium Point is also introducing 6 new spaces located next to the Auditorium that are perfect for training, presentation and exhibition purposes. If you’re looking for a space to hold smaller training events or presentations then our Curzon rooms 1-5 are perfect for you. However, if you’re looking for a larger space then our Curzon Suite might be a better option for you. 

Get in touch with us today to discover what room is perfect for you.