Dr Rehan Shah has been awarded a Community Engagement grant by the QMUL Centre for Public Engagement (CPE) for a project titled 'From Classroom to Community: Engineering Meets History at The Brunel Museum' in collaboration with Ms. Emily Boldry (Community Curator) and Dr Jack Hayes (Collections Access Coordinator) for the Brunel Museum in London.

The Brunel Museum is an educational charity located in Rotherhithe in South London, dedicated to telling the story of the world’s first underwater tunnel built in 1825 and the lives of those who built and used it. It was built using revolutionary engineering techniques developed by Marc Brunel, the father of the more famous Isambard Kingdom Brunel. These techniques are still used today in civil engineering and tunnel construction projects worldwide.

The museum has a small, dedicated staff and a group of volunteers who engage the public, especially families and local communities, in STEM education and heritage. However, the museum’s team lacks the specific engineering expertise required to fully understand and communicate the complex and innovative engineering methods used in the Thames Tunnel project to its audiences.

The proposed project, ‘Engineering Meets History’ at The Brunel Museum, aims to address this gap through engaging with three current Queen Mary Engineering undergraduate students as part of a six-week summer internship programme from mid-June to end-July 2025, supervised by Dr Shah. After receiving dedicated engagement training and support, they will collaborate with the museum’s community curator and collections coordinator to conduct research into the museum’s archive of historic drawings, prints, and watercolours, and those related to the Thames Tunnel at the Institute of Civil Engineers. With the help of their technical knowledge and experience, students will reinterpret these historic sources through an engineering lens.

They will then produce a short report and design engagement resources that explain the engineering methods used in the tunnel’s construction in a way that is accessible both to the museum team and its audiences. A final showcase event will be held at the end of the project for the students to share the knowledge gained and showcase their created resources to the museum’s staff and volunteers and to the wider public.

The selected students will gain valuable research experience in archives, develop their communication skills, and have the opportunity to collaborate with a community partner to produce tangible, impactful resources. These experiences will not only enhance their employability but also provide them with insight into working in a heritage environment with professionals, producing materials that will be used by the public.

The workshop insights and findings will be disseminated internally and externally to the wider community via the CPE's evaluation report and Engagement Blog as well as through presentations at the QMUL Festival of Education in June 2025 and external education/public engagement-focused conferences.