TV & Radio Science Presenter, Podcaster & YouTuber Greg Foot will be hosting Big Bang Digital 2020. He’ll be with you live, exploring the topic with a range of guests, putting your questions to the experts and bringing his usual energy and enthusiasm to the day.

Hear from the Minister for Apprenticeships and Skills about how important scientist and engineers are for building a greener, healthier and safer future for the UK  and about what she
would like the STEM workforce of tomorrow to look like in terms of diversity.

Hear from NHS staff - a critical care doctor, a student midwife, healthcare scientists and a paramedic - about how they use their STEM skills to help care for patients. Some have had to shield from Covid-19 but others have been working throughout the pandemic. 
How have they found working during the lockdown? What do they do and which skills are the most important in their jobs? Find out and ask some questions of your own. 
The NHS has been vital in caring for people who have become ill with Covid-19. From the respiratory doctors and intensive care nurses to the paramedics responding to calls and the scientists analysing results, every part of the health service has risen to the challenge.

In this live Q&A young people put their coronavirus questions to world-renowned scientist, Sir Jeremy Farrar. Students from across the country lead the conversations as they put their challenging questions to the experts live on air. Sir Jeremy Farrar, has been advising the government on Covid-19 as a member of the Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (SAGE). Jeremy is recognised internationally for his outstanding contributions to the field of infectious diseases such as tuberculosis, dengue fever and influenza.

Join GSK’s workshop to learn more about what a vaccine is, how vaccines work and how they are collaborating with partners across the globe in response to Covid-19. The world is racing to develop a vaccine. It’s a complex challenge but there are promising signs with around 120 vaccine programmes worldwide and human trials starting recently in the UK. This workshop explores how GSK are researching medicines and vaccines to treat and prevent Covid-19 - you'll also discover a process that scientists use in their labs everyday that you can use at home.

Presenter Fayon Dixon in conversation with inspiring young people, all Big Bang Competition winners, talking about their role in the pandemic response, studying in lockdown and sharing tips for competition success.
Design engineer student and GSK UK Young Engineer 2018, Josh Mitchell, has been helping get low-cost 3D printers into African hospitals so they can produce their own PPE.
Zuzana Hudáčová was a Competition winner this year. She is about to begin an internship where she'll be helping to develop a Covid-19 diagnostic test. 

Meet Elliot, a BAE Systems undergraduate and engineer and Grant, a materials coatings engineer at Rolls-Royce and learn how creative design and modern manufacturing can come together to keep people safe.

Elliot developed and created thousands of effective, quick-to-produce face shields and Grant, a 3D printing expert, has also been working on printing personal protective equipment (PPE) to protect key workers and help prevent the spread of Covid-19.

With so many workers needing PPE during the pandemic, Elliot and Grant rose to the challenge of developing a simple but effective design and making as many as possible for the NHS.

Join electronics engineer, Nathan Ruttley, to find out how to build a handy social distancing lanyard that lights up to alert you when you come too close to another person. Nathan, winner of the ‘BrightSparks 30 top engineers under 30’ in 2019, discusses how he came up with the remarkable idea and the journey from designing a prototype to building a fully working product. If you’re inspired to try to make your own version, additional material talks through kit, instructions and top tips.

Hear from the team behind ‘JAMVENT’, a low-cost emergency ventilator, developed by bioengineers at Imperial College London in response to the Covid-19 outbreak. In this session you’ll learn why ventilation is needed, how breathing works and how to build and test a ventilator.
Ventilators are used when an infection stops people being able to breathe on their own. When more ventilators were needed at the start of the pandemic, a national challenge was set to design a ventilator that does all of the complicated things needed to keep someone alive, but is also easy to make in large numbers.
Find out how the team set about designing a new approach, bringing together maths and science with engineering and medicine to help save lives. Discover how they created ‘JAMVENT’ and developed the tools to test it by mimicking the physics of human lungs. 

From building the NHS Nightingale hospitals to delivering tonnes of PPE, service personnel have been integral in supporting the country’s response to Covid-19. Military engineers, logisticians and clinicians helped design and build Nightingale hospitals and troops have been operating Mobile Testing Units, driving ambulances and oxygen tankers. They’ve delivered PPE to hospitals, care homes and surgeries and emergency planners are supporting local, regional and central government.

Tune in to this session to discover what goes into an emergency response and how to plan, design and build a hospital in 9 days, while adapting to life in a pandemic and protecting the nation.

Hear how Network Rail is working to keep vital goods moving and train services running for essential workers during lockdown. The coronavirus outbreak has put great pressure on the railways and teams across the nation are working tirelessly to keep vital services moving, ensuring key workers can continue their essential journeys and to get urgent supplies to supermarket shelves and to the NHS. 
Learn more how teams across the network have had to adopt new ways of working to ensure those who need to travel can reach their destinations safely and how the rail freight industry is working together to keep the country moving. 

When is a red panda not a red panda? When it’s a cyber security avatar!
Whether it’s in a virtual classroom via video chat or just hanging out or gaming with friends, we’re all spending more and more time online. Hear from a cyber expert – communicating via an on-screen avatar for security reasons - on how you can do all these things while keeping yourself (and your stuff) safe and secure.

Covid-19 is rightly the world’s biggest focus at the moment but plastic pollution in our oceans hasn’t gone away. In fact, it might even have got worse! Join Christian Brighty, from Plastic Oceans UK, in this interactive session about how you can make a positive difference right now. With exclusive videos from Sir David Attenborough and a look at the latest cutting-edge science, we explore the important question of 'How do we change our habits to protect the planet, at a time like this?'

Join Jayne, Ayo and Jessie to explore how we can rebuild a greener future. The Environment Agency is committed to tackling the climate emergency and building more resilient communities who can adapt to and bounce back from the impacts of climate change. 
In this session they’ll share some of the challenges they’ve had to overcome. They’ll explore how the impact of the pandemic on the way we work and how we relate to each other, the behaviour changes we have seen during lockdown and most importantly, what positive lessons we can build on when the country returns to ‘normal’.

While we are all staying home, who is keeping the water running? Thames Water have played their part, supporting workers across the UK to keep essential services running. 
Science and technology is a huge part of their business. With 15 million customers to stay in touch with and more than 85,000 miles of pipes to monitor 24/7 – that’s enough to go around the world 3.5 times. Technology helps them manage these challenges every day, especially during the pandemic when they are having to adapt to a new way of working. 
Meet Thames Water’s Akhil Vyas, Andrew Tucker and Liz Banks to hear how they are getting to grips with the changes, staying connected to customers and keeping their teams, who are out on the frontline, safe. You'll also find out what innovations are set to last, even after Covid-19.

Hear from Charlotte Pheysey and Jack Drury who will be on hand to answer your questions on food supply, farming and how the sector has kept the nation fed during the pandemic.

BBC Gastronaut Stefan Gates and his daughter Poppy embark on a stunning scientific adventure through the colours of the rainbow in a show filmed in the Gastrolab. Dedicated to all the key workers working so hard for us all, the show is packed with spectacular, colourful science demos using glowing drinks, colour-changing breath, sugar explosions and edible insects. Stef and Poppy explore the visible spectrum and beyond, using infra-red cameras, UV lights, marshmallows and quite a lot of rockets.