STEM Workshops in Cardiff

Cardiff has undergone a striking transformation from a global coal-exporting powerhouse to a modern technology hub. By the late nineteenth century, Cardiff was the largest coal-exporting port in the world, and the Coal Exchange on Mount Stuart Square was where the first million-pound business deal was struck in 1904. The city's docks and railways were feats of Victorian engineering, and the steelworks at nearby East Moors opened in stages from 1891 to 1895 before closing in 1978. Today that industrial legacy lives on in Cardiff's growing compound semiconductor cluster.

The Second Marquess of Bute transformed Cardiff into an industrial giant by financing the construction of the Bute West Dock in 1839, applying cutting-edge civil engineering to create a major port. Cardiff University has been home to Nobel Prize-winning geneticist Sir Martin Evans, awarded the 2007 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for his pioneering work on stem cells. Dame Karen Holford, who studied and then taught mechanical engineering at Cardiff University for over three decades, built the reputation of acoustic emission research at Cardiff and was named in the inaugural Top 50 Women in Engineering list in 2016. The region also benefits from the legacy of engineers who built the Severn Tunnel in 1886, and from Drew Nelson, who co-founded IQE in 1988 and built it into a global leader in compound semiconductor wafer technology.

Cardiff is now at the heart of the UK's compound semiconductor industry, anchored by IQE, which manufactures advanced semiconductor wafers used in 5G, autonomous vehicles, and renewable energy systems. The Cardiff Capital Region hosts the Compound Semiconductor Centre and the Compound Semiconductor Applications Catapult. Cyber security is a major growth sector, with Airbus CyberLab based in Newport and Thales operating the National Digital Exploitation Centre (NDEC) in Ebbw Vale. The Cardiff tech ecosystem is supported by innovation spaces such as Tramshed Tech.

Young people in Cardiff have access to a rapidly expanding range of STEM career pathways, particularly in semiconductor manufacturing, cyber security, and data science. IQE, SPTS Technologies, and other semiconductor firms offer apprenticeships and graduate roles in materials science, electronic engineering, and cleanroom manufacturing. Cardiff University and the University of South Wales run programmes in computer science, engineering, and cyber security.