STEM Workshops in Surrey

Guildford is the birthplace of the modern small satellite. Work began at the University of Surrey in 1979, when a team built UoSAT-1, the first re-programmable microsatellite, which NASA launched piggyback in 1981 and controlled from a ground station on the campus. In 1985 the university spun out Surrey Satellite Technology Limited (SSTL), now the world's leading small satellite company, which fundamentally changed the economics of getting into space. Woking, meanwhile, became a centre of motorsport engineering: the Bruce McLaren racing team, founded in 1963, grew into one of Formula One's most successful constructors and now builds its cars and road sports cars in the town. Guildford became a hub for video game development after Bullfrog Productions created the genre-defining Populous there in 1989.

Professor Sir Martin Sweeting built that first UoSAT-1 satellite at Surrey, founded SSTL in 1985 with just £100 and four employees, and was knighted in 2002 for his work in satellite engineering. Peter Molyneux, born in Guildford in 1959, founded Bullfrog Productions there in 1987 and later Lionhead Studios, creating the 'god game' genre with Populous and going on to make Theme Park, Dungeon Keeper and Fable. Bruce McLaren, the New Zealand driver and engineer, founded the racing team in 1963 that still carries his name and is headquartered in Woking.

Surrey is a genuine technology cluster. The Surrey Space Centre and SSTL, now part of Airbus, remain on the University of Surrey campus in Guildford and have launched dozens of missions. The university's 5G/6G Innovation Centre brings together academics and industry partners to develop next-generation mobile communications. Surrey Research Park, established in 1985, hosts more than a hundred companies across IT, software, life sciences and aerospace, and Guildford is home to games studios including Media Molecule and Hello Games. In Woking, the McLaren Technology Centre and McLaren Automotive carry on the county's deep tradition in precision motorsport engineering.

The University of Surrey offers degrees in electronic engineering, computer science, aerospace and communications, with the option of an industry placement year that many students spend at local employers. Surrey's satellite firms, communications labs, games studios and McLaren's engineering teams all recruit locally and run apprenticeship and placement routes. For pupils, this means software, electronics, aerospace and motorsport careers are not abstract: they are happening in Guildford and Woking, a short journey from school.