Imperial College London has lined up a weekend of free events, with the education institution providing hands-on activities, talks, music and dance to people of all ages for its Imperial Festival.

Taking place on 7-8 May, this year’s festival – the college’s fifth – will be highlighted by the Superbug Zone where festival-goers can learn more about superbugs and how to fight them through interactive games, experiments and demonstrations.

Additionally, talks on topics will range from hallucinogenic drugs to the Chinese economy, which will be streamed live via the College’s YouTube account.

Meanwhile, a Horseless Carriage Exhibition hosted at the Imperial Institute in 1896 will be recreated this year, when a collection of both static and working vehicles from that era return to the campus. Additionally, visitors can meet students who are designing, building, testing and racing zero-emission cars, while learning about the technologies that will go in the vehicles of tomorrow.

Among the innovations, Dr Lorenzo Picinali, in collaboration with EveryWareTechnologies, has developed a mobile app called Invisible Puzzle, which will allow people with visual impairment to detect and explore shapes using only sound. This app will be launched at the festival, and is part of a wider research effort to help blind people interact more easily with their environment.

"The Imperial Festival is the one weekend a year where we put on our ‘exhibition’, throwing our doors open and giving the public an opportunity to go behind-the-scenes and explore some of the ground-breaking research that takes place here,” said festival director, Katie Weeks.

"With more than 500 researchers showcasing their work and many opening their labs and facilities to the public exclusively for the festival, this year’s event is set to be the biggest and most exciting yet.”