The nail, the magnet, and the pump - why are these three of the most important inventions of all time? Watch the Q&A with Roma here: https://youtu.be/E3ROM0SgKOI Buy Roma's book here: https://geni.us/FeDAo3 Award-winning engineer and broadcaster Roma Agrawal deconstructs our most complex feats of engineering into seven fundamental inventions: the nail, spring, wheel, lens, magnet, string and pump. She invites us to marvel at these small but perfectly formed inventions, and the ways they’ve shaped our society and our politics. Along the way, she shares stories of the remarkable, and often unknown, scientists and engineers who made them possible. The nuts and bolts that make up our world may be tiny, but they’ve changed our lives in huge ways. With thanks to the Royal Academy of Engineering for their generous support in making tickets to this event free to London schools. Roma Agrawal MBE HonFREng is an engineer, author and presenter who is best known for working on the design of The Shard, Western Europe's tallest tower. She studied at Imperial College London and the University of Oxford. An honorary Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering, Roma has given talks to thousands at universities, schools and organisations around the world, including TEDx. She has also presented numerous TV shows for the BBC, Channel 4 and Discovery, and hosts her own podcast, Building Stories. Her first book, BUILT (2018) won an AAAS science book award and has been translated into eight languages. Roma is passionate about promoting engineering and technical careers to young people, particularly those from minoritised groups, and has won international awards for her technical prowess and for her advocacy for the profession, including the prestigious Royal Academy of Engineering's Rooke Award. She was appointed an MBE in 2018 for services to engineering. -- A very special thank you to our Patreon supporters who help make these videos happen, especially: modsiw, Anton Ragin, Edward Unthank, Robert L Winer, Andy Carpenter, William Hudson Don McLaughlin, efkinel lo, Martin Paull, Ben Wynne-Simmons, Ivo Danihelka, Kevin Winoto, Jonathan Killin, Stephan Giersche, William Billy Robillard, Jeffrey Schweitzer, Frances Dunne, jonas.app, Tim Karr, Alan Latteri, David Crowner, Matt Townsend, THOMAS N TAMADA, Andrew McGhee, Paul Brown, David Schick, Dave Ostler, Osian Gwyn Williams, David Lindo, Roger Baker, Rebecca Pan -- The Ri is on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/TheRoyalInstitution and Twitter: http://twitter.com/ri_science and Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/royalinstitution and TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@ri_science Listen to the Ri podcast: https://anchor.fm/ri-science-podcast Our editorial policy: https://www.rigb.org/editing-ri-talks-and-moderating-comments Subscribe for the latest science videos: http://bit.ly/RiNewsletter Product links on this page may be affiliate links which means it won't cost you any extra but we may earn a small commission if you decide to purchase through the link.

Hear about why I wrote my book Built: The hidden stories behind our structures, and what it contains.

Take a sneak peak inside best-selling children's book, How Was That Built? Written by Roma Agrawal and illustrated by Katie Hickey. Target age range 7-11 year olds, although younger and older kids love it too!

Join me and Katie as we do some engineering and drawing demonstrations! This video includes the Metropolitan Cathedral in Mexico City, which was build on a lake. Get some pens or pencils, paper, kinetic sand, a coaster and a big bowl to join in.

Join me and Katie Hickey to learn more about this structure featured in our book, How Was That Built? In this video we explore the Pantheon in Rome. I do an engineering demonstration to show you how to make a 3D dome, and Katie shows you how to draw it! Get some pens or pencils, card, scissors, split pins and tape, and join in!

Join me and Katie Hickey to explore how The Shard was built! We will do some engineering and drawing demonstrations to explain how triangles are used in structures. Get your pens or pencils, some card, scissors, tape, a hole punch, split pins and some heavy book, and join in!