One of Gloucestershire's biggest employers is supporting a new museum dedicated to engineering genius Isambard Kingdom Brunel

Being Brunel, a new museum that brings together the world's most significant Brunel collection at Brunel's SS Great Britain in Bristol, has now opened to the public.

To assist with its development, Renishaw has supported the museum since 2015 and was the founder member of the Being Brunel Corporate Club, formed to enable local companies to support the development of the new museum.

As well as sponsoring Being Brunel, Renishaw has made a video contribution to one of its galleries.

The new museum overlooks Bristol's Floating Harbour at the starboard side of the SS Great Britain. It celebrates the life and legacy of Isambard Kingdom Brunel, telling the engineer's extraordinary story using some 150 of his personal artefacts, interactive exhibits and audio-visual experiences.

Being Brunel has launched this year as part of the UK-wide Year of Engineering and hopes to boost the £10 million economic benefit that Brunel's SS Great Britain already brings to Bristol each year.

Lucy Ackland, senior development engineer at Renishaw, will be featured in the Let Me Try! gallery which is the final part of the Being Brunel experience. In a short video that also features Lord Foster, architect, and Roma Agrawal, Shard engineer, Ackland talks about how Brunel's projects have inspired her own work, what we can learn from Brunel and how he would fare in the world of engineering today.

"Brunel's work continues to inspire engineers and scientists, even 150 years after his death," said Lucy. "Brunel worked on impressive projects, like the Great Western Railway, overcoming obstacles to build tunnels and bridges to create a transport system, essential to everyday life.

"Engineering is a profession built on solving problems. Today, we can learn from how Brunel overcame failures and came up with solutions to very important challenges."

Matthew Tanner, chief executive of the SS Great Britain Trust, said: "By sharing the incredible legacy of Isambard Kingdom Brunel we hope to inspire the next generation of innovators and encourage more young people into science, technology, engineering and maths careers.

"We are very grateful to the members of the Being Brunel Corporate Club, including Renishaw, who have made a valuable contribution to making this new museum a reality."