High-school students become scientists for a week at CEITEC

8. Oct. 2024

The CEITEC Student Talent Summer School is held every year in the first week of August. In the middle of summer, dozens of high school students from all over the Czech Republic and Slovakia come together to become scientists for a week. Under the guidance their mentors, our PhD students, they work on a real scientific project and process it from A to Z: from the theoretical introduction and familiarisation with the work in the laboratory, through the investigation, measurement and processing of the results to the final presentation in front of the expert jury.

The meeting room at CEITEC BUT is bursting at the seams. At the head of the table sits an expert jury consisting of Radimír Vrba, Director of CEITEC BUT, Stanislav Průša, expert guarantor of the CEITEC Student Talent Summer School, Jiří Spousta, representative of the Institute of Physical Engineering at Brno University of Technology. Representatives of our partners and sponsors sit alongside them: Martin Zadražil from the JIC, Olga Ryparová, a popularizer of chemistry known as Olinium, Kateřina Mačišáková from Thermo Fisher Scientific and Jakub Rybář from the Brno City Council. Thirty-three participants of the Summer School, their lecturers and media representatives filled the room almost to the last seat, with only a few square meters of space left in front of the projection screen. The clock struck nine and the first couple are standing in front and taking over the presenter. The presentations of the CEITEC Student Talent Summer School participants begin.

And how did we get here? Actually, the journey to this moment starts more than six months before, when the CEITEC Student Talent Summer School organizing committee set about putting together the programme, preparing the topics, booking the labs and equipment. For participants, the journey begins with a cover letter. In the letter, candidates introduce themselves, describe their focus and show why the chosen topic could help them in their future professional growth. Based on the cover letters and the capacity of each topic, the mentors choose their future colleagues. As the interest in the Summer School traditionally almost doubles the capacity, it is truly a selection event: those who show the greatest motivation will get the opportunity.

We are moving forward a few months. It's Monday, the first week of August. In the morning., young talented high-school students from all corners of our country and from Slovakia gather. Although the concept of the Summer School is aimed at students in their (completed) third year of studies, so that they get the opportunity to try out working in a prestigious science centre such as CEITEC BUT before applying to a University, this year, we have also accepted several younger participants who have shown an unprecedented level of commitment and enthusiasm for science. We are gradually registering all of them and seating them in the Large Meeting Room at CEITEC BUT, which will become our base camp for most of the common programme for the next few days. CEITEC BUT management, mentors and BUT representatives arrive. The importance of the event is evidenced by the presence of the Rector of BUT Ladislav Janíček, who warmly welcomes the participants and introduces them to the wide range of disciplines and activities that BUT offers to its students. The expert guarantor of the CEITEC Student Talent programme Stanislav Průša follows the Rector with further information about the possibilities of Bachelor and Master studies and reminds everybody that the aim of Summer School is not only scientific work in laboratories but to experience the life of a young scientist at CEITEC BUT in general. We have launched this year's Summer School.

After the official opening, we accommodate the participants and introduce them to the programme and their mentors. The latter take over and take the participants to the laboratories for the first part of the work. The ride begins. Participants will spend the bulk of the following days working in the labs. In addition, they will be treated to a packed programme of expert and motivational lectures by Marek Kalvoda, a former graduate of our Summer School, OndřejSháněl from Thermo Fisher Scientific (a graduate of Physical Engineering at FME BUT) and Olga Ryparová, a populariser of chemistry known as Olinium. But since scientists also know how to have fun, we are also preparing entertaining supplementary programme for the participants in the form of an introductory improv workshop, pub quiz and city tour. And so the days go by and the participants immerse themselves in the scientific life at CEITEC BUT, researching their topics and making important contacts.

Four days pass in no time and here we are again, in the Large Meeting Room at CEITEC BUT. Thirty-three promising young researchers are presenting their topics in a variety of areas we are exploring at CEITEC BUT: from 3D printing, biomedical materials, magnetism to plasmonics and more. Each group has prepared a presentation and after a ten-minute "free ride", questions from the expert jury come. The performances of all the participants are quite disarming: they demonstrate a deep understanding of the topic, give an engaging presentation of their results, offer explanations of the nature of the project and its applications, critically evaluate their results and suggest further research approaches. The jury is thus unable to single out one project or team and decides to award an extraordinary prize to three teams.

This is where our common journey comes to an end. The participants make their way home, the amazed jury and organisers return to their usual activities. But the enthusiasm and commitment of all the participants of this year's CEITEC Student Talent Summer School will certainly not be forgotten, and as the Rector said at the official opening, we hope that this experience will help them decide on their future career paths and that we will meet many of them again at Brno University of Technology in a few years.

During the Summer School, many of the participants asked about the possibility of studying at Brno University of Technology and further cooperating on scientific topics. For those interested, a field trip is being prepared to the Institute of Physical Engineering at the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering (FME) BUT, which offers a path leading to CEITEC BUT through the study of Physical Engineering and Nanotechnology.

"I would like to thank not only the members of the jury and all the mentors who have contributed to the success of this year's Summer School, but also Marcela Frýbortová, Petra Králová and Jan Nedvěd, who acted as our guides throughout the event," Stanislav Průša concludes.