The closing ceremony of the second edition of Bojos per l’Energia course was held on Friday, May the 26th, 2023, an initiative aimed at first-year high school students to promote knowledge about energy as well as scientific vocations among young people. The course had a total of 15 students from different institutes in Catalonia, and took place on Saturday mornings from January until May 2023. This initiative belongs to the Bojos per la Ciència program, organized by the Fundació Catalunya La Pedrera, with the Institut Català d’Energia (ICAEN) and the collaboration of the Catalonia Institute for Energy Research (IREC).
The event took place at the Museum of Natural Sciences of Barcelona (Museu Blau) and served to recognize the students’ efforts. During 15 sessions between January 14th and May 6th, the students digged into the basics of the energy transition and got closer to the technological research that should make this change towards a decarbonized society possible, based on renewable energy and responsible use. Systems for producing and storing energy from the sun and wind, the application of digital technologies to energy technologies or the development of solutions to optimize energy use and were some of the areas that the course has addressed, both from a theoretical and practical point of view.
In addition, the students had a useful experience in assessing the possibility of becoming professionals in this field in the near future, since the course provided them with direct contact with the world of research. The course, coordinated by Judith Frutos from ICAEN and Anna Magrasó from IREC, consisted of an introductory session on energy by the ICAEN, and 14 sessions by IREC researchers from all areas of research, including Alex Jiménez, Jacob Andrade Arvizu, Pedro Vidal, David Payno and Alejandro Pérez-Rodríguez from the Solar Energy Materials and Systems group; Alex Morata and Marc Torrell from the Nanoionics and Fuel Cells group; Andreu Cabot, Alberto Ramon Ferrer, Ren He and Chaoqi Zhang from the Functional Nanomaterials group; Sebastián Murcia, Elías Martínez, Elena Martín and Martí Biset from the Energy Storage, Harvesting and Catalysis group; José Ignacio Rapha, Pol Paradell, Anzhelika Ivanova from the Power Systems group; Gabriela Benveniste, Victor Ferreira Maite Etxandi, Mariana Jiménez and Josh Eichman from the Energy Systems Analytics group; Angelos Mylonas, Jordi Macià, Elisenda Clèries, Luca Borghero, Paolo Taddeo and Joaquim Romaní, from the Thermal Energy and Building Performance group.
Bojos per l’Energia fulfils the purpose of promoting scientific and research vocations among young people in areas related to the change towards a new, cleaner, sustainable and democratic energy model. The energy transition will require both research and innovation from scientific approaches and the training and qualification of professionals of different profiles required to respond to these needs.
The Bojos per l’Energia initiative will continue next year, so we are looking forward to the third edition in 2023!
A collection of images from the Mad for Science course in 2023 can be found here:
