What is shadowing? Shadowing is an activity where girls between 14 and 16 years of age are invited in a company or institution to follow for a day female engineers as they go in their daily duties. The idea is to present the girls with the richness and variety a career in ICT may have and to encourage them to choose such a career. Get Shadowing brochure for more info
Shadowing day at IESL-FORTH
The shadowing day was organized at the Institute of Electronic Structure and Laser (IESL) of the Foundation for Research and Technology Hellas (FORTH), on Wednesday February 13, 2008. There were four girls that participated, at the age of 16. Three of the girls were from the "Experimental Senior High School of Heraklion" (Melivia Rapti, Valia Tsintari, Maria Patsaki), and one from "Ag. Mironas Senior High School" (Eleni Alexandrova-Girkovskaya).
The researchers that shadowed were
The girls arrived to FORTH at around 11:00, they were introduced to the women researchers (while drinking a coffee), and we took some photos.
Then they were taken by Dr. Chrissopoulou to the polymer labs, where they saw the labs, Dr. Chrissopoulou explained them her work and they attendined her carrying out an experiment.
Video-polymers-1 Video-polymers-2
They continued with lunch
and then they visited laser Labs, where Dr. Farsari and her group talked to them about their work, showed them their experimental set-up and explained them part of the research carried out in the group.
The girls also met there other female researchers of FORTH and of the University of Crete and we took some photos
After laser labs the girls visited the Crete University Press (CUP), which is part of FORTH, and they saw the editorial activity there and the CUP bookshop and books.
Finally, they visited the lab and offices of the "Photonics and Metamaterials group", where they were guided by Drs. Kafesaki and Foteinopoulou. Dr. Kafesaki talked to them about their research on materials with negative index of refraction
and Dr. Foteinopoulou about photonic crystals.
Finally the girls went for a general visit in some other IESL labs, devoted to Lasers and/or materials. At the end of the visit they met and had a discussion with the Director of IESL, Prof. Costas Fotakis, who talked to them about some of the activities of the institute and especially about the use of lasers in the art conservation, cleaning and diagnostics, as well as in medicine and biology.
Final target of the event:
Get all the pictures and videos in zip file
Comments written by the students:
-- Κατά την επισκεψή μου στο Ι.Τ.Ε. αποκόμισα πρωτόγνωρες εντυπώσεις.
Οι ερευνητές, οι οποίοι μας ξενάγησαν στους χώρους του ιδρύματος ήταν πολύ φιλικοί,
φιλόξενοι και πάντα έτοιμοι και πρόθυμοι να μας εξηγήσουν οποιαδήποτε απορία μας
γεννιόταν. Αυτό που με ενθουσίασε περισσότερο, κατά την ξενάγησή μας,
ήταν πρώτ' απ' όλα η ποικιλλία και ο μεγάλος αριθμός των εξειδικευμένων
ερευνητικών ομάδων που υπήρχαν για κάθε ειδικό επιστημονικό κλάδο.
Δεύτερον με ενθουσίασε η πολύπλευρη χρήση του laser καθώς και των ακτίνων X,
τόσο στην ιατρική όσο και στην καθημερινή ζωή.
Τέλος με εντυπωσίασαν οι αλλαγές και οι καινοτομίες που μπορούν να προκύψουν
από την χρήση και την ''εισβολή'' του laser στη ζωή μας.
Η επίσκεψή μου εκεί με βοήθησε να αντιληφθώ για άλλη μια φορά πόσο πολύ μου
αρέσει η έρευνα και πόσο θα ήθελα να ασχοληθώ με αυτή μελλοντικά.
Θα ήθελα να ευχαριστήσω όσους μου έδωσαν την ευκαιρία να συμμετάσχω σε μια
τέτοια αξιόλογη και ουσιαστική εμπειρία,
η οποία υπερβαίνει τις τυπικές γνώσεις ενός βιβλίου.
Translation: During my visit to FORTH I had new and unconventional
impressions. The reserachers that guided us around FORTH were very friendly,
hospitable, and always available to reply to all our questions. What made me
excited more, during out contucted guide there, was the variety and the
large number of research groups and activities. Second, I was impressed
by the versatility in the uses and applications of lasres and X-rays,
both in medicine and in the every-day life. Finally, I was impresed
from the innovation that lasers can bring in our life. My visit to
FORTH helped me to realize once more how much I like research and how
much I would like to get involved in it in the future. I would like to
thank all the reaserachers that gave me the chance to participate in
such a interesting and remarkable experience, which goes beyond the
knowledge that books can offer.
-- Dear Ms Kafesaki, First of all thanks for the chance you gave us visiting this great place! I wish I could be someday there again in order to learn more things about all these stuff! I have to admit that most of all I was amazed by the photonic crystals as I think that they could be really helpful to both health science and telecommunications too! Of course this doesn’t mean that I didn’t like the laser and the x-ray labs as they were awesome too! The ladies that guided us throughout our trip in the institute were also very kind and very willing to answer to our questions that were quite a lot!thanks once more for this opportunity.
-- I really enjoyed my visit to ITE and mostly I was happily surprised by the quality of the projects. This short explore to the laboratory world help me to understand the possibilities which I may have in my future career. I discovered new perspectives and all process entertained me and filled me with new knowledge, but above all I liked the librarians which show us and explained us what they do. I believe that more important than anything else for us, there was to see the energetic and notable women who work in the laboratories I'm proud for the women we have in Heraklion in the scientific world and the meeting with those remarkable women made me want to get known this world better.