17 April 2019 | Amsterdam
Eva Sormani was invited by Bètapartners to VU University Amsterdam to share her experience as an academic researcher in the field of science-to-society.
Bètapartners is a network of 4 higher education institutions in Amsterdam which aim is to bridge the gap between secondary and higher education in the Netherlands and to make students enthusiastic for a study and a career in science and technology. Bètapartners organizes the so-called "Masterclasses", which are extra deepening for highly motivated high school students in their final phase (year 4,5,6).
The Masterclass where Eva presented is aligned with the VU Amsterdam's bachelor program Science, Business & Innovation (SBI). During her time as a master student in SBI, Eva developed the course 'sustainable innovations' together with Bastiaan Rus, teacher of the masterclass, where new and more sustainable applications of a high-technology product are investigated.
Bètapartners was more than satisfied with the guest lecture by former SBI student and current S2BMRC team member Eva Sormani, who again, brought the Masterclass to the next level, by providing new content about her Ph.D. topic: behavioral change and nudge for science-society collaboration. Moreover, she explained her work as a team member of the münster.land.leben project and stressed the importance of co-creation in innovation.
The high school students engaged in the discussion on nudge and irrational behavior. They also asked questions about the adoption of innovation and the relevance of co-creating and thinking of a minimum viable product (MVP). Furthermore, the students got curious about how it is to do to a Ph.D. and how to become an academic researcher in Germany.
The students, who were assigned a case to work on during the 25 hours of the masterclass, will use the input that they got for their pitch and poster of this second meeting, to conclude the final session in May.