The Plant @ FASoS

✨ Spotlight on our amazing intern, Chaymae! ✨ Last week, Chaymae Affani delivered her first lecture to first-year Digital Society students, focusing on an Introduction to Arduino. She guided the students through the fundamentals of Arduino, opening their eyes to the endless possibilities of physical computing and interactive tech. Her passion and clarity made complex concepts approachable, sparking curiosity and excitement. We’re so proud to see our Chaymae step up, stand in front of so many students, and share her hard work. Amazing job, Chaymae—you’re making a difference! 🙌 #Arduino #DigitalSociety #ThePlant #KnowledgeSharing #Innovation #MaastrichtUniversity #Maastricht

"🔧✨ Don't toss it, transform it! Join us at the Repair Café! 🔧✨ Got broken bikes, torn clothes, chipped ceramics, or glitchy gadgets? Say goodbye to throwing them out and hello to restoration at the upcoming Repair Café! 🗓️ Date: November 28, 2024 🕒 Time: 2pm-4pm 🏠 Location: The Plant 🌱 👥 Organization & Repairs: Led by Dr. Anna Harris and Jeroen Bouwer (Banditos), and supported by Sven Assink & Paul Geurts Guerts (ICTS), and Jaime Simons (The Plant) 🚲 Bikes: Fixing punctures, changing tires, and more! 👕 Clothes: Visible mending, darning, patches - breathe new life into your wardrobe! 🏺 Ceramics: Discover the art of Kintsugi (gold) glue repairs. 💻 IT: Repair assessments, simple hardware fixing, and exciting possibilities like 3D printing and soldering. Don't miss out on this opportunity to learn, connect, and contribute to a greener, more eco-friendly world. Spread the word - let's make a difference together! #RepairCafé #Sustainability #CommunityEvent #ReduceReuseRecycle"

✨ Exciting insights from the most recent Spark Session at The Plant! ✨ Thrilled to reflect on an engaging Spark Session that took place at The Plant, featuring Luana Blondlet and Leyla Sönmez, both alumni of the "Arts and Heritage: Policy, Management and Education" master's program at Maastricht University! During this session, Luana and Leyla discussed their experiences in writing their master's thesis, highlighting their use of ethnographic research methods. Leyla examined the Frauenmuseum in Bonn in the context of gender diversity and antifeminism, while Luana's thesis explored participatory potential in cultural organizations through a case study of Cultureghem. A big thank you to everyone who attended and contributed to this amazing session! 🌱✨ #SparkSession #ThePlant #EthnographicResearch #ArtsAndHeritage #MaastrichtUniversity #CulturalOrganizations #ThesisWriting

New Software Available at The Plant!   Together with Data Steward Penelope Bollini, The Plant is happy to share that we have new audio transcription software available!    If you're curious about using GDPR-compliant & AI-powered audio transcription software (and work at FASoS), drop by The Plant and request laptops 2, 3, or 4, or book one of two desktop computers through Resource Booker or by emailing The Plant!   Why use AI for audio transcription at The Plant? Time saving! Do you really want to transcribe your hours-long audio by hand? Probably not, and so with the help of FASoS Data Steward Penelope, we've got two options available to help you.   Both NoScribe & aTrain use a local version of WhisperAI to transcribe speech to text, which means that no data is ever sent to the cloud. This makes the transcription process GDPR-compliant and fulfills the necessary data safety requirements for research interviews, focus groups, ethnographic recordings, oral histories, etc.!   Just upload your audio file, choose your desired quality level and relevant language, and wait (semi) patiently as it transcribes your audio while you answer emails/grade/do whatever else you need to do. Plus, since we've installed the software on our laptops & desktops at The Plant, you don't need to do any downloads, installation, or set-up yourself - it's already done for you!   NoScribe NoScribe is "an AI-based software that transcribes interviews for qualitative social research or journalistic use. It runs completely local on your computer. No data is sent to the internet. It can distinguish different speakers and understands multiple languages."   aTrain From their GitHub: "aTrain is a tool for automatically transcribing speech recordings utilizing state-of-the-art machine learning models without uploading any data. It was developed by researchers at the Business Analytics and Data Science-Center at the University of Graz and tested by researchers from the Know-Center Graz. Please now cite their published paper if you use aTrain for your research: Take the aTrain. Introducing an Interface for the Accessible Transcription of Interviews." Other Software at The Plant A list of our other software is available here: https://lnkd.in/d9YRnRHj. Some of our highlights include Audacity for audio editing, CapCut & DaVinci Resolve for video editing, and Python (Anaconda) and R for all your data analysis needs!   If you're a FASoS staff member and you'd like to use our software or hardware, email The Plant or book the desktop computers through Resource Booker. Please give us advance notice if you'd like to use something - we'll always do our best to accommodate, but we appreciate a week's notice when possible. We'd love to have you come and check us out!

The first academic period of this year is close to its end! In Period 1, we collaborated and hosted various workshops, lectures, and other events, including the Bachelor's Open Day 🌼 These are some impressions from our events! We had a VR workshop, where students had a hands-on session in navigating using VR headsets, lectures on creating a storyboard, video editing, audio recording, audio editing, and a DIY session on making holograms! ✨ For anyone interested in video editing 🎥, our intern Paula made a video explaining how to use CapCut, accessible through this link: https://lnkd.in/gf5f3eg9 We are grateful to have hosted these events and to have met so many fantastic people! Thank you for your participation and we hope to see everyone again soon 🌱✨ #maastrichtuniversity #studentlife #fasos #lab #maastricht #university

✨Calling all UM Educators! Are you passionate about making education more accessible and innovative? The OpenUP Grant is your opportunity to develop your learning materials 'OpenUP' and into engaging educational resources! 💡 With €30.000,- in funding (6 grants of €5.000,- per faculty), you can license your materials as Open Educational Resources (OER), collaborate with students, and help build a more inclusive learning environment. 🌍📚 Don’t wait—apply now to make your teaching materials FAIR (Findable, Accessible, Interoperable & Reusable) and be part of Maastricht University’s commitment to Open Science. 🔗 More info: https://lnkd.in/eJ2xJN-B OpenUP Grant: Create, Share, Inspire! Npuls, Universiteit Maastricht #OpenUPGrant #OpenEducation #OER #OpenScience #OpenEducationalResources #UM

For those of you concerned about the future of AI, IoT, Robotics, Autonomous Systems, Genomics and other advanced technologies, and interested in the interrelation between Narratives, Frontier Technology and the Law, you are cordially invited to the HYBRID conference on this topic on Wed 30th Oct - Fri 1st Nov Maastricht University Faculty of Law Attendance is FREE but subject to registration The list of presenters, presentations, and the REGISTRATION FORM can be found here https://lnkd.in/eMbsQpau _The rapid development of Frontier Technologies, such as Artificial Inteligence, Internet of Things, robotics, genomics, and autonomous systems, offers great potential to tackle global challenges like climate change but also poses risks like exacerbating inequality and disrupting societal norms._ _Regulation is complex due to conflicting narratives, where optimism about progress may downplay risks, and the supposed neutrality of technology can overlook inherent biases._ _The Conference aims to examine these dynamics and provide scholarly perspectives on the interplay between narratives, technology, and law, with topics ranging from ethical and legal challenges, bias and fairness, innovation and governance in emerging technology, sustainability and the environment, and international perspectives._

✨ Looking for a break from all the fantastic presentations? From 11am to 2pm on October 12th, stop by The Plant for a creative hands-on break! ✨ You can explore either the world of Arduinos or podcasting & see how we use them for education and research at FASoS! Arduinos 🤖 : These tiny but powerful mini computers are changing the way we interact with technology. From building smart devices to creating interactive projects, Arduinos offer endless opportunities to bring creative ideas to life. Podcasting 🎤 : Have something to say? Podcasting is an amazing platform to share your voice, tell stories, and engage with an audience. 💡 This drop-in session is the perfect way to explore new skills, meet other potential students, ask questions, and see how technology can transform the way we communicate and learn. Whether you stay for 10 minutes or the whole afternoon, you'll leave inspired with practical knowledge. No experience required—just bring your curiosity! See you at The Plant! 🌱 #maastrichtuniversity #university #bachelorsopenday #openday #studentlife

Thank you to everyone who joined this fantastic session run by MAACH and a massive thank you to Dr. Diana Miryong Natermann for sharing her research with all of us!

Wikidata celebrates 12 years of existence! 🎉We celebrate this in Maastricht with a workshop to explore how Wikidata supports research, science, and cultural heritage. Wikidata is a free, collaborative, multilingual database, that collects structured open data for anyone worldwide to use. It also plays a crucial role in supporting Wikimedia projects, such as Wikipedia and Wikimedia Commons. Over the last 12 years, it has strongly increased in popularity among the scientific and GLAM (Galleries, Libraries, Archives, and Museums) communities. This 2.5-hour workshop comprehensively introduces Wikidata, blending theory with practical, hands-on experience. Join us for this hands-on experience taking place on 15 October and learn how to contribute to this global data movement! Join us: https://lnkd.in/eKKVHS7Z More information on the birthday of Wikidata or event information? 🎈Official Wikidata Birthday Page: https://lnkd.in/e2bAMWYh 🌐Event Information and Workshop Documents on Wikidata: https://lnkd.in/ent5cFMd The Plant @ FASoS #WikidataBirthday #Wikidata12 #OpenData #LinkedData #CulturalHeritage #DigitalResearch #Wikimedia #GLAM #KnowledgeSharing