Study Visit to CERN

I am proud to say that me and my students (Faculty of Mechanical Engineering) have successfully conducted study visit to CERN. This wouldn't be that big news, but considering that this was first group of Bosnian students to visit CERN as an organized group is a really great thing! We did have individuals to be part of Summer Student Program in CERN, but never a group and a program specifically dedicated and adjusted for them. Hence I must thank firstly to prof. Despina Hatzifotiadou who had so much patience and time to help us organize this visit and prepare all the activities (lectures and visits and workshops) for me and my students.

We also had help from prof. Yiota Foka and we would like to thank her as well.

We had really dense schedule and we have visited in one day ALICE detector, attended lectures on medical physics and astroparticle physics and did workshop on two masterclasses: Particle Therapy and Strange Particles. How was it and what have we seen and done in first day, you can check in our first video:

We must also thank to lots of great people, Bosnian companies, governmental institutions as well as non-governmental organizations, who helped us financially and therefore we have created a thank you note in our second video dedicated to all those people. Thank you once again for your support!

Second day was even more hectic and we have seen and learnt so much as you can see in our second video.

What is important about this visit is of course Physics and Engineering at first place, to be able to come so close to detector, to see in front you replicas of giant magnets used to direct charged particles in Large Hadron Collider and to witness how is it all analyzed and archived at CERN Control Center and CERN Data Center is amazing!

Second thing I must emphasize is the environment in which students receive information. Environment where they meet peers eager to know more and more, world known scientists, great professors who teach them latest discoveries in science. It is exactly this surrounding that boosts their inspiration and motivation to do more and explore more.

Third point I want to stress here is their study experience that they get to bring home and share with their peers and pursue with them ambition to apply for excellent scientific programs at CERN but also elsewhere.

Last but not least is the fact that some of these student had this study visit as their first visit to some research center, first airplane experience, first trip out of their region or even first international experience whatsoever. I cannot stress enough the importance of interchange, of international experience, of opportunity to at least see how one research center works, what do scientists in real life do etc.

For all of the above, I am so grateful that we had this amazing opportunity to visit CERN together as a group, to share this experience, to learn something new and bring this wonderful feeling home to share with other students and teachers and everyone else in love with science and physics in particular.