Virtual School of IBI-3

Due to the pandemic the regular winter school of this year 2021 was replaced by a virtual school which took place online wthin 7 days from March 1st to 9th.

During these challenging times, even academia could not evade the effects of pandemics. Notwithstanding, IBI-3 sought to preserve the tradition of Winter and Summer Schools and to cultivate interaction and knowledge-sharing. As per the current measures, we transferred our school to the virtual platform, hence the name ‘Virtual School’.

Over a week, we arranged daily virtual sessions to present a comprehensive insight into the research objectives, projects, and instrumentation within our Institute. To create a coherent atmosphere, every group member presented their work side-by-side with their group leaders. Furthermore, we organized virtual tours to our facilities and instrumentation talks from our experienced technicians. These scientific sessions were followed by soft group discussions, aiming to improve day-to-day life at our Institute.  In the evenings, we arranged virtual social activities, such as PowerPoint karaoke, quiz nights, and cooking together.

We can proudly say that Virtual School was a successful and well-received adaptation of our standard Schools. Not only it enhanced the scientific and interpersonal interactions, but it also welcomed and integrated the newcomers into our community. For some of them, Virtual School was good preparation for the upcoming conferences and poster presentations. Likewise, more senior graduate students gained interesting perspectives and extensive feedback from their peers.

Overall, this event served us to grow and stay together in times of pandemics. For instance, we adopted virtual social activities in our daily routine after School has ended. Furthermore, it gave us an insight into the capacities of virtual platforms, encouraging us to implement this concept in the forthcoming hybrid meeting systems.

Bogdana Cepkenovic