Vision and School format
WebValley is the FBK summer school for dissemination of interdisciplinary research: almost 400 students (17-18y old) have attended the WebValley camps since its first edition in 2001. WebValley started as a regional initiative for high school students from Trentino Alto-Adige SüdTirol, and it is now an opportunity for national and international students to experiment scientific research.
For the 2024 edition, about 20 seats will be available.
The team will be tentatively composed of:
- Communication Officer
- General
- Regeneron ISEF
- International
The requirements to participate are: High School student (for Italy: 4th year completed), adequate knowledge of English, enthusiasm in science and new technologies, above-average school records, student’s motivation and teacher’s recommendation letters.
The WebValley formula: Create a team of enthusiast and motivated high school students (18 y) tutored by researchers.
How it works
The team accepts a challenge by a collaborating scientist from Ecology, Biology or Social Sciences and develops in three weeks a new web-based prototype for data analysis and management. The school strongly encourages the participation of all genders and various backgrounds.
Students are introduced to Open Source software solutions (scientific programming, web interfaces, database, GIS and data analysis); they discuss, design and develop the new system interacting with scientists. They learn to select tools, organize their own workplan, and respond with a new solution to a problem of ethical interest. A working prototype web solution and technical results are presented at the end of the two week period.
The project activities are developed mostly in teamwork as in a true research environment, that is informal and of high quality in resources, competence and organization. Each student can differently contribute to project with ideas, software code or data preparation, design of new web interfaces, project presentation.
The location: the school is held in a high-tech lab set up at the Artigianelli high school in downtown Trento. The WebValley Lab provides computing resources and devices to test new ways of exploring the principles of applied data science and predictive models.
(Lab is open all day, but group activities and leisure time are also part of the experience).
The project
The project is the main thread of activities and it constitutes a challenge for the working group, facing the problem of designing and building a new web-based service for managing and sharing of data (ecological and environmental interest, or social).
The starting point is the philosophy of combining open source tools, FBK research products and the creativity of participants. We try to provide students an opportunity to test themselves, within a group, to acquire and apply skills (HTML, PHP, Database, GIS) and methods to multidisciplinary research (analysis and visualization of data, design systems, interaction with experts from non- specialist).
The project is always motivated from researchers coming from a specific field who are looking for a new technical solution to a real problem.