The long awaited summer school in Leicester has come and gone, starting last Monday 8th July and finishing on Friday 12th July as planned. It was deemed a great success by all participating members, from the organisers and lecturers to all the invited students.

Courses

Lectures: There was an interesting variety of lectures and demonstrations, both from academics within the project as well as outside. Although all talks were regarding different subjects, they all fit in perfectly together to give a complete picture at the end of the summer school. Topics were tackled both from a theoretical viewpoint as well as practical, making sure that every student could somehow relate the talks to their work.

Bootcamp: On Wednesday, rather than having lectures, the summer school provided a one day bootcamp. Industrial partners such as McAfee, Actyx, and DCR Solutions presented real world problems, where participants were encouraged to try out hands-on exercises and get their hands dirty. The scope of this bootcamp was definitely achieved, as participants emerged motivated and curious about solving the problems presented.

The full list of talks, along with all the course material used can be found here.

 

Student Presentations

On Thursday, students were given the opportunity to present their own work, allowing for more interaction and discussion with the rest of the students, lecturers, and industrial partners. It also brought to light the wide spectrum of backgrounds from which the students come, as each student gave a clear and compelling presentation on a distinct topic.

 

Social Media and Communication

At the beginning of the summer school, two new communication media were launched.

Slack: As the organisers pointed out, Slack is one of the most clean and efficient ways to communicate for work purposes, and definitely way more organised than a never ending list of emails in your inbox. It was therefore decided that all summer school communication should happen on Slack, were each course was given a different channel. This exercise proved to be very conducive, and has prompted the BehAPI project leaders to consider migrating to Slack instead of communicating via email.

Instagram: At the beginning of the summer school, the official BehAPI Instagram was launched. With daily posts and stories, students and lecturers alike could share and discover snippets of life during a summer school.

Looking Forward

The summer school has left participants inspired and looking forward to more potential collaborations and learning opportunities. Thanks to the continued support and funding from EU H2020 RISE programme, as well as the sustained dedication of project members, the BehAPI team is looking forward to preparing another summer school within the next couple of years.

 

Leicester Summer School 2019

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