CERN Webfest: A weekend for science on the web

Are you passionate about science? Do you like communicating that passion to the general public? Then come along to the CERN Summer Student Webfest on the weekend of 3-4 August! It is a grassroots initiative by the summer students, open to all staff and users, and aims to spark new ideas that could innovate the future of web-based education about CERN, the LHC and particle physics.

 

The CERN Summer Student Webfest is a weekend of online web-based creativity modelled on the gatherings (sometimes called hackfests or hackathons) that energize many open-source communities. You can work with like-minded students and CERN staff to design and build demos of the web apps you would like to see online. Prizes will be awarded to the best projects, with a Grand Prize winner receiving a trip to the Mozilla Festival in London!

Participants in the CERN Summer Student Webfest will work in teams and design neat applications that encourage the public to learn more about science and, in particular, CERN, the LHC and particle physics. The projects can range from designing online games for kids to crafting citizen science projects and developing low-cost mobile-phone-based cosmic ray detectors.

Although aimed at the summer students, technical students, openlab students and other young summer visitors, the event is open to people of all ages at CERN with a passion for web-based science outreach and education and who have a weekend to spare. You do not have to be a software or hardware expert to contribute: many types of skill sets are needed to develop a fun project, from writing and design to physics and engineering.

So, come along for the weekend and create, innovate
and educate about science on the web!

Kick-off!
Project ideas will be presented at a kick-off event on Friday 2 August, from 4.30 p.m. to 6 p.m. in the Main Auditorium. Teams will self-assemble around the most exciting pitches. Anyone who is participating can pitch a project; pitches will be presented in a short set time to give every participant the chance to present his or her ideas. However, participants are encouraged to submit their project ideas to the Webfest website for the best chance to form a well-defined team. The kick-off event will also introduce a range of tools for modifying the web, creating online education and contributing to online science.

Will there be prizes?
A Grand Prize will be awarded for the best project: a free trip to the Mozilla Festival in London from 25 to 27 October, courtesy of the Mozilla Foundation. Other goodies will be distributed to all participants.

Where will we work on our ideas?
Teams will work on their Webfest project primarily in CERN’s Restaurant No. 1. As the location is an open-space environment, there will be plenty of opportunity for interaction between participants and various technical experts taking part in the event. Mozilla is supporting meal tickets for participants.

How will the event end?
The event will wrap up on Sunday 4 August at 4.00 p.m. with a judging panel reviewing the results and awarding the Grand Prize. John Ellis, the doyen of particle theorists and a keen enthusiast of good science outreach, will be one of the judges.

Many thanks to our sponsors...
The event is sponsored by the Mozilla Foundation, the Shuttleworth Foundation and the EC Citizen Cyberlab project, and organized by the Citizen Cyberscience Centre.

 

For more information and to post your project ideas, please visit the website at: http://citizencyberscience.net/wiki.

Connect to the event on: Facebook  - Google+ - Twitter.

by CERN Bulletin