ESRs at VenetoNight 2018 – La notte dei ricercatori European Researchers’ night in Padova

ESRs at the “VenetoNight 2018 – La notte dei ricercatori” (The night of the researchers)

The European researchers’ night is held every year in many different cities across Europe, aiming to bring researchers closer to the general public. Through interesting and attractive experiments and demonstrations, researchers from many different fields try to increase public awareness of the positive impact of scientific research in the people’s everyday life and, at the same time, encourage pupils to embark on research careers.

research night 1

This year, 4 QCALL ESRs from Padova (Mujtaba Zahidy and Hamid Tebyanian) and Düsseldorf (Federico Grasselli and Carlo Liorni) participated to the event held in Padova on the 28th of September, alongside other researchers from the Department of Information Engineering (DEI). Every year, this event attracts a considerable crowd, of every age and every level of scientific background.

research night 2

The ESRs presented to the public, with simple and clear concepts, the main topics of quantum communication and quantum information, together with details about the EU flagship on quantum technologies and the QCALL project. Two simple experiments came along. The first about light interference, used as starting point to explain concepts in quantum physics like the superposition principle. The second consisted in a simple quantum random number generator, accompanied by an interactive interface and explanations about the usefulness of random numbers in our everyday life. The response from the public was exceptionally good and people kept asking questions and discussing until late in the night.

research night 3research night 4

You can check at this link https://ec.europa.eu/…/actions/european-researchers-night_en where is the closest European Researchers’ Night to your place. Whatever your background is, interesting discussions and demonstrations are waiting for you!