Published: 28 Sep 2022
The first series of ComSoc STEM events organized in Pisa, Italy has been developed by Prof. Stefano Giordano in collaboration with members of the IEEE Italy Section and will be featured as a part of the upcoming BRIGHT festival (European night of research) on 30 September and the Internet Festival 2022 taking place from 6-9 October. The theme of this year’s Internet Festival is “Forms of Future” and is the twelfth edition of the event. The festival provides opportunities for associations, organizations, and professionals to showcase their educational works for school students and teachers, the curious, and locals who are enthusiastic to learn more about the digital world.
On 6-7 October during the Internet Festival, there will be two sessions that highlight the ongoing Transformation of Telecommunications already underway through the development and deployment of the 5G mobile network. The goal is to help students understand the importance of this technology field and provide opportunities to "get our hands on" solving real problems. The area of telecommunications engineering is primarily a university-level study domain. However, it is one of the key sectors whose development is closely related to the social and economic development of a country.
ComSoc volunteers will be holding sessions for their program called “From the crystal radio to 5G.” This program is planned for two age groups of students: 1) medium school 11-13 years old and 2) high school students 14-18 years old. With the medium school students, they will present more basic concepts such as waves, sound, light to stimulate the students’ curiosity. For the high school students, the volunteers will be highlighting concepts such as analog and digital transmission, modulation, noise, and switching as well as providing insights into the future of telecommunications. For both sets of students, the volunteer leaders will discuss the issues of services and illustrate how telecommunications enables new solutions to real problems.
These Pre-university students will also have the opportunity to participate in a series of practical demonstrations that illustrate the impact of telecommunications in the world of Agricultural Technologies (AGRITECH). Titled, “The Internet of Tomatoes” this session will illustrate how 5G is enabling new services in Agriculture by showing the remote control of an automated hydroponic greenhouse. These demonstrations were developed in collaboration with the National Center for Agricultural Technologies involving more than 20 Universities in Italy, the Department of Agronomic Studies, and several other departments at the University of Pisa. The children will then be able to experience hands-on activities with these technologies, bringing together all the concepts from the sessions. Using a creative approach, the children will not only control the Greenhouse via a smartphone but “make the tomatoes ring.” The goal is to inspire Pre-university students at several age levels to contribute to changing the world for a better quality of life.
Special thanks to IEEE ComSoc, IEEE Italy Section and University of Pisa and its companies including ELFI, CUBIT, NEXTWORKS, NETRESULTS, SFERA AGRICOLA, WIND3, HORTOMIO and QBROBOTICS for their contributions to these events.