Education and Equal Opportunities

NCCR SPIN partnered with the House of Electronic Arts in Basel to conduct a workshop for quantum computing enthusiasts as part of their Tech Brunches series. These four-hour hands-on workshops aim to provide an interested audience with insights into technologies such as chatbots, cybersecurity, quantum computers, and NFTs, demonstrating how these technologies function and how they can be used creatively.

The international race for developing a practical quantum computer has started. But what’s exactly behind the hype? How do quantum computers function? Are they even real?

Introduced for the first time at the Berlin Science Week 2023, “Quantum Computing Unplugged”, consists in a collection of six panels designed to explain the vision and the basic functioning of quantum computers to a broad audience, as well as an interactive electric board showing the fundamental differences between a classical and a quantum computer.

The NCCR Women campaign introduces the public to various woman researchers working everyday in different Swiss National Centres of Competence in Research. Through these videos and interviews, our female colleagues are showing you who they are, what they do and why they do it. The campaign was initiated in 2021 to celebrate the 50th anniversary of women obtaining the right to vote in Switzerland and was continued since.

The NCCRs united to offer teachers the opportunity to invite one of their researchers to their classroom during the 2022/2023 school year. These women are working in fields ranging from engineering to linguistics, architecture, chemistry, robotics, neuroscience, quantum physics or microbiology.

Our YouTube channel includes various videos produced for general audiences, from our NCCR Women campaign to introductions to quantum computers.

Interested teachers can book one of the knowledge boxes free of charge and make an appointment for a school visit. The presentation and participatory teaching of the selected knowledge box takes place in German by a doctoral student in the classroom. He or she presents the contents of the selected knowledge box to the whole class and works with the pupils in a participatory manner and at eye level.

The TecDays are organised by the SATW every year. Over the course of an entire day, pupils attend practical and interactive modules of their choice, where they can exchange ideas with experts and immerse themselves in technical and scientific topics and applications.

This year, NCCR SPIN is participating by having several of its researchers giving a module on quantum computing.

The NCCR SPIN Canvas Grant aims at encouraging young researchers to participate in public engagement events, both within the NCCR SPIN and externally.