The second day of Nanofest at SUSU included two master classes and a showing of the pop science film, “Printer of the Future”. The morning began with a master class from the executive director of the Association Science Slam Russia, Arina Pushkina, dedicated to the popularization of science in Russia.
“Science and modern technologies are traditionally linked to difficult themes which you must have specialized knowledge to work with,” emphasizes the executive director of Science Slam, “But scientists with this knowledge avoid communication with journalists, and journalists are unable to work with scientific sources and specialized information. The goal of “Expert Innovations” is to familiarize the audience with the pop-science formats which are designed to help science and the general public understand one another and interact more successfully.”
As part of the event, Arina Pushkina analyzed the types of audience for whom pop-science knowledge is written, acquainted students with the leading online and offline scientific projects: sites, journals, social media groups, with which scientific journalists can work. Their range is quite broad: from “Kota Schroedingera” and “Obrazovacha” to “Arzamasa” and “Lenty.ru”. Also, within the master class, students were able to try themselves as organizers of pop-science projects.
The master class of the director of the Russian Association of Solar Energy Enterprises, Anton Usachev, was dedicated to discussing the prospects of developing solar energy in Russia in an economic crisis. After the master class, many questions were posed to the lecturer about alternative energy source and the sector’s overall situation in the country.
The second day of Nanofest ended with a showing of the pop-science film “Printer of the Future”, which discusses how technology changes the world, with the example of the creation of the 3D-printer industry in the USA.
Leader of the directive for popularization of the ROSNANO Fund of Infrastructural and Education Programs, Sergey Filippov, offered his comments to sum up the event. “The two-day nanotechnology festival for students, scientific and business audiences, including various kinds of events, is one more important step to the creation of a communal informational space for those who work in innovations,” the leader commented, “Modern nanotechnologies have a lot of potential for wide use in agriculture and industry, and active dialogue among representatives of education, science, and business societies will help introduce new developments.”