Images: Laura Marcos/ IFT.
On 5 April, the Institute of Mathematical Sciences (ICMAT) and the Institute of Theoretical Physics (IFT) welcomed more than 50 students from the 1st year of Baccalaureate of the Educational Enrichment Programme for Students with High Intellectual Abilities (PEAC) of the Community of Madrid. From 10:00 to 13:00, the students -from the East and Centre 2 sites of the PEAC- had the opportunity to approach the world of research in mathematics and theoretical physics from the hand of its protagonists.The event, held at the UAM-CSIC campus, was organised by scientific and outreach staff from ICMAT and IFT, with the aim of encouraging scientific vocations, showcasing the work carried out at the centres and offering a participative and enriching experience.
The activity began with a presentation of the centres and the work carried out at them by Luis Álvarez Cónsul, CSIC researcher at ICMAT, and Karl Landsteiner, deputy director of IFT. Beyond the description of the institutions, both highlighted the passion, creativity and perseverance that a scientific career requires.The attendees were then taken on a guided tour of ICMAT and IFT facilities. This tour, led by Laura Marcos and Ágata Timón – responsible for communication and dissemination at IFT and ICMAT, respectively -, Pablo Hidalgo – a PhD student at ICMAT – and Landsteiner, offered an insight into day-to-day life at a research centre: from the work in the offices, to the use of resources such as libraries and scientific repositories, to the key role of human relations and the exchange of ideas in seminars, conferences and international collaborations.
After a short break, two short presentations followed, in which examples of ongoing research were shared. Carmen Gómez-Fayrén de las Heras, pre-doctoral researcher at IFT, narrated her personal experience in developing a scientific project from its initial stages, while Luis Álvarez Cónsul introduced the students to a hot topic in the area of geometry: moduli spaces and their connection with theoretical physics.
To conclude, the students had the opportunity to become scientists for a while, in the simultaneous workshop session. On the one hand, the mathematics workshop, ‘Colours and points: visual mathematical challenges’, led by Pablo Hidalgo, presented students with accessible geometric challenges connected to current research. Through problems such as the colouring of the plane, notions of combinatorics, geometry and logic were explored, awakening visual thinking and mathematical intuition.In parallel, the physicist Alberto Casas (IFT) offered the workshop ‘Relativity and light’, an immersion in the fundamentals of special relativity. Through mental experiments and mathematical reasoning, students explored concepts such as time dilation, gravitational redshift and electron-positron annihilation, from an active and critical perspective.Both workshops were repeated in two shifts, allowing the whole group to participate in both experiences.
In addition to awakening interest in scientific content, the day responded to broader pedagogical objectives, in line with CREACIM’s principles: to encourage divergent thinking, creativity, teamwork and social skills. The participatory format and the direct contact with researchers contributed to create a close atmosphere, in which students felt an active part of the scientific world for a few hours.
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