During the FORTHEM students’ conference there was a session on the role of students in FORTEM Labs where four student speakers from various labs shared their experiences and had a discussion about the challenges and solutions to student involvement in labs. The session was moderated by Anna Roppelt
The first speaker, Selina Fenske, who represented Climate and Resources Lab introduced her freshly established lab and the plans for the lab outputs. She noted that one of the challenges has been to recruit students to this particular lab. And yet the lab has managed to involve students in discussing and commenting on a document devoted to sustainability challenges in Europe and student ideas how to make FORTHEM Alliance a green alliance. More here https://www.forthem-alliance.eu/about-us/news/detail-view/t/62248/
The next speaker was Anssi Sorvisto from JYU who reported on how labs were being organized at his university and how students have been motivated to participate for example in Resilience, Life Quality and Demographic Change Lab.
Jolina Hartmann spoke on the behalf of students involved in the Diversity and Migration Lab at JGU. She promoted the opportunities that the lab offered, such as the possibility to get involved in research pilots and output planning and development, the chance to travel to partner institutions to take part in events, to establish contacts with civil organizations and to take a stance in discussions on important social challenges.
However, some problems faced by students have also been mentioned, namely the lack of incentives (ECTS points could be awarded for some activities), the fact that trips had to be suspended, time consuming preparations, and lack of many concrete offers. Students discussed how to overcome the inability to contact other students in other universities.
Jan Gruca (JGU), a representative of Digital Transformation Lab introduced the aspects of lab work that were interesting to students as far as AI systems and technologies are concerned, especially in relation to challenges and ethics of AI.
One of the proposals for lab cooperation is organizing an interdisciplinary course for IT and social science students in which they could explore the applications of AI in human research, public health, or marketing for example. If the participation in the course is certified, then students could receive ECTS credit points.
As regards the compensation for student workload in FORTHEM outputs, as Tamás Péter Szabó (Scientific Manager for FORTHEM Lab Actions) reminds, there will be a call for applications for funding to implement outputs. Students will have a major role in contributing to the applications. The call opens on 14 December and the submission deadline will be 14 February 2021. Hopefully, with this opportunity, it will be easier to attract students.
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If you are a student and would like to get access to the Labs’ common Teams environment, you can send an email to Lab Coordinator Oskari Vesterinen: oskari.m.vesterinen@jyu.fi