Public sharing

Social media is a key player in our visibility strategy and getting worldwide interactions. I have prepared several contents that have been shared with our community, notably on LinkedIn. And I’ve received many interesting comments and exchanges, which reached 10k impressions in one of the posts, where I made a three minutes video describing my topic in a simplified manner.
I also had the opportunity to present the LIVE-I project in the “Sustainability and innovation” seminar to dozens of students from “A. Manzoni “high school in Caserta, Italy. It was an incredible experience interacting with the young generation and trying to make science as simple as possible.
The most exciting part here is how to present your activities in many different ways that depend on the person you are addressing… with or without a scientific background. I find that very interesting!

Wael Masmoudi – ESR1

As a compromise with open and accessible science, I submitted four articles to open archives (HAL or ArXiv) or open-access journals. Furthermore, the early-stage researcher also shared the data and the code used in her research in a public repository on GitHub (https://github.com/ZaparoliCunha/STL_Surrogate), enabling the verification and reproducibility of the results and collaborating for further development by other scientists in a more effective way. The student also shared her results with wide audiences in conferences, meetings, and seminars, collaborating to improve her communication skills while disclosing science and the project. Besides the sessions and workshops organized by the project, my first presentation for a significant scientific audience within the project was by the end of 2021 during a meeting with Beihang University in which her work was one of the research representing the work carried out at Laboratory of Tribology and System Dynamics (LTDS), in Ecole Centrale de Lyon. Later, I also presented her Ph.D. project to the employees of Compredict.

Besides sharing scientific findings within the scientific community, I also dedicated myself to disclosing science to the general public without a specific background in science. To do so, all the students from the LIVE-I project produced comprehensible videos in the format “My thesis in 180 seconds,” which were disclosed on the project Youtube Channel (https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC_3RjCJW-_o7FAmkNkSIrDg). I also published this and other accessible scientific content in my LinkedIn profile (https://www.linkedin.com/in/barbara-zaparoli-cunha-b783799a/) and the LIVE-I profile (https://www.linkedin.com/company/66606615), together with other ESRs. Finally, I also helped prepare for the “Festival Pop’Sciences,” which took place in Vienne in 2021. Below is the photograph of the 3D-printed gear transmission made for this event by the Ph.D. students from Ecole Centrale de Lyon.

Barbara Zaparoli – ESR 6

In conjunction with ESR2 and the LIVE-I project manager, we participated in the “Fête de la science”, where we presented our project as well as demonstrated a 3D-printed gearbox mockup, showing the setups of gears and explained some ideas about forces and motion. The initiative was integrated into the “Village de sciences”, an event that brought together all the scientific labs in Lyon.

Outside work, I spread the word about what our project is doing in my network and groups of friends who are not necessarily in the engineering or research fields.

Daniel Amaral – ESR 3

This can be the most fulfilling part of Ph.D. research. It’s an opportunity to share my passion and experiences with others and inspire those who wouldn’t normally engage with academia. This happens with everyone I meet in a course at unina, events I attend, or even on a normal day at the supermarket or the airport. It pops up in one question: “what do you do in life?” The difficult parts are being able to distill complex research into a simpler form for everyone and expressing my passion to engage my audience. This is tricky to learn. The good news is that practicing and mastering these techniques in the past two years helped me build a sort of confidence in my work and satisfaction. With plenty of social media tools, sharing my research and Ph.D. experiences is easier than ever. There’s no limit to the opportunities available. What makes me proud the most is being a role model for my little cousins. They told me this. I feel that it’s fulfilling to inspire young people to focus on their studies, have goals and ambitions in life, and mostly never give up. I also receive motivational comments from my engineering school professors and students. The fun part is the experimental work itself. Carrying mechanical tools, assembling parts, mounting gears, well, it’s not familiar for a girl to do. It is challenging mentally and physically. I received plenty of comments regarding this part. However, it’s a pleasure to explain what I do and the target of my work in a clear professional way. That helped to break this “Taboo”, at least with people who know me. Besides this, I encouraged more girls at my university to do mechanical engineering via my thesis work. Public sharing is as much about listening to society as it is about sharing your work. You never know how ordinary people can inspire you. Unfortunately, I haven’t got the chance to participate in public events at schools, universities, or clubs, but whenever I have the chance, I’m up to it.

Ranim Najib – ESR 5

An application was sent to join the Science is Wonderful fair, that is organized by the European Commission, that will take place in Brussels in March 2023. The science is Wonderful fair emphasis the impact of EU-funded research. It gives primary and secondary school students the chance to interact with leading researchers and innovators, learn more about their work in engaging formats and ask questions about scientific careers. A proposal is sent to join the fair and demonstrate a live experiment to learn the children what is meant by vibrations, what is meant by vibration signals, and how to cancel vibrations through active vibration control. Still in January, the result for this proposal will be known.

Sherif Okda – ESR 9