Bordeaux PENS Training Center European Synapse Summer School 2006

Report

I attended this PENS training center as member of the Faculty, unfortunately I could stay only from Sunday to Tuesday, as I discussed with Sigi. Nevertheless and despite the short period of my stay, the school extremely favorably impressed me, both in term of selection of topics, speakers and students (very active group) and in term of local organization.

The location was optimal: both faculty and students were lodged in a nice hotel at walking distance from the campus where the school was held. At the campus the organization was excellent: there was a "PENS room" with a dozen of computer connected to internet available for students (and teachers) to study. Several activities were organized to allow for the socialization of the group that was quite successful. The overall atmosphere of the site was excellent.

The structure of the school was quite impressive, they had Lectures in the morning and I was happy to see that all invited speakers well-known scientists who accepted to participate were in fact present at the school and did not to my knowledge sent replacement (a problem that we already faced in the past). All lectures I attended experienced a very active participation from the students.

In the afternoon they had practical courses (the building was open until 11.30 pm to allow them to finish their experiments, all insurances were extended). The 22 students were assigned to 11 mini-projects in order to see different technical approaches on a given scientific questions. In following a mini-project for three weeks they experienced a different technical approach each week.

The students had the opportunity to discuss the mini-project they were assigned to and to present their results in an "evening sessions" (followed successfully by a pizza-session).

I had the chance to speak with the students in a short colloquium I requested in order to understand possible pitfalls in the school organization. In general the students were extremely positive about the school and they appreciated both the high quality of the lectures and the format. Their only complain (minimal) was related to the "evening sessions" that they perceived as too formal but this was openly discussed with the organizers and the problem immediately tackled.

The cohort of students attending the school was very good as stated before and also the geographical distribution was respected.

A impressive number of researchers of the Bordeaux center were involved in the tutorial aspect of the school: I calculated for a group of two students an average of at least four instructors that followed the students for the three weeks mini-project. This was an impressive effort for the center, but all the tutors I could speak with reported this as a very positive experience.

Overall, I found the school an excellent experience for PENS.

Milano, 26 sept, 2006
Monica DiLuca