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The European Researchers’ Night has a tradition of nearly 20 years. This  Europe-wide public event, funded under the Marie Skłodowska-Curie actions, makes science accessible to all through activities which combine education with entertainment (e.g. exhibitions, hands-on experiments, science shows, games, competitions and quizzes) and brings researchers closer to the general public.

Every last Friday of September, the European Researchers’ Night showcases the diversity of science, its impact on citizens’ daily lives and tries to stimulate interest in research careers – particularly among young people. It is an event that, for one evening, brings life to hundreds of science buildings and opens them to visitors who are invited to pass through laboratories and lecture halls, experience exploding experiments and learn about hot topics in depth. Everyone with a passion for science – children, adults, and seniors – is welcome to meet and talk to scientists who are ready to demonstrate the beauty of science.

Organized by CSI-COP partner Czech Technical University (CTU), The Researchers’ Night was an opportunity to give the public an insight into the world of modern technologies that help create our society. This year, CTU prepared a series of popular lectures for the attendees with the invitation to some of the laboratories. All this in the spirit of CTU’s motto – “Engineering a truly intelligent future“.

The Czech Institute of Informatics, Robotics and Cybernetics (CIIRC) at CTU building welcomed more than 600 visitors, mostly young persons and parents with their children. They witnessed complex robotic experiments, experienced augmented reality in a huge laboratory “Test-bed for Industry 4.0” and attended three popular lectures explaining some of the projects running currently at the institute. The event was held in Czech language and was aired on YouTube.

The CSI-COP project was one of those presented to the attendees. All CSI-COP members in the CIIRC team (prof. RNDr. Olga Štěpánková, CSc., Eng., Deniz Ozdemir, MsC, OSCP and Ing. Filip Hrdlička) were involved in this endevour. First, project methodology and goals were introduced by Olga who highlighted importance of privacy, GDPR and digital cookies through real-life scenarios and examples, e.g. those mentioned in the TED talk of Zeynep Tufekci. The second part of the presentation tried to arm the audience with basic technical know-how necessary for shielding privacy on the internet.

[Edited by Huma Shah]

Authors

Deniz Ozdemir,

Olga Štěpánková