High School Students to talk at Citizen Cyberscience Summit

This year's Second London Citizen Cyberscience Summit, a sequel to the first one barely 18 months ago, which really signaled the launch of the CCC, is shaping up to be a big deal!

Of course, lots of big name researchers will be there. But what made the first Summit so special, and we're hoping will be the hallmark of the second one, is the participation of a good deal of real citizen scientists. Indeed, a whole panel session will be devoted to "the citizens of citizen science".

A novelty this year will be a presentation by two high school students. Not just any high school, mind you. These students go to the Simon Langton Grammar School in Canterbury, where Becky Parker, a super teacher, gets kids involved in building cosmic ray detectors and designing satellites.

The students, Louis Wilson and Chris Cundy, will talk about CERN@school, an ambitious programme to build a network of cosmic ray detectors across the UK and one day the whole world.

Becky's students have also been involved in testing the latest version of CERN@home, called Test4Theory, where volunteers can simulate an atom-smasher on their home computer... and help theoretical physicists at CERN hunt for new fundamental particles like the Higgs boson.

The session with Louis and Chris should be an exciting one. It kicks off this Friday 17/2 at 14:00. Nice of Becky to let her students play hooky and go to London for the day!

2nd London Citizen Cyberscience Summit 16-18 February

On your marks…

The London Citizen Cyberscience Summit in 2010 brought together for the first time volunteers and scientists from a wide range of Web-based science projects, ranging from volunteer computing (SETI@home,ClimatePrediction.net) to volunteer thinking (GalaxyZoo, Herbaria@home) to volunteer sensing (EpiCollect, NoiseTube) and much more. Historians, journalists, teachers and businessmen all brought their angle on citizen cyberscience to the event. Above all, it was a chance for the some of the millions of volunteers who make citizen cyberscience so successful to tell their story.

Get set…

The Second London Citizen Cyberscience Summit, 16-18 February 2012, promises to be just as pioneering in its scope, and even more innovative in its format – ranging from classical academic seminar on the first day, through to full-fledged open hardware hackfest on the last. It will take place at the Royal Geographical Institute (on the 16th) and at UCL (17th and 18th), in London.

Go!

On Day 1, we set the scene. (Thursday 16th February 2012, Royal Geographical Institute). Meet some of the leading figures in citizen science and explore the process of public engagement and participation, outreach of citizen science to the developing world, and the undertaking of "extreme" citizen scienceprojects, in rain forests, arctic tundra, or urban jungles.

On Day 2, we look beneath the surface. (Friday 17th February 2012, UCL). Experts will discuss thehardware and software that powers citizen cyberscience. There will be a panel discussion with citizen scientists on why participation and engagement, and a showcase of new and future citizen science projects. In the evening, we'll start planning the next day's hands-on sessions.

On Day 3, we get down to business…together! (Saturday 18th February 2012) This will include furtherunconference sessions, and a hackfest for development of hardware and software prototypes, demos and mock-ups, with awards for the most innovative creations!

• Register and buy your ticket
• Propose talks and demo