Libra-net (19): Augmenting our reality
The past month was our busiest ever. Looking back at NeuroLibre Day, the Buki (Буки) launch, and the Science for Kids conference
It was a busy month, and as a result our Substack subscriber base grew by 10 percent. Thank you and welcome to all our new readers! As always, paid subscribers can access some special announcements and links below the paywall at the end of this newsletter.
And now a summary of what has been keeping us busy:
The 3rd Science for Kids conference took place on October 18-19 at NOVA International School Skopje under the motto “Augment your reality”. All participants put on Metaquest Oculus headsets (courtesy of Another World) and got to explore scientific concepts in VR!
For the opening ceremony, five talented students (Mila, Tea, Zoran, Jakov, Dea) were mentored by Macedonian scientists (Borjana Arsova, Aleksandar Shulevski, Marko Shuntov, Blazhe Gjorgiev, Petar Popovski, Panče Naumov) and they delivered fascinating lectures on tropisms, the origin of the universe, nuclear power, quantum computers and bioluminescence. We were also joined by Bas Rokers from New York University Abu Dhabi who gave an eye-opening lecture on vision and virtual reality.
The award “Ivan Kjostarov” for outstanding scientific potential went to Angela Tuneska, and the award “Kolega Stikov” for best science reporting went to Ljubica and Kostantina Andonovi.
The finalists for the “Ivan Kjostarov” award: Konstantin Dimovski, Sofija Petkovska, Angela Tuneska (winner), Valentino Atanasoski, and Dea Atanasov 
The finalists for the “Kolega Stikov” award: Ana Urumova, Stefan Todoroski, Sofija Petruseva, Roza Gjosik and Ana Aleksovska, Ljubica and Kostantina Andonovi (winners) Video: Facebook broadcast
Photos:
Day 1 (Opening ceremony)
Day 2 (Virtual reality, hands-on workshops and “Parlez-vous fran-sci ?” exhibition)Interviews with our executive director, Dragana Stikova: Umno, Lice v lice
Media Coverage: Umno, Off Net, Radio MOF, Trn, Crno Belo, MKD.mk, Kurir, Nezavisen, Biznis Vesti, Okno, Racin, Fakulteti
Interview with our founder, Nikola Stikov, for Macedonian TV Telma
Thank you to everybody who donated their time and money, including Farmahem, Intertec.io, Publicis Skopje, Kontura, KOMA Design Studio, Institut français, Another World Skopje and all the volunteers and individual donors. We couldn't have done it without you!
On October 9 we released Buki, an open-source speech-to-text transcription tool for the Macedonian language. Buki was developed in collaboration with Dejan Porjazovski, Ilina Jakimovska, Ordan Cukaliev, Nikola Stikov and the Center for Advanced Interdisciplinary Research at the University Ss. Cyril and Methodius (UKIM). The promotion took place at UKIM, and the campaign to donate your voice to Buki will last until December 15. Test Buki here, and help us improve it by contributing to the Mozilla Common Voice platform!
Media coverage: Off Net, SDK, Republika, Umno, Netpress, Plusinfo, Trn, Sloboden Pecat, Nova TV, MKD.mk, Civil Media, Frontline, Nezavisen, 4 News, Biznis Vesti, TV 21, Kanal 5, 24, Brif
Interview with the Buki creator: Dejan Porjazovski for Inovativnost
Buki was also featured on the national TV Channel 1NeuroLibre is a preprint server for hosting reproducible research objects, and we are proud that Macedonia is one of the three countries hosting a NeuroLibre node (the other two being Canada and Japan). September 27 was NeuroLibre Day, and our foundation supported the event and welcomed 30+ invited speakers in the beautiful Marguerite Burguoys Museum in Montreal. Click here for photos from this exclusive event.
There's a popular theory by Erik Hoel that we stopped producing Einsteins because we perverted the concept of tutoring and mentorship. In the past tutors were world-class scientists who expanded the horizons of their gifted students. Today tutors are pragmatic professionals who help our children score high on standardized tests. Our Foundation is providing mentorship of the old-school kind. Dragana’s essay on this topic is personable, eloquent, and inspiring.
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