Libra-net (21): S(c)iesta reboot
S(c)iesta meetups, science workshops, student triumphs, and a global push for open science mark a season of growth
Since 2020, we have organized 100+ virtual S(c)iesta meetups, building a community of 400+ Macedonian scientists abroad. This year, we decided to start a series of in-person S(c)iestas, and the first one happened on June 3 with S(c)iesta co-founder Kiril Gashteovski. Kiril took time out of his honeymoon to meet old and new friends of KANTAROT in Gastroteka Siesta, the place where everything started in 2019.
Our next guest is Martin Saveski, Assistant Professor in the Information School at the University of Washington. Martin obtained his PhD from MIT, he did his postodoctoral studies at Stanford, and he is an expert on digital social systems and social media algorithms. He will join us on Thursday (June 12) at the Kamnik winery for an informal conversation about living in the age of social media. The registration link is available after the paywall, participation is capped at 15 people max.
Our mentees had an incredible spring, winning multiple awards at national and international competitions. Stay tuned for a special post listing their successes, but suffice it to say that they were awarded prestigious scholarships, they won the national science competitions in math, physics and biology, and participated in international science olympiads. Congratulations to Mila, Zoki, Jakov, Dea I., Tea, Angela, Dea A., and Sofija, we are very proud of you!
We held a series of Science for kids workshops in the primary schools Goce Delchev and Mirche Acev in Skopje. As always, big thank you to our donors for making these workshops possible!
We were proud to support another edition of the MRathon, a hackathon for MRI professionals that took place in Honolulu in May. Over 50 MRI professionals gathered in Hawaii to work on various MRI projects that emphasized reproducibility, vendor-neutrality and open science.
Nikola Stikov and Rozita Dimova were guests on the morning program of national TV Telma, discussing university rankings, science policies and the grading criteria in Macedonia. In light of recent news that UKIM dropped from the Shanghai university rankings, we argued that rankings require a rethinking of our entire grading system. People in Macedonia are not familiar with grading on a Gaussian curve, which makes it difficult to explain the way university rankings work. Grade inflation works locally (everybody gets A’s these days), but destroys our reputation globally. Therefore, we need to start pilot projects where students are graded on a curve from an early age. We have touched on this topic multiple times in this newsletter, here are some relevant readings that may influence education policy in Macedonia.
За помалку петкаши
Toward better education and science in MacedoniaРангирањето универзитети е мешање баби и жаби
Grading is subjective. Period.
Штурци
Below is paywalled content for our paid subscribers, including a registration link for the S(c)iesta with Martin Saveski and beta testing of the new Buki server for Macedonian transcriptions