The Future Talent Programme (FTP) gives the opportunity to students and young professionals from the R&E community to present their brilliant ideas in an engaging way and provide them with the necessary skills to convey ideas and concepts confidently to a wide audience, such as that of TNC.
Selected students for the Lightning Talks part of the FTP will be able to share their idea on this year’s TNC virtual stage!
Conrad Ekisa (HEAnet) will share an ingenious idea about combatting cyber-attacks on critical infrastructures, while Hanna Karpenka (BASNET) will take us on a journey to what may lead us to eternal life.
Conrad Ekisa said: “My supervisor introduced me to the FTP earlier this year and thought that this would be a great challenge for me. I had never heard about GÉANT, TNC or the FTP, so after some research I was soon convinced that this would be a good opportunity to showcase my work, but also to give some exposure to my research. It has been exciting to be part of an NREN community supporting academic research and I am very grateful for the opportunity offered by this programme.”
Hanna, a brilliant young scientist from Belarus learned about the FTP when she participated in the EaPEC (Eastern Europe Partnership) Conference in Armenia in 2019. Then and there she decided to take part because, as she explained: “As a young scientist I need to know how to introduce my work in the right way.”
“The problem is that a lot of schools, especially engineering and technical schools, focus more on the content and not as much on its delivery. Being able to translate highly technical insights into language that everyone can understand and really get behind is paramount,” FTP coach Michael Koenka explains.
Nadia Sluer, FTP coordinator from GÉANT adds: “This programme focuses on the appropriate type of training. We worked in a safe collaborative environment with the students and the coach. This helped the students to come up with better ideas for their presentations and help them to overcome doubts, shyness and fear.”
FTP participant Federico Mason (GARR) confirms: “The best thing about the training was the opportunity to interact with other participants with similar goals. It was very useful to give and receive advice on how to prepare and give a better presentation.”
Future Talent showcases
For more on the students, and to see their video presentations, see https://learning.geant.org/future-talent-programme/
Conrad Ekisa | Hanna Karpenko | Federico Mason | Sara Raggiunto| Anna Valeria Guglielmi
For more on FTP coach Michael Koenka, see CONNECT 37.
This article is featured on CONNECT37! Read or download the full magazine here
