The "Bojos per la Física" initiative allows 20-25 students to interact during 10 work sessions with researchers from ICN2, IFAE, UAB, ICMAB, ICFO and ALBA Synchrotron. Our shared objective is to design a challenging experience for the students and offer them some hints about what does being a researcher in physics mean. 

In 2017, the ICMAB participated with a session with a lot of "energy", in which solar cells and batteries were the stars. The researchers in charge were Antonio Sánchez, from the NANOPTO group, and Roberta Verrelli, from the Solid State Chemistry group. In 2018, the topic of our session was piezoelectricity and magnetism, with Ferran Macià, Ignasi Fina and Marc Font from the MULFOX group (Laboratory of Multifunctional Thin Films and Complex Structures).

Figure: Jordi Faraudo, Anna May Masnou and Ignasi Fina during the online session of "Bojos per la Física"

In 2019, like this year 2020, the session was focused on piezoelectric materials and on molecular simulation. Ignasi Fina, from the MULFOX group, and Jordi Faraudo, from the Softmatter Theory and Simulation group, were in charge of the 25 secondary school students from 1r BTX, who joined the online session on Saturday, 13 June 2020 from 9:30 am to 2 pm.

The session started with a brief introduction about the ICMAB and its research, by Anna May, Communication & Outreach Officer at ICMAB. Then, Ignasi Fina explained them the properties of piezoelectric materials, focusing on their practical applications on counting cars on the street or in a parking lot. Finally, Jordi Faraudo introduced them to molecular simulations showing as an example the Spike protein of the coronavirus. The students asked a lot of questions, regarding the new concepts they learnt, and also about career paths and science live. 

Thank you to Ignasi Fina and Jordi Faraudo for participating in this initiative, to Anna May Masnou for coordinating the session, and thank you to all the students who joined us in this online session! We would also like to thank you Ana de la Osa and Àlex Argemí, from  the ICN2, and Sebastián Grinschpun, from IFAE, for coordinating this initiative.

Read here more information and calendar of Bojos per la Física.

The programme of this year's edition is:

• La física de partícules al detector ATLAS de l’LHC
• Treballant amb electrons
• Caos i Complexitat a la Natura
• El paper dels sensors i sensors de paper
• Cosmologia observacional
• Visita al Sincrotró ALBA
• Simulacions d'àtoms ultrafreds
• L'aigua sobre les superfícies nanoestructurades
• L’astrofísica amb dades dels telescopis MAGIC de la Palma
• Tecnologies de detecció de partícules
• Del BIT al QUBIT: Criptografia Quàntica i el test de Bell
• Nanomaterials: del laboratori al carrer
• Nanoelectrònica
• El fenomen trivial no existeix
• Descobreix el poder de la fotònica
• Anàlisi d’observacions astronòmiques