Photo caption: Prof Joseph Borg sharing his findings on space biomedical research to a group of around thirty students.
On Wednesday 26 April 2023, the Julian’s Pathfinder Foundation launched the Julian’s Tech Talks in collaboration with the University of Malta with a view to providing engaging tertiary level STEM content to high ability secondary school students. The first of these series of talks on ‘How Can Space Research Help Biology and the Science of Life’, was delivered by Prof. Joseph Borg from the Faculty of Health Sciences and was hosted by Danielle Martine Farrugia who is responsible for the University’s science engagement initiatives. The talk was received with much enthusiasm by the students, who were very inspired by Prof. Borg and could not stop asking questions!
Prof. Pierre Schembri Wismayer and Prof. Jean Calleja Agius from the Faculty of Medicine and Surgery are lining up a series of speakers of one-hour talks on various Biomedical and Life Science themes which will be held on the last Wednesday of every month at 16.30. Discussions are also underway with the Chamber of Engineers, the Faculty of Engineering and the Chemistry Department to line up similar monthly talks. Our vision is to ramp up this initiative to have weekly sessions in various STEM topics alternating between various topics including Biomedical / Life Sciences, Physics / Engineering / Architecture, Chemistry / Pharmacy and Computer Science / AI / IT / Maths. The idea behind these talks is for the University to reach out to the brightest young minds on the island and ignite their passion on STEM subjects. Anyone interested in delivering a session is asked to contact Danielle Martine Farrugia by sending her an email.
The Julian’s Pathfinder Foundation also organises the Julian’s Tech Startup Challenge - an annual four-day residential startup bootcamp for secondary school students. The theme for last year’s camp was ‘Bionic Inventions’ led by Prof. Schembri Wismayer, and this year the theme is ‘Exploring the Power of AI’ led by Artificial Intelligence student Celine Suban. This year the Julian’s Pathfinder Foundation also launched Julian’s InventaLand - a series of monthly STEM sessions for gifted children aged 5 to 10. The Foundation was set up in memory of Julian Spiteri - a second year University student who lost his life tragically in April 2021.
