From 20 to 22 October 2015, WICPCAD PhD fellow Basanta Thapa was invited as one of 40 students, young researchers and entrepreneurs from all over Europe to participate in the European Commission’s ICT 2015 Student Outreach Program. ICT 2015 is this year’s edition of the European Commission’s biennial conference on policies and initiatives as well as research and innovation in information and communication technologies in the European Union. Hosted in Lisbon’s Centro de Congressos, the conference had more than 150 exhibitors and 7000 registered participants.
Presentations and exhibitions at the conference included findings from EU-sponsored ICT research projects, upcoming funding opportunities under the Horizon 2020 framework as well as goals and actions under the EU‘s Digital Agenda.
The student ambassadors reported critically on the conference sessions on social media (#ICT2015) and the conference blog, held their own workshops on questions of digitalization, and acted as a jury for the ICT 2015 Exhibition Prize. With backgrounds ranging from biomedical engineering and computer science to business administration, law and political science, the Outreach Program brought together a variety of perspectives on current trends in digitalization.
Basanta Thapa especially benefited from the various networking sessions on public sector modernization, Big Data, and Smart Cities, as his PhD deals with the Institutionalization of Big Data in the public administrations of European metropolitan governments.