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The PaGES 9 project kicked off at the CERIC premises in Trieste

On Monday, February 24th, the kick-off meeting of the PaGES 9 project took place at the CERIC premises in Trieste.

Marina Coricciati, CERIC project officer, welcomed participants with an introduction to PaGES and the work plan. The scientific staff from CERIC and its Italian and Austrian facilities (Francesco D’Amico, Sumea Klokic, Benedetta Marmiroli and Chiaramaria Stani) went through the scientific topics that will be addressed throughout the project implementation together with the teachers of the four scientific schools involved in this 9th edition of the project*.

In particular, this year the multidisciplinary experimental activity that pupils will carry out, foresees the use of multiple laboratories, each of which is specialised in a specific analysis technique. On the SAXS small angle X-ray beamline, they will be involved in a sample preparation activity and simulation of an experiment. At the DXRL deep X-ray lithography beamline, they will perform the fundamental step of the microfabrication process, based on optical lithography. They will irradiate a commercial material with the ultraviolet lamp through a mask to obtain microstructures that are expected to have a chemical composition depending on whether the microstructure has been illuminated by UV radiation. After irradiation, the material will be transported to other laboratories and measured with infrared spectroscopy and Raman spectroscopy techniques, to understand which changes occur in the chemical composition of the material when it is exposed to ultraviolet rays. At the end of the measurement, the irradiated sample will be immersed in a special solvent to remove the unexposed part, so as to obtain raised microstructures.

In addition to the experimental activity, pupils will  also learn the basics of project and communication management in a research infrastructure – with lectures by Andrea Santelli, CERIC chief administrative officer and Nicoletta Carboni, CERIC senior communication officer, respectively. Pupils will finally have the chance to present the acquired knowledge to a wider audience of fellows at the final event that each school will organise at their sites.

*I.S.I.S. M. Buonarroti in Monfalcone, associated section Liceo Scientifico M. Buonarroti (leading school partner); I.S.I.S. D. Alighieri of the Liceo Scientifico Duca degli Abruzzi in Gorizia, I.S.I.S. della Bassa Friulana of the Liceo Scientifico A. Einstein in Cervignano del Friuli, and the Liceo Scientifico Statale N. Copernico in Udine).