In the general perception, Research and Education form a dichotomy, for it is hard to couple them into productive and virtuous cycles. At NECSTLab, we embrace such a dichotomy, pushing it further by expanding our view over a third axis: personal well-being/ness. 

We call it NECSTCamp. 
NECSTCamp is our research project to augment students’ awareness of themselves and their abilities. It bloomed from the seed idea that technical competencies are just one of the key components to personal success. Resilience – the ability to define individual goals and plan towards them – is the natural step further. Finally – so far – we add one last term to complete the equation: awareness of personal talents and limits. 

The NECSTCamp project is organized over 4 Levels bundled in 2 Phases of 2 Levels each; more in detail, each Level spans from 1 up to 3 semesters. During each Level, the participants face challenges as part of a series of activities drawn from 3 areas: Learning, Personal Well-being/ness, Research. Nutrition, sleep and psychology counsellors, coaches, research and study mentors build our expert team to assemble a holistic teaching experience. For instance, coaches challenge participants in sports activities. This experience drives their motivation to increase their adaptability and self-efficiency in the Personal Well-being/ness area. All of this encourages the participants to realize their true potential towards better knowing and accepting themselves. 

In such a context, it is paramount to provide students with an environment where they can work and experiment toward motivating challenges.

That is why each phase has its exit activity: an experience that encourages the participants to measure themselves over the skills and competencies they have become more aware of. The NECST Group Conference (NGC) is the last of these exit activities. It offers the participant the final exposure to the real world thanks to talks at outstanding companies’ headquarters and first- class universities’ laboratories and research groups.