NGCX has just finished, the tenth edition of the event organised by the DEIB NECSTLab which takes place every year in San Francisco and the Silicon Valley area.
The philosophy of NECSTLab – Novel, Emerging Computing System Technologies Laboratory – is to be not simply a computer science laboratory, but rather a life skills laboratory. A laboratory which in addition to equipping students with the technological and scientific skills expected from Italy’s leading technical university, also works on their awareness and enables them to grow by learning their limits and capabilities, takes them out of their comfort zone and prepares them practically for the world of work and, to some degree, life itself.
To meet this objective, NECST provides a number of opportunities: conferences, contacts with companies, internships and visits to other universities. But every year since 2011 the most important event is the NECST Group Conference, which is a disrupting experience for the students. Two weeks on the other side of the world, in the locations that symbolise their passions, faced with the responsibility of preparing a speech, presenting to an audience in English and visiting the companies they dream of working for.
In 2019, 39 men and 13 women, students on Laurea courses (equivalent to Bachelor of Science), Laurea Magistrale courses (equivalent to Master of Science) and research PhD programmes from 8 different study courses held 124 talks, took part in 3 conferences and published 6 papers. They visited 17 companies, 2 universities (Berkeley and Stanford) and 5 different locations, including the Consulate General of Italy in San Francisco. 3 universities were involved: the Politecnico di Milano, the Università degli Studi di Modena e Reggio Emilia and the Scuola Superiore Sant’Anna. Also involved were 2 laboratories, NECSTLab and Hipert-Lab, and 2 student associations, JEMP and POLI.RADIO.
Accompanying the students was a team of specialists from NECSTCamp, another innovative project developed by NECST in 2017. Two trainers, a nutritionist, two psychologists to support the individuals and strengthen group dynamics and a sleep monitoring programme for a holistic approach to personal development. A 10 km Polimirun run in 3 different cities, 7 CrossFit training sessions, 4 cooking workshops and 3 collective meetings.
Next up NGC 2020!
