Can students help make life at CERN more pleasant?
A conversation with Mar Capéans on encouraging students to design 'tiny projects' that shall make CERN employees’ lives better.
Working at CERN since 1992, Mar Capéans was the first person to appoint a physical space for IdeaSquare at CERN. "Back then it wasn't even called IdeaSquare”, she explains, “we used detector assembly space of the Detector Technologies Group in the Experimental Physics department, which was located at Building 16/153, and we even prototyped the iconic London bus painting red some wood barracks". Since then, she has hosted and participated in multiple European TALENT projects and experiments in what she describes as "one of the most inspirational facilities I’ve ever experienced". In the close future, she plans on IdeaSquare to develop design thinking projects which should "make CERN a prettier, more comfortable and sustainable place."
"I have taken great profit of IdeaSquare along its evolution, both from its infrastructure and its brainpower."
Mar Capéans is a heavy user of IdeaSquare from the very beginning. Her initial fascination for this space is still palpable today. “One day I was working on a radiation sensors project and one of our members came up with a brilliant idea that we didn't know how to frame. I went directly to IdeaSquare and, in half an hour, Pablo García Tello came down the corridor with a proposal —and a feasible funding option!”. “The project turned out to be highly successful, and from that day on, we started to use the IdeaSquare facilities for everything: from meetings, to exchanging ideas, to light prototype projects, to visits with clients.”
Mar bursts with beautiful memories of her long-time relationship with IdeaSquare. “Another time, I was organizing the Spanish edition of a course called High School Students Internship Programme, a programme in which you get to host the 24 best students of a country and embed them in different research projects at CERN. It's a course where students combine very high-level lectures with hands-on experiments”, she explains. “I sent one of the groups to work at IdeaSquare. What happened was that, after seeing the place, all 24 students only wanted to work at IdeaSquare”. They simply “fell in love with its stimulating vibes”. “This is the time I have most clearly seen the power of IdeaSquare.”
"IdeaSquare is a very comfortable, neutral space where you can bring students, academics, industry stakeholders, etc. and everyone will identify something for them."
When asked about the future of IdeaSquare, Mar has a bunch of ideas in store. “I would like to start working with IdeaSquare on small projects that will enhance the life of the CERN community”. “I mean things like building smarter battery recycling containers, designing fancier and sustainable ID cards to access the site, buildings and campus services, etc.”. She believes IdeaSquare students could easily do the task “with a fresh, out-of-the-box approach”. Her plan is to shape this initiative in the form of “Design Thinking hackathons or interactive three-day workshops”, a kind of innovation events IdeaSquare is well acquainted with. “It would be a great way to make students give something back to the people who instill knowledge on them”, she concludes.
"I believe the 'prototyping culture' is key, and IdeaSquare rapid prototyping facilities will be crucial to test and accelerate innovation for sustainability at CERN ".
Mar Capéans is the current Head of the Site and Civil Engineering Department. She is a Doctor in Physics and is specialized in particle detectors R&D and construction for accelerators. MBA in Management of Technology. She has worked at CERN for almost 30 years and was the first person to give IdeaSquare a physical space at CERN.
At IdeaSquare, Mar run one of the first EU projects hosted at IdeaSquare (TALENT), which set the baseline for the Challenge-Based Innovation Programme pilot.