On 30th July and 3rd August, a series of sessions titled Innovations in Science and Georgia’s Competitive Fields and Directions were held for the students of the KIU-GITA Innovation and Startup Acceleration Summer School. Sessions were organized by the Academia Europaea Tbilisi Regional Centre, Ivane Javakhisvhili Tbilisi State University, the Georgian National Museum, and Kutaisi International University (KIU) with the support of the Ministry of Education, Science and Youth of Georgia.
Opening remarks were made by the Rector of the KIU, Prof. Giorgi Khubua, Academic Director of the Academia Europaea Tbilisi Hub and General Director of the Georgian National Museum, Prof. David Lordkipanidze and KIU Chancellor, Ms. Magda Magradze.
During the sessions, moderated by Prof. David Lordkipanidze, students had an opportunity to hear from the leading scientists of various fields about the connection between modern technologies and science, culture, climate change, and other challenges of today.
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The meetings aimed to present modern scientific standards on the examples of specific, international, and multidisciplinary research projects and demonstrate the importance and role of modern technologies in those particular projects.
On the 30th July lecture of the Director of the Rathgen Research Laboratory with the National Museums Berlin, Prof. Stefan Simon was concerned to Climate Change and Cultural Heritage. He talked about the challenges that museums face when creating appropriate conditions for museum objects in relation to climate change and discussed how Germany is trying to respond to those challenges by using modern technologies.
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Senior Researcher of the Georgian National Museum, Prof. Ann Margvelashvili talked about the use of modern digital technologies in bordering sciences such as paleontology, archaeology, and clinical medicine on the example of the archaeological site of Dmanisi and hominins unearthed there dating back 1.8 million years, that often are represented at the covers of the leading scientific and science-popular publications. As for the Researcher of the Georgian National Museum, Dr. Giorgi Bedianashvili – talked about the entanglement of past and new technologies and explained how archaeologists use modern technologies to study one of the most important periods of human history, the Bronze Age on the example of the Bronze Age Rabati Settlement in Southwest of Georgia.
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On 3rd August at the auditorium of the Kutaisi International University students had a chance to attend a seminar by the Professor of Lund University, Neuroscientist, Zaal Kokaia, who talked about modern technologies in neuroscience. It was interesting for the students to learn that genetic engineering, cell reprogramming, and microfluidic chips are used in neuroscience for modeling diseases. Prof. Zaal Kokaia’s lecture was naturally continued by the seminar of the Professor of Ivane Javakhisvhili Tbilisi State University, Neurologist, Alexander Tsiskaridze, who talked about the use of modern technologies in clinical neurology, such as dissolving the clots and extraction of it from the blood vessel, or detection of the disease at its early stage, giving the chance of a full recovery to a patient.
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Honorary Professor of the Pasteur Institute, Paris, Virologist David Prangishvili took the students on a journey across the world of viruses and time. He discussed the potential of viruses to be the source of technological advancement – Ahead to the Past: Revisiting the Past as the Key to Future Technological Innovations was the title of his lecture. Prof. Prangishvili underlined the future of phages that have a longlisting tradition in Georgia and were named among the most promising future technologies at the World Economic Forum in 2023.
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Lecture of the Professor of Ivane Javakhishvili Tbilisi State University, lawyer Lado Chantudia was a little different: he, as the Judge of the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg discussed information technologies, artificial intellect, and human rights in the case law of the Court of Strasbourg on the examples of interesting cases.
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Students spent the second half of the day at the “field” – in the Vani Archaeological Museum, they had a chance to witness all that they had heard during the previous days with their own eyes and make parallels between the ways of communication of the cultural heritage and use of modern technologies. But until than they attended three more sessions at the modern auditorium of the Vani Archaeological Museum: Professor of the University of Florence, Vertebrate Palaeontologist Lorenzo Rook discussed modern technologies and paleontology with the students, though, if a few days before main characters of Prof. Ann Margvelashvili’s lecture were hominins from Dmanisi, Prof. Lorenzo Rook presented 1.8 million years old canine family members and showed the images of five ideally preserved skulls that were studded with the modern technologies: “though, unfortunately, they have not yet ended up at the cover of the Science Magazine, unlike to hominins,” – joked he in the end.
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Transforming Heritage into Competitiveness of Georgia – was the title of the joint seminar given by Prof. David Lordkipanidze and the President of the America-Georgia Business Council and Adjunct Professor at American University in Washington D.C., Mamuka Tsereteli. Speakers believe that Georgia is a perfect place to study an unexplored space of a strategic connection between heritage, transdisciplinary scientific research of natural and cultural development, technological development and innovation, and societies' efforts to achieve sustainable improvements in human well-being.
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“We argue that modern-day Georgia offers a unique opportunity to transform research and knowledge about the natural and human heritage, into competitiveness of Georgia.” – noted Prof. David Lordkipanidze. The golden logo of the European Museum Forum shimmering at the doors of the Vani Archaeological Museum serves as obvious proof of those words – Vani Archeological Museum was awarded the prestigious Silletto Prize for Community Participation and Engagement during the 2023 European Museum of the Year Award.
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And, now students are wandering around the Vani Archaeological Museum, in the halls where modernity and past are organically blended and where the uniqueness of the Colchis civilization as well as its’ connections to its contemporary cultures is as clear as a sunny day. Students see that this Country has never been isolated from the rest of the world and everything is getting clear now, stories heard during those days are becoming more coherent and grounded. They understand that in any field and any epoch, before and now important steps are possible to make only with local or international collaboration and an interdisciplinary approach to the subject of investigation.
New ideas are already emerging: is it possible to invent new ways of communication, for example? Ways that will enable them to pass the knowledge gained during those several days to others with the new and contemporary tools by using technologies that they are studying now? They could think of a way that would be more acceptable and interesting for their generation. Scientists accept their ideas with great pleasure: – Of course – they say – this was exactly why we came to you, let’s collaborate.
Indeed, as it was noted many times during these days, the ways of teaching have long gone beyond the process of imperative transfer of information. The only way of passing knowledge nowadays is through cooperation and finding common interests.
Academia Europaea Tbilisi Regional Centre is ready to collaborate with Youth. Hopefully, they are too. There is an exciting path ahead.
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