EPFL will be involved in Switzerland's first Digital Day
© 2017 EPFL
On 21 November, digitalswitzerland will organize this country’s first Digital Day with events in Zurich, Geneva, Lugano and Chur, as well as on EPFL's campus. Over 40 supporting partners will be joined that day by Swiss President Doris Leuthard and Federal Councilors Johann Schneider-Ammann and Alain Berset.
What does digitization mean for Switzerland and the Swiss people? The country’s first-ever Digital Day will attempt to answer that question. EPFL is teaming up with more than 40 other companies and organizations in support of the event, which will put digitization’s many impacts and repercussions into stark relief and remind the public how these technological advances change society, the economy and the way we live. People will also gain a better grasp of the digital revolution in its many forms through hands-on experience. “Digital Day is not some feel-good event, it’s a demonstration of digitization and the enormous potential it has to offer. The Swiss people will come away from the event more fully aware that they are living at a time of unprecedented change and that Switzerland offers remarkable conditions in which this field can grow and develop,” says Marc Walder, who created digitalswitzerland.
Digitization experts will engage with the public at the Zurich, Geneva, Chur and Lugano train stations. EPFL will participate through a number of demonstrations in Zurich and Geneva. Closer to home, EPFL’s Science Outreach Department will put together a series of on-campus activities for children in fifth to eleventh grades. They include an introduction to visual programming with Thymio, programming an mBot robot and visits to the Bolo Museum and ArtLab.