CARLA camp Bratislava

The CARLA Camp Bratislava was organised on 11, 12 and 13 October 2022 by the Slovak Centre of Scientific and Technical Information – International Laser Centre at the Slovak University of Technology in Bratislava, Faculty of Informatics and Information Technologies, Slovak Republic in hybrid (in-person & virtual) format.

The Carla camp Bratislava had overall 162 participants including PhD and master students (99), early-stage researchers (16), speakers (25) and observers/organisers (20). It was the first event focusing on careers in photonics in the Slovak Republic.

The program was divided into three blocks of afternoon sessions over three consecutive days. The first day was focused on photonic careers at universities and research centres, the second day on companies/start-ups including soft skills and the third day on technology transfer and European research infrastructures.

The student participants could interact with representatives from 13 companies and 8 research labs, through guided networking within coffee breaks and free networking during dinners all three evenings that took place at the Slovak University of Technology in Bratislava.

The feedback from student participants and speakers was positive. The master student participants of the camp positively evaluated the knowledge gained about the possibilities of a PhD study of photonics in Slovakia and in Europe.