Dylan Returns From Barcelona

Dylan Sanusi-Goh has recently returned from the Barcelona International Youth Science Challenge, held over July 10 to 21, 2017. He was one of ninety selected from a pool of international applicants to attend the unique research based challenge opportunity.

BIYSC is organised by the Catalunya La Pedrera Foundation, which aims to promote scientific endeavours through areas of STEM knowledge, education and research in the global community.

The two-week excellence program aims to stimulate scientific talent by allowing participants to tackle different scientific and technological challenges proposed by international research centers based in Catalonia.

“A major component of BIYSC is the opportunity to spend time working and performing immersive research in a research centre in Catalonia. I was lucky enough to be offered a place at the Institut de Fisica d’Altes Energies (IFAE) – the Institute of High Energy Physics stationed in the Autonomous University of Barcelona.

I worked alongside researchers to design, engineer, construct and evaluate a multi wire plane gas ionization cosmic ray detection chamber.

The most enjoyable and beneficial parts of this experience were learning the advanced theory related to particle physics, applying that knowledge in an engineering based project, physically soldering and assembling the unit and finally testing the chamber.

On the software side, I could use various programming techniques and data science related tools to analyse the data of incoming cosmic rays and implement features such as noise filtering and signal enhancements, which allowed us to more accurately identify specific types of phenomena, clean up signals and filter noise.

At the end our team had the opportunity to present our final findings at the closing ceremony, and will further write a scientific report over the next few months to properly compile our research ideas and conclusions.

Furthermore, I got to hear from leading researchers, scientists and other students in a variety of fields and participate in workshops, lectures and discussions with the global community relating to genetic engineering, scientific communication, illustration, entrepreneurship and data science.

Participants came from 8 different European countries and 10 International ones, and I gained a valuable opportunity to network and learn much more about differences in culture, lifestyle and STEM support and how it varies all around the world. The experience was unlike anything I’ve participated I before, and I’ve formed friendships and professional bonds from all over the world!

I was also able to successfully receive grant funding from the Australian Government to support my research opportunity, and I sincerely thank Mr Peter Corkill, Dr Linda McIver, Dr Nicky Ringland, Ms Allison Galloway, Ms Jayne Bowen, Mrs Shelly Burge and everyone else involved for supporting me to apply and attend this unique life changing experience.”

Dylan Sanusi-Goh