Science will be honoured from the 19th to the 22nd of November 2009. For the third year running, a Village des Sciences (Science Village) will be set up in the Parc des Expositions in Caen (hall n°1). Baptised “Village 2.0″, this year it will be inviting a pool of the region’s most innovative businesses. Village 2.0.

Welcome to the world of scientific innovation. Across a total of 4,000m2 and via an original scenography, the region’s key research teams will be meeting with the public over 4 days. The region’s scientific community responded favourably to the Ministry’s national call for projects, launched this year within the framework of the Science Fair’s revised organisation. Initiated by Relais d’Sciences, Lower Normandy’s Scientific, Technical and Industrial Culture Centre (CCSTI), “Village 2.0″ is one of six selected projects throughout France. Thirty public research laboratories and twenty innovative businesses will be reunited within the same venue. Be they recently incubated or highly developed and established locally, these businesses all have at least one thing in common - technological innovation. One by one, they will be taking advantage of their presence at the village to show the public demonstrations, experiments or prototypes, representative of their skills and knowledge.
“The aim of the event is to bring private research to the attention of the general public and to illustrate the strong link between research and innovation,” explains Bruno Piquet, in charge of research development at GANIL. The institutional players involved in the region’s innovation and economic development having enabled the exhibiting businesses to be identified and approached will also be present. New technologies serving mediation Within the village, no more interminable lines of stands or conference tables. Instead, the village will be arranged and staged to facilitate contact between researchers and the public. “By using a metallic structure similar to those used in the performing arts (light bridge), the village has no rigid partitions, hence offering the public the opportunity to roam free throughout its four themed exhibition areas – Earth, Body, Technology and Matter,” explains Mathieu Debar, the Relais d’Science coordinator at the Village. In addition, the structure can also be used to install 30 giant screens.
On the highest, 100 portraits of the region’s scientists (a continuation of the “Portraits de Science” operation launched last year, with the addition of 50 new portraits). The lowest screens will be used by research teams for slide projections, films, photographs… Consequently, new technologies will be largely called upon to serve scientific mediation. Over and above these giant screens, the Village will be welcoming an interactive bar (the surface of the counter reacts to hand movement and glasses), a 3-D sound immersion system, an interactive multi-touch table… And the presence of a TV set will enable a programme of interviews with researchers and business leaders to be developed and presented. The programme will be broadcast on a permanent basis on both a giant screen and the regional Science Fair’s website. Finally, within the same quest for innovative mediation, an original “Banquet de l’Evolution”, offering a medley of culinary discoveries and scientific demonstrations on the theme of evolution will be open to the public. Spotlight on public research The IRCBN – Lower Normandy Regional Cancer Institute, created in 2009, reunites the region’s cancer research teams, hitherto somewhat dispersed. It will be coordinating their research efforts on a national scale, within the framework of the government’s Cancer Plan.
All of the teams involved will be at the Village, in the “Body” theme area. The Laboratory for Continental and Coastal Morphodynamics (M2C – CNRS-UCBN laboratory) has recently acquired an extremely high performance topographic tool: the LIDAR (Airborne Lateral Laser Scanner). The instrument has propelled the laboratory into the elite circle of only a few research units equipped with such a tool across the globe. Its “touch compass” developed by Pr. Lestienne’s team, comprises a matrix of microvibrators which, when inserted in an abdominal belt, generate a tactile code in the form of directional instructions enabling the wearer to find his/her bearings, as with a GPS. The tool has a number of potential applications un the field of physical rehabilitation and land navigation. ERSAM (”historic sources, multimedia and diverse audiences” research team) aims at making bygone media sources accessible via modern multimedia technology. The team produces virtual reconstructions of historic monuments, towns, machines or tools of scientific, educational and museographical interest.

The regional Science Fair programme on line at www.fetedelascience.org
Relais d’sciences Tel: 02 31 06 60 50

Send post as PDF to