From Inizia Araba Campus, an initiative driven by UPV/EHU and BIC Araba, we had the privilege of embarking on a unique experience: a journey to the heart of innovation and science at CERN Ideasquare. For almost a week, 12 students from Álava and/or UPV/EHU’s Álava Campus, from different university degrees, participated in an adventure that combined creativity, learning, and teamwork in an incredibly inspiring environment.

An Interdisciplinary Community

The participants came from diverse disciplines, including engineering, sciences, economics, and physical activity and sports, among others. This diversity enriched every working session and enabled an interdisciplinary approach to the challenges posed. The ability to bring together such different perspectives was, without a doubt, one of the keys to the program’s success.

The Goal: Thinking ‘Outside the Box’ and Innovating for a Better Future

CERN Ideasquare welcomed us with the challenge of becoming more aware of our data consumption, including mobile phones, social media, the cloud, email, and more. To tackle this, we established the first human base on exoplanet Qoppa and defined its habitability over the next 10 years, considering how to allocate data resources in three key areas: education, operations, and the planet’s culture. After presenting our solutions, we moved on to the second challenge. This time, knowing that by 2027 AI will consume the same amount of energy Spain uses to power itself in that year, or that ChatGPT’s daily energy consumption equals that of 180,000 households in the U.S., we designed a plan to manage data center energy more sustainably.

Additionally, we had the luxury of speaking with great minds like Robert Cailliau, one of the founders of the World Wide Web, who talked to us about pre-calculator measurements and refreshed our knowledge of logarithms; or debating life and physics with Pablo García Tello, director of new initiatives and European projects at CERN.

Returning every year is a unique opportunity. Thank you to the CERN Ideasquare team for welcoming us so warmly.

El objetivo: pensar ‘fuera de la caja’ e innovar para un futuro mejor

El CERN Ideasquare nos recibió con el reto de ser más conscientes sobre el consumo de datos en nuestros móviles, RRSS, la nube, email… Para ello, establecimos la primera base humana en el exoplanet Qoppa y definimos su habitabilidad de aquí a 10 años, teniendo en cuenta cuántos recursos de datos podemos almacenar, divididos en tres grupos sobre la educación, otro en las operaciones y otro en la cultura del planeta. Una vez presentamos las soluciones, pasamos al reto dos. En este caso, siendo conscientes de que por 2027, la IA usará la misma energía que utiliza España para alumbrarse ese año o que el uso de energía diario de ChatGPT es el mismo al de 180.000 hogares en Estados Unidos, diseñamos un plan para gestionar de manera más sostenible la energía de los data centers.

Además, tuvimos el lujo de conversar con grandes mentes como la de Robert Cailliau, uno de los fundadores de la World Wide Web, que nos habló de las mediciones antes de las calculadoras y repasamos nuestros conocimientos de logaritmos; o debatimos sobre la vida y la física con Pablo García Tello, director de nuevas iniciativas y proyectos europeos en el CERN.

Volver cada año es una oportunidad única. Gracias al equipo de CERN Ideasquare por acogernos tan bien.