Hanneke Velthuijsen (HvA): Happy Minds – A high impact stress reduction method for mental & emotional well-being in urban education
In today’s society, children are increasingly experiencing stress. They face social-emotional problems more often than ever before. A promising solution to this issue appears to be mindfulness and SEL (Social-Emotional Learning). These practices teach children from an early age how to cope with feelings, emotions, and tension, benefiting them throughout their lives and also benefiting society. While mindfulness is gaining ground in education, it has not yet been implemented systematically for entire classrooms, despite its proven effectiveness. Therefore, the goal is to introduce an evidence-based method from abroad and implement it in the Netherlands, teaching children how to be happy and maintain their happiness.
Sara Geven (UvA): On track: a scientifically-informed ability tracking procedure to enhance equal learning opportunities Students in the Netherlands are allocated to different educational tracks at the age of twelve based on their teacher’s recommendation. Studies show students from disadvantaged backgrounds receive less ambitious track recommendations. Even within the same school, teachers use different tracking […]
Matteo Mazzanti (UvA): Novel quantum logic gates architecture with trapped ions and optical tweezers There are complex problems that classical computers struggle to solve. For example, route optimization, drug design, and material discovery all require extraordinary computational power. Quantum computers are central in the solution to this problem. However, today’s quantum computers are difficult to […]
Pepijn van Rutten and Edcel Salumbides (VU): Respira: a laughing gas breath sensor to reduce accidents on the road Traffic accidents caused by driving under the influence of laughing gas have increased more than ten-fold in the past few years. This leads to more than 100 severe injuries and sadly, more than 20 deaths in […]