Public events @ S3 2025
Official events
Open day

Come and take a look 👀
Lectures
Dr. Leonardo Pierobon, Society for Out-of-Frame Education / Persona Academica, Croatia
| 22 July 2025 @ 14:30 CEST
Nanoengineered Magnets: A New Perspective through Interdisciplinary Research
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Dr. Leonardo Pierobon, Society for Out-of-Frame Education / Persona Academica, Croatia | 22 July 2025 @ 14:30 CEST
Nanoengineered Magnets: A New Perspective through Interdisciplinary Research
In this lecture, you will learn about the importance of interdisciplinary approach in scientific research. Firstly, I will introduce you to the basics of magnetism and the essential role of magnets in key future technologies, such as electric vehicles and the production of green electricity. Then I will explain why conventional research has reached its limit in developing new magnets, and how I used an interdisciplinary approach combining exciting methods like electron microscopy, atom-probe tomography and micromagnetic simulations to investigate and nanoengineer magnetic materials. Finally, I will show you surprising new features I have discovered, such as magnetic vortices in SmCo magnets, and how these can be used to improve current magnetic materials.

Dr. Leonardo Pierobon
Society for Out-of-Frame Education / Persona Academica, Croatia
Leonardo is a passionate educator and an activist for a greener future and human rights. He studied Natural Sciences at the University of Cambridge, specializing in Quantum Physics. He then proceeded to do his PhD in Materials Science at ETH Zurich, investigating the fascinating world of nanomagnetism. Since 2021, he has been running his own company for academic consulting, working with clients and students from all over the world. Leonardo has been involved in the organization of S3 since 2016 and is the current president of the Society for Out-of-Frame Education. He is also politically engaged, advocating for better and more accessible education, a faster transition to renewable energies, and building a more inclusive and tolerant society.
Dr. Krešimir Šola, VIB-UGent Centre for Plant Systems Biology, Ghent University, Belgium
| 23 July 2025 @ 14:30 CEST
Putting Nature’s Chemists to Work: Applications and Engineering of Plant Metabolism
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Dr. Krešimir Šola, VIB-UGent Centre for Plant Systems Biology, Ghent University, Belgium | 23 July 2025 @ 14:30 CEST
Putting Nature’s Chemists to Work: Applications and Engineering of Plant Metabolism
Plants produce a wide variety of complex chemicals that appear in small amounts in healthy plants but are produced in response to challenges from the environment, such as infections. These chemicals are called specialised metabolites, and we have found uses for them in industries ranging from pharmaceuticals and food to cosmetics. In the first part of the lecture, we will look at some interesting cases of how plant metabolites are used and how their uses were first discovered. These chemicals are often complex and difficult to synthesise in laboratories, so we currently rely on plants to produce them for us. We will examine the science behind metabolic engineering, which involves discovering genes and enzymes directly involved in the production of metabolites, as well as genes and proteins that regulate when those metabolic pathways are switched on. Once we understand metabolism and its regulation, we can apply this knowledge to engineer plants that produce more of the high-value specialised metabolites. In the second part of the lecture, we will examine the general idea behind plant metabolic engineering and explore different strategies we can use to achieve this goal.

Dr. Krešimir Šola
VIB-UGent Centre for Plant Systems Biology, Ghent University, Belgium
Krešimir is a Marie Skłodowska-Curie Postdoctoral Fellow at the Flemish Institute for Biotechnology (VIB) in Ghent (Belgium). He did his BSc in biology at the University of Zagreb (Croatia), followed by a PhD at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver (Canada) where he studied plant cell walls. Following three years of postdoctoral research on metabolism of green leaf volatiles and their roles in communication between plants at the University of Amsterdam (the Netherlands), he joined VIB where he currently works on regulation and engineering of plant specialised metabolism. His current scientific interests revolve around plant metabolites – how they are made, how their production is regulated, and why they are made at all.
Dr. Ivan Barun, MD, MA (Arts), MSc (Psychology), University Psychiatric Hospital Sveti Ivan, Croatia
| 28 July 2025 @ 14:30 CEST
Neuroscience of Creativity and How to Unlock It
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Dr. Ivan Barun, MD, MA (Arts), MSc (Psychology), University Psychiatric Hospital Sveti Ivan, Croatia | 28 July 2025 @ 14:30 CEST
Neuroscience of Creativity and How to Unlock It
What exactly is creativity – and why is it so important, not only in art, but also in science, technology, and everyday life? How does our brain generate new ideas, connect distant concepts, and arrive at insights that change the world? In this lecture, we will explore creativity as a fundamental human ability, examine the function of the prefrontal cortex and other brain regions involved in the creative process, and consider why dopamine is crucial for those “aha!” moments. Contemporary cognitive neuroscience shows that creative thinking is the result of dynamic collaboration between different neural networks – some linked to introspection and imagination, others to focus and the evaluation of ideas. In an interactive and experiential setting, we’ll also discuss how to boost our own creativity, why scientists are often also artists, and why creative thinking is essential for solving the complex problems of the future.

Dr. Ivan Barun, MD, MA (Arts), MSc (Psychology)
University Psychiatric Hospital Sveti Ivan, Croatia
Ivan is a psychiatrist, visual artist, and expressive arts therapist whose work bridges medicine and creativity. Currently based at the University Psychiatric Hospital Sveti Ivan in Zagreb, he combines clinical psychiatry with body-oriented psychotherapy and art therapy, working with different patient populations and focusing especially on LGBTQIA+ mental health. Ivan graduated medicine at School of Medicine in Zagreb and fine arts at Academy of Fine Arts in Zagreb. He has published and presented extensively on the therapeutic role of the arts. He is also an exhibiting artist and former editor-in-chief of Skica, a magazine dedicated to art and culture.
Workshops
Reducing Waste in the Fashion Industry Through Computer Vision
Clothing is one of the most visible parts of our daily lives, but behind the scenes, the fashion industry is also one of the most wasteful. Consider this: online retailers report that up to 30% of clothing purchases are returned, contributing to massive waste, from excess shipping to discarded garments. Artificial intelligence has the potential to transform fashion throughout the production chain. It can simplify the design process, help optimize fabric usage and visualize outfits for customers before buying. The key to these innovations? Computer vision, the technology that allows machines to "see" and understand images.
In this swapshop, we will break down the science behind computer vision and generative AI, experiment with pre-trained models, and evaluate their real-world usefulness. You’ll even apply these tools to two key challenges. The first is Virtual Try-Off, where we want to generate clean product images from model photos. The second is Virtual Try-On where we aim to transfer garments between people in images. By the end, you’ll understand how AI could make fashion more sustainable and where the tech still falls short.


Petra Bevandić
Faculty of Technology, University of Bielefeld, Germany
Petra is a post-doc at the Faculty of Technology at the University of Bielefeld. Her research is in the field of image analysis, primarily of road driving images. She focuses on improving model robustness for real-world applications. Currently, she is trying to figure out how to automatically connect visual concepts across multiple datasets to train general-purpose models. Outside of work, she enjoys crafts, classic movies, books, yoga, and pub quizzes.