Team name: DiBSiP Innovations
Team members: Diego Hugo Barrera, Silvina Carla Prieto
Challenge: Imagine the future of EU/Mercosur, towards carbon-free students' mobility, e-collaboration and networking
Challenge host: Circular Influence, Buenos Aires, Argentina
Challenge theme: Learning Spaces and Pedagogies

Solution description: 
While the COVID19 pandemic has created many issues for education, it has also exposed already existing ones. One of the activities that has been most affected by the pandemic was education and within education, the access to STEM career practices. However, this was already a problem in several countries, for instance Argentina, with more than 3M km2 in extension and with very marginal areas.

Digital education is currently based on digital content: wikis, digital platforms, simulators, etc. While these can be useful for theoretical subjects and simulated (virtual) demonstrations, the laboratory experience is irreplaceable since physical phenomena are often unrepeatable (even with the most powerful simulators on the planet).

Remote Matter Labs proposes a solution to the problem of remote STEM education, by offering lab modules prepared to be operated remotely. As opposed to virtual simulators, remotely operated laboratories allow more features to overcome the lack of an in-class laboratory equipment. Additionally, these remote labs contribute to sustainability by reducing the mobility of students to and within large urban centres, and provide accessibility to high-cost technologies to students and institutions with fewer resources.

Success can be easily measured by comparing the degree of STEM expertise developed by the students using Remote Matter Labs with those students who used in-person laboratories.

Read the full description of the solution here