IOC+ASP2024 LOC Meeting

Europe/Zurich
Bobby Samir Acharya (Abdus Salam Int. Cent. Theor. Phys. (IT)), Christine Darve (European Spallation Source), Fernando Ferroni (Sapienza Universita e INFN, Roma I (IT)), Ketevi Adikle Assamagan (Brookhaven National Laboratory (US)), Mounia Laassiri (University of Helsinki)
Zoom Meeting ID
67482621410
Description
IOC meetings
Host
Ketevi Adikle Assamagan
Alternative hosts
Mounia Laassiri, Christine Darve
Useful links
Join via phone
Zoom URL

 

Present: Ann, Sanae, Farida, Mohamed, Kenneth, Obinna, Mounia, Christine, Ulrich, Lawrence, Funmi, Abdekbarim, Gopolang, and Kétévi

Action items / Salient points from the meeting on December 12, 2023

  1. Comments of the ASP2024 poster were addressed and a new version submitted.
  2. Site visit data of April 15-19, 2024 confirmed. As discussed earlier, it should start in Marrakesh, then Rabat. However, the timetable will depend on the availabilty of university and government officials. The LOC will follow up and provide feedback.
  3. Funding. International funding campaign by the IOC on-going. For fundoing sources within Morocco, the LOC has contacted the Ministry of Education and is expecting a feedback and an audience soon, to discuss coverage for ASP2024.
  4. Housing for students. So far, 35 double occupancy rooms have been secured for 70 students. The possibility to extend to 50 rooms for 100 students is under discussion. The LOC will provide feedback.
  5. Catering. The housing mentioned above includes half-catering for breakfasts and dinners. For lunches and coffee breaks, the LOC provided another estimate from a different service provider. We suggest that LOC seeks 3 estimates with an effort to get the lunch cost to within $10 per person.
  6. Visas: the LOC to identify one member from the ranks to liaise with the Ministry of African Affairs, for the purpose of easing visa applications for African students and lecturers that will need visa.
  7. Students Program. We need to do more outreach to increase the number of applications. We shared the link to the application website and encouraged everyone to disseminate through their networks. We also looked at the database of applications, the database that will be accessible to the selection committee during the application review, evalution and selection.
  8. Teachers Program. The LOC to work with the Ministry of Education, the Academy and other relevant officials to select 80 teachers from all over Morocco. The selected teachers should arrive at the venue on Sunday July 7 and depart on Friday or Saturday July 12 or 13. Coverage for teachers participation should be given the Ministry of Education or the branch of the government responsible for teachers' affairs. The LOC should work on the housing and catering for teachers too. The LOC should appoint members of their ranks to follow up on the logistics for teachers. 
  9. The High school outreach program: we suggest to consider 2 high school outreach programs—one during the site visit, April 15-19, 2024 when pupils will still be in school. This should draw a larger number of pupils participation of up to 250 learners per 4-hour session (morning / afternoon). The LOC should appoint members of their ranks to be responsible for the logistics of the learners program: discussions with the regional and school officials, selection of the participating high schools, selections of the high school students, and transportation arrangements to / from the venues. We raised the urgency to make progress on the logistics, considering the short time scale from now till April 15, 2024. A second high school outreach may be considered during the week of July 15-19, 2024 (the second week of ASP2024) for learners that will be available and that would not have participated in the program during the site visit. 
  10. The meetings will be bi-weekly. The next one will be on December 26.
There are minutes attached to this event. Show them.
    • 18:00 18:15
      General 15m

      To be discussed today:

          Poster
          Site visit, date: April 15-19, 2024
          Funding
          Housing
          Catering
          Visas
      

      Airport transfers and local transportation
      Computing
      Internet connectivity
      Lecture halls / experimental labs
      etc.

    • 18:15 18:30
      Students Program 15m

      To be discussed today:

         Applications, to apply, student should go here: https://indico.ictp.it/event/10493
         Application database https://e-applications.ictp.it/management/loggedin/home_page/selection
         Selection Committee: interested in reviewing student applications, let us know.
      

      Scientific Program

    • 18:30 18:45
      Teachers Program 15m

      Event date: July 8-12, 2024
      Selection of Teachers
      Housing and catering for teachers
      Program of activities for teachers

    • 18:45 19:00
      High School Students Program 15m

      dates of events: April 15-19, 2024 & July 15-19, 2024 or only July 15-19, 2024?
      Participating high schools
      selection of high school learners
      logistics for attendance
      scientific program for learners

    • 19:00 19:15
      ASP Forum 15m

      Date: Saturday, July 13, 2024
      Invitations to policymakers
      Agenda

    • 19:15 19:25
      School dinner and excursion 10m

      School dinner: date: Saturday, July 13, 2024; generally about 400 Dh, with artistic show. To be confirmed later.