Viglen treats Bedford Academy physics students to trip of a lifetime visit to CERN laboratory in Geneva
Budding physicists from Bedford Academy are heading off to the CERN laboratory in Geneva on the school trip of a lifetime (July 17) courtesy of their school’s ICT provider Viglen.
The group of six A Level physics students, all aged 16-18, will spend a day at CERN, the European Organisation for Nuclear Research and the world’s largest particle physics laboratory. Leading physicists from universities and research facilities from around the world are based there, probing the fundamental structure of the universe and seeking answers to questions such as ‘How did the universe start and what is it made of?’
CERN's main function is to provide the particle accelerators and other infrastructure needed for high-energy physics research - as a result, numerous experiments have been constructed there. Most famously it is home to the Large Hadron Collider and birthplace of the World Wide Web.
Particle physics is a key element of the A Level Physics curriculum so the students will be able to gain firsthand experience of what they would normally see only in textbooks.
As the IT provider at Bedford Academy, Viglen recently implemented a complete £1.8m ICT solution for their new building. Commenting on the CERN trip, Viglen’s Chief Executive Bordan Tkachuk said; “We like to work in partnership with our customers and so looked at ways we could assist around the Academy’s Science and Technology specialism. We thought that this visit would significantly deepen the students’ understanding of particle physics and therefore, hopefully, have a big impact on their A level results.”
Viglen is fully funding the trip and plans to support the Academy with a range of similar activities throughout the contract period.
“I am really excited to be taking our six A level physicists to Geneva to visit the Large Hadron Collider,” said Dr Andrea BenBrahim, Bedford Academy’s Assistant Principal, Sixth Form and Specialism. “It is a fantastic opportunity that will allow them to see exactly where the headline-making experiments have been taking place and to explore the science behind it.
“It will demonstrate that what they learn in their A level lessons is only the tip of a very large iceberg in terms of understanding the origins of the universe and I'm hoping that this visit will enlighten them as to the importance and relevance of scientific research.”
Year 12 student Kamila Sala, who is going to apply to Cambridge to read natural sciences was delighted to hear about the trip.
"I am really interested in particle physics and I'm hoping I will be able to extend my knowledge about particle interactions,” she said. “Finding that the Higgs Boson (God) particle really existed was so significant in the field of particle physics and future research at CERN may allow us to confirm for the first time how the universe was formed.”
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