In a word, it was an AMAZING! experience
About HLF
Heidelberg Laureate Forum is an international platform that offers young minds to interact with great Laureates in the field of mathematics and computer science. Worldwide 200 young researchers are chosen based on their education, achievements, research work, projects, etc. by the experts (more details about the selection process can be found here). The younger you are with good achievements, more the chances you have to get selected.
The platform enables participants to experience the state-of-the-art developments in various applications via series of lectures, labs and organization visits, scientific dialogues, panel discussions, interviews, interactive applications, poster presentations, movie screening and so much more.
Providing a space for ideas to take shape and evolve is what defines the Forum’s underlying purpose.
How To Participate?
You first need to create an account at the HLF via this link, where you will be asked to select the application type based on your education (this you cannot change later on, be careful while selecting the application type). Following the account creation you are required to shared the following details:
- Personal information
- Academic details
- Current affiliation
- Publications/Projects
- Honours and awards
- Letter of recommendation and motivation
- Curriculum Vitae
Note: This is with reference to my participation.
My Experience
Due to COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, the HLF was conducted online in virtual environment and hence was renamed as VirtualHLF. Even though the event was online, but the organizers were so amazing that made me feel real.
The event was conducted online via website and an application named “VirtualMeetingHub”. In contrast to website, the application offered to develop your avatar and interact with other participants in virtual HLF environment. The application also covered poster presentation and central meeting hubs to offer healthy discussion and interaction environment among the participants. To add more they also included virtual dancing platform to show off your funky dance moves with the help of your avatar. Apart from this, there were regular announcements and notification updates to make participants aware with the on-going events.
During the lecture sessions, I was able to interact with all the great Laureates through comments section which enabled me to ask certain questions or seek guidance and share experience and feedback, etc. With my keen research interest in deep learning I also got my dream chance to interact with Prof. Yoshua Bengio about the deep learning technologies which is having immense applications in today’s world. Moreover, I also interacted with other participants involving PhDs and post doctorates to exchange information and ideas.
Overall the platform offered me a life changing experience and I felt so much inspired to do more in my research career. This is one of the best event I have ever attended.
My Recommendation
If you are a young researcher, you should definitely apply for it because it is a life changing opportunity.
If I can do it, you can too.