“With videos we explain the technology that changes our lives”

A group of friends, PhD students from the University of Padua, who decided to open a YouTube channel for scientific dissemination. It is ICTea, the young team of scholars called to explain in simple and amusing terms the topics and technological transformations faced during the Gedi “Alphabet of the future” tour. “Our goal is not only to try to explain to a general public the (often complex) details of topics related to the world of technology and information in the clearest, simplest and most direct way possible, but also – underlines Matteo Drago, one of the group’s founders – to let Italians know that research exists, works and, above all, is successful ». The team is made up of 5 PhD students and a postdoc. “In October 2019 the idea was born to create a YouTube channel for scientific dissemination with two objectives: to create a dissemination platform on technological topics, the subject of our studies, and to give prestige to research in Italy in all fields, telling stories and studies conducted by researchers in various research fields. The project – adds Drago – is independent from the university, from our department and from our research group, we manage it in our free time and without external financial aid to our team ». ICTea already has many popular videos in which some technologies and related applications are told in a simple way: from 5G to deepfake, from self-driving cars to blockchains. Each video is generally structured in three parts: an introductory part on the subject, a part in which we go into detail while maintaining an understandable language, and a third in which technology is contextualized in society to understand how it is perceived and what it implies. «In Genoa – says the doctoral student – in our speech we hypothesized to celebrate the two years since the opening of the channel with the creation of personalized gadgets to sell to our community. Consequently, we go through all the production and marketing phases of gadgets, explaining how collaborative robots, augmented reality and new green transport technologies can help us in the business ».