“In a postfeminist context, a woman is urged to be an entrepreneurial subject. However, given the complex social structure in India, this can be challenging for some,” says Dr Runa Chakraborty Paunksnis, one of the co-editors of Gender, Cinema, Streaming Platforms: Shifting Frames in Neoliberal India, an edited volume that has been published by Palgrave Macmillan this spring.

Over the past couple of weeks students from the University of Virginia (USA) attended the Sustainable Urban Design Challenges Summer School at VILNIUS TECH. The summer school brought together students from different disciplines to study and discuss interdisciplinary solutions for building sustainable cities. These students found common ground in their passion for sustainable urban design and formed a cohesive group during their time in Vilnius. From workshops to cycling tours – students had a chance to explore VILNIUS TECH and Vilnius, and learned about sustainability practices in a different cultural context. We had a quick chat with students about their experiences in Vilnius, and we would like to share a few of their thoughts (which showcases the importance of cultural exchange and interdisciplinary collaboration in addressing global sustainability challenges):

The negative associations with engineering studies can still be heard in the society. Vilnius Gediminas technical university (VILNIUS TECH) wishes to show to the society that engineering isn’t just about mathematics and physics, but serves as a creative platform for both men and women. Engineering has no limits, but the social stigmas keep emerging due to the lack of confidence, fear to try something new and fail at it. That is why, this year VILNIUS TECH is addressing every young person during the admission session with its slogan ‘Believe that engineering is for all creators’.

On 25th May Dr. Barbara Oakley, a scholar from the United States, gave a lecture “Practical Insights from Neuroscience Improve Your Teaching to Neurodiverse Students” at the Vilnius University Scholarly Communication and Information Centre, organised by the Faculty of Medicine at Vilnius University. The lecture was aimed at lecturers, students, vocational and special education teachers, tutors and coaches of all disciplines.

Last week, a memorial plaque was unveiled on the wall of the Ministry of Education, Science, and Sports to professor Jędrzej Śniadecki, the pioneer of chemical science in Lithuania, a doctor, and teacher. In the building here, he founded the first Department of Chemistry at Vilnius University (VU), where he started the teaching of chemistry as a separate discipline, and headed the Department.

The "Makeademy" summer school dives into the process of making things. With the goal of fostering a community of aware and creative students, the "Makeademy" summer school is the place to be for creative innovators (or those aspiring to be) this summer.

Audronė Telešienė, Professor of sociology at the KTU Faculty of Social Sciences, Arts and Humanities, has been invited by the United Nations Environmental Programme (UNEP) to join almost 100 scientists from around the world tasked to draw up a Global Environmental Outlook by 2026.

Like every year, with summertime comes Vilnius University (VU) Summer Challenge. Every hot season this game reminds to be physically active and invites to compete in a friendly manner within VU community.

“Although the environment was very competitive, I felt the other side of the competition as well – I met many wonderful people, young researchers from all over the world,” says Meda Surdokaitė, a first-year KTU student, who was awarded the third place in the chemistry category at Regeneron ISEF in Dallas, USA. Nearly 2,000 young scientists attended one of the largest scientific competitions in the world. Lithuanian Meda was delegated to it by the EUCYS competition for young scientists of the European Union, in which she took first place in the fall of last year.

The 75th Anniversary Conference of the Student Research Network (SRN) took place on 15–19 May 2023 at the Faculty of Medicine of Vilnius University. Students and scientists from different research groups of the faculty presented their research papers, sharing the results of interesting clinical cases and analyses. The week-long event culminated in a plenary session where the first place winners of the 22 sections of the SRN were invited to present their papers.