Uniting universities, research, and businesses to combat brain drain: "There is a buzz of industry here"

With the debut of TedxGiarre, the school stops being just a place of passage to become a true incubator of change, where skills and leadership merge to shape the new trajectories of Sicily. At Radicepura Horticultural Park, a day of discussion brought together seemingly distant worlds: science, education, and entrepreneurship. The event, conceived with the spirit of an open-air university campus, saw the participation of heavyweight figures from Italian scientific research: the National Institute of Nuclear Physics, the Institute for Microelectronics and Microsystems of Cnr, and the National Institute of Geophysics and Volcanology, along with representatives from the University of Catania (Departments of Electrical, Electronic and Computer Engineering and Mathematics and Computer Science), the business world, and schools. With the common goal of fostering a concrete dialogue between education, research, and professional opportunities.

It was a return to the “roots” for many young minds. Former students from the Ionian Etna area who chose to invest in knowledge and become protagonists of the future. Walter Litteri, a Riposto native PhD student in Aerospace Engineering, is one of them. A former student of the Leonardo High School in Giarre, he enrolled in the Aerospace Engineering program at the Polytechnic University of Milan, and then refined his studies in Toulouse, France, and chose to return (with ideas) to his home territory. "Returning to Sicily usually means unplugging. But an event like Tedx makes you realize that there is a real buzz of industry and research here. It’s an opportunity to design something important for our land. A significant exchange of ideas among many young people who want to take action. And not just in words".

Marylania Nucifora, 37, a Riposto native, former student of the classical high school “Amari” in Giarre, is a contract lecturer at Iulm University in Milan. "I left my city in 2008 to arrive in Milan, where I also engage in managerial consulting. TedX gave me the opportunity to return home. I wanted to fully embrace the mission of this event, which is to rethink the potential of our territory. A concept I fully share. And we can discover opportunities that often, from afar, we cannot see. Sicily has all the credentials to be a protagonist of technological and social progress".

For Aldo Finocchiaro, licensee organizer of TedxGiarre, the direction is clear: "We have an ambitious goal, we want to stop talking about brain drain as if it were an inevitable fate and contribute to the meeting of the worlds of universities, research, and companies to give young people new opportunities." The event in Giarre featured 18 diverse speakers, aged from 14 to 65, "with extraordinary stories that intertwine to promote new economic models, foster connections between transformative realities, and be an inspiring example".