The First day of RSU ISC 2023

The highly anticipated International Student Conference 2023 in “Health and Social Sciences” is taking place on March 27th and 28th at Riga Stradins University.

This year marked the 72nd birthday of the conference as well as the 9th year that the conference was held on an international level, as students and jury members from near and far gathered for this great event.

We received a huge amount of applications from more than 20 different countries. Our team has come a long way to organize the once again on site after being in a hybrid format for 3 years!”

The Opening ceremony was started with a musical performance by Dainis Tenis and Valters Pūce – a duet from group “Dagamba”. The performance was followed with an opening speech by RSU rector Prof. Aigars Pētersons, Chairman of RSU ISC 2023 organizing commitee Klāvs Putenis and Vice-Rector for Science PhD Agrita Kiopa.

In the Opening ceremony, the first keynote speaker was Dr. biol. Janet Kelso who leads the Computational Ancient Genomics research group at the Max-Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig, Germany. Her speech included such topics as ancient genomes, what they show us and how they might help us in the future. The second keynote speaker was Dineke Zeegers Paget who is a Strategic advisor in the European Public Health Association. Her speech was about the new role for public health and analysis of it. The third and final keynote speaker was Marianna Prysiazhniuk from Ukraine, who is taking the lead in journalism, fact checking and research. She spoke about Russian propaganda, disinformation and fighting against it.

During the conference’s first day students were able to attend 13 Health Science and 2 Social Science Oral sections, 4 Health Science Poster sessions and 3 Case Report sessions. The first and second place winners of each case report session and the first place winner of every oral session will participate, accordingly,  in Case Report and Grand Prix finals on 28th of March. Beside the presentations, there were numerous other opportunities for students. This year RSU ISC 23 organizers along with these student sessions there provided participants with 15 hands-on workshops and mastershops to improve practical skills and see the future of simulation based medical education as well as participate in a treasure hunt, relax in the peace room, play board games, listen or even participate in the Student media “Skaļāk” podcast. Therefore each student could choose a workshop to meet their interests. Other opportunities included attending a Mock trial, where law students along with other attendees could immerse themselves in an environment of a real trial.