The University of Oviedo opens today the 2012 edition of Scientific Campuses in which a total of 111 students of 4th ESO and first year of high school coming from 14 autonomous regions participate. It is the second consecutive year that the Campus of International Excellence collaborates with the initiative, which is promoted by the Ministry of Education, Culture and Sports, the Spanish Foundation for Science and Technology (FECYT) and La Caixa Social Welfare Program.

The Rector of the University of Oviedo, Vicente Gotor, has been in charge of opening this new edition of the Summer Scientific Campuses, accompanied by the General Director of Universities and Research of the Principality of Asturias, Miriam Cueto, in a ceremony held at the Historic Building's Great Hall.

Last years' exceptional response to the Summer Scientific Campuses has nearly doubled the number of places offered in Asturias with respect to the 60 students participating in 2011. This year's call has made 1800 places available in Spain, for which a total of 7.421 applications were received.

The Summer Scientific Campuses aim to arouse early scientific interest among those students who have not still entered the University. A total of 16 Campuses of International Excellence from other Spanish universities participate this year in this project, which is coordinated by FECYT.

The youngsters will be split into four groups and each of them will spend a week in the University of Oviedo carrying out several tasks to approach them, in a different way, to the researcher's daily routine.

The Knowledge Transfer Office (OTRI), subject to the Vice-Rector's Office for Research and Campus of Excellence, has been in charge of elaborating and coordinating the program, whose main objective is that the students carry out their own experiments in order to acquire first-hand knowledge of applied science. They will take part in four projects:

• Geological Twitter.
• Scientific Basis in Criminalistic Research.
• Electronic Engineering in Daily Life.
• Cell language.

Throughout the week, the participants will have the chance to see, for example, how a seismological station is installed, how certain scientific techniques for criminalistic research are applied, they will learn how to identify precious stones or take a close look at the role of electronics in daily life.