The general meeting of the Extreme Energy Events Project (EEE) gathered also this year representatives from the schools involved in the experiment: 26 institutes from all over Italy — around a hundred students and teachers — met from November 12 to 14 at the Enrico Fermi Research Center (CREF), while other schools followed and contributed remotely.
The event was organized into three days of scientific activities, training, and discussions, aiming to bring students closer to the study of cosmic rays and experimental research assisted by the researchers of the EEE collaboration.
The President of CREF, Prof. Angela Bracco, inaugurated the event together with the project spokesperson Dr. Marco Garbini, the outreach coordinator Dr. Cristina Ripoli (University of Salerno), and the CREF researcher Dr. Silvia Pisano.
The central moment of the meeting was the Masterclass – led by Dr. Francesco Noferini, EEE vice spokesperson (INFN Bologna) – dedicated to a data analysis based on measurements taken during the recent PolarquEEEst 2025 – OvEEErland mission: using the POLA-02 detector, cosmic ray flux measurements were made at different latitudes along a car route from Bologna to Tromsø passing through Italy, Austria, Germany, Denmark, Sweden, and Norway.
Working on the data, organized in interschool groups, the students tackled the analysis, transforming it into an opportunity for collaboration, integration, and growth in problem-solving skills.
At the end, the groups presented their results to the audience, and three projects were awarded on the final day (1°: IC Pirandello, Lampedusa and Liceo Fermi, Paternò - 2°: Liceo Banzi, Lecce and Liceo Amaldi, Bitetto - 3°: IISS Staffa, Trinitapoli and Liceo Scacchi, Bari).
On the second day of the conference, the EEE Project took part in the 14th edition of the International Cosmic Day (ICD). Liceo Scorza (Cosenza) – which produced the best analysis presented for this contest based on data collected via POLA-R onboard the Amerigo Vespucci (PolarquEEEst 2022 mission) – had the opportunity to present their work during the international ICD call: students from all over the world gather at this global event, organized every year by the DESY laboratory in Hamburg, to discuss cosmic ray studies.
The meeting program also included two in-depth seminars: Prof. Giorgio Riccobene (INFN – National Laboratories of the South, Catania) concluded the second day presenting “KM3NeT-ARCA: the largest underwater detector in the world in the era of high-energy neutrino astronomy”; Prof. Adele La Rana (Sapienza University of Rome) opened the last day with the talk titled “Fermi, every one of us: genius at work! Enrico Fermi and quantum mechanics.”
Finally, in the words of the Scientific Director of CREF, Prof. Salvatore De Pasquale, and President Bracco, the value of the EEE Project emerged once again as the result of collaboration between CREF and INFN, serving as a meeting place for researchers and students, with the goal of bringing young people closer to the world of research through active participation, sharing, and fieldwork.
