Scientific instruments on display at the EPFL Open Days

In 2019, EPFL celebrates its 50^th anniversary. Three years after the last edition, the school decided to open its doors to the public again. On September 14-15, the Open Days were the opportunity for people from Lausanne and beyond to visit the campus and discover how scientific teaching and research are conducted at EPFL. 
            Among a wide variety of disciplines represented, the DataSquare – one of the three pavilions of ArtLab – hosted a Digital Humanities exhibit. In between a digitised vision of seventeenth-century Venice and a sociology of Tinder algorithm, the Laboratory for the history of science and technology (LHST) exhibited a number of artifacts from the Collection of scientific instruments of the University of Lausanne. Curated until now by Prof. Jean-François Loude, this collection gathers more than a thousand objects dating back to the eighteenth century and spanning fields from electromagnetism to acoustics through thermodynamics.
            Today, one of the missions of the Lab is to preserve, curate, and promote this scientific and cultural heritage. Therefore, Véronique Mauron and Jérôme Baudry selected and displayed twenty-four instruments. Attracted by the shininess of brass, visitors of all ages were guided by our explanations through the discovery and understanding of a Saussure electroscope, a kaleidoscope, and a one of the first electric motors. The use of other instruments such as Chladni plates and a spectroscope was highlighted by the projection of short videos from the Musée d’histoire des sciences of Geneva. On Saturday afternoon, visitors were pleased with the spectacle of a series of experiments on vacuum, led by demonstrator Gilles Hernot from the museum, illustrating how some of exhibited instruments such as Magdeburg hemispheres and air pumps were used several centuries ago.
            This two-day event in the DataSquare, coordinated by the Collège des Humanités, shed light on the weaving of disciplines and the collaboration between engineers, scientists, and historians within the Digital Humanities Institute. It also gave future master students in the Digital Humanities a glimpse of what it is possible to achieve in the field.