A pastoral member of staff reflects on their time with Oxford Summer Course on one of their Stanford summer schools in 2018.

"The first thing on the schedule today was a lecture at the Digital Anatomy Lab, about a 30 minutes walk from our house (Stanford campus is the size of a small town!). We had all been looking forward to this session, hearing about it from other groups, so we walked quickly to get there and make the most of the morning.

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When we arrived, we had a talk from on one of the lab’s top doctors and researchers — he explained how Stanford uses the most advanced technologies including augmented reality, VR and 3D MindScan technologies to develop medical techniques that are changing the world. After about an hour, we split into 3 smaller groups and went into the lab with students currently studying and working on medical programmes. It was a strange place, half hospital-looking and half classroom — it was a little bit eerie for some of us... We sat down in each part of the lab for about 2o minutes and got to see real organs and listen to how each of them works, including the lungs, kidneys, the brain and even a heart — we even got to hold them if we wanted to (some of us, quite understandably, didn’t take up the offer). It was an amazing experience to learn from these experts on how operational techniques work, and how invaluable this research really is in saving so many future lives.

The afternoon consisted of a workshop of Democracy which including lots of debate which the group really enjoyed — then a session on the Global Solutions Project. With the presentation on Friday looming ever closer, groups are getting through the tough issues and starting to work out how to present their ideas and discussions.

After dinner, we were invited to an Entrepreneur’s Panel where the group got to listen to discussion between four of Silicon Valley’s top business minds — then there was time to ask lots of questions which everyone did. We learned about start-ups, being a CEO and what it’s like to work in UX at Google HQ — all inspiration for the future entrepreneurs in our group."

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About the author

Rhys Mackenzie is the Website Marketing Manager at Oxford Summer Courses. With extensive experience in SEO and digital content management, they are passionate about showcasing the best that Oxford has to offer. Their previous role at Experience Oxfordshire gave them a deep appreciation for the city's unique cultural and academic offerings. Learn more about Rhys here.