A continent-wide science outreach initiative
On 28 September, more than 300 European cities will be simultaneously celebrating European Researchers' Night, with activities aimed at promoting popular science suitable for all audiences. For the first time ever, the UOC is joining this initiative to showcase some of its R&I projects in collaboration with other Catalan universities.
In Catalonia, with the slogan Research, universal heritage, free, fun learning activities will be held – both on Friday 28 and Saturday 29 – in Barcelona, Girona, Lleida, Tarragona and Vic, among other places.
Does technology discriminate against the elderly?
Algorithms affect many people's daily lives. While they are often used to optimize decision-making processes that can save lives, make our daily lives easier and combat chaos, they can also perpetuate biases and prejudices. Algorithms are prone to making discriminatory decisions and treating minority and other populations, such as the elderly, as though they were invisible in online media. This is the field of activity in which the UOC Internet Interdisciplinary Institute's (IN3) Communication Networks & Social Change (CSNC) group works, and it will be the subject of the talk entitled "Artificial intelligence in discrimination against the elderly", given by researcher Andrea Rosales. Rosales will outline a series of realities that are all around us, in an increasingly technological world, and which we are often not aware of. She will give her talk on 28 September at the Imagin Cafè in Barcelona (Carrer de Pelai, 11) in the session between 7 and 8 pm. This link will take you to the other microtalks – each one lasting less than 10 minutes – that have been programmed.
The possibilities of augmented reality
Augmented and virtual reality is growing strongly in all sorts of industries and for all sorts of purposes. Video games, health applications or tourism are just some examples of the areas in which this technology is increasingly present. Would you like to see first-hand how this technology is revolutionizing how we interact with the audiovisual world? Let Luis Villarejo show you! He's a technical specialist from UOC Technology and promoter of the spin-off Immersium Studio, specialized in immersive technologies applied to education in different fields. He'll be giving an under-ten-minute microtalk at Barcelona CosmoCaixa's (Carrer d'Isaac Newton, 26) Scientific Corner, in the time slot between 7:30 and 8:30 pm. You might be one of the participants who wins a pair of glasses adapted to viewing virtual reality.
Immersium Studio received funding from the Catalan Government's grant programme for supporting projects for technology-based business creation and technology licensing by technological marketing units (VALUNI - VALEN), channelled through the Agency for Business Competitiveness (ACCIÓ). It also receives support from the UOC, through Invergy, the University's investment vehicle.
Organization
In Catalonia, European Researchers' Night is organized by the Barcelona Institute for Global Health, the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (UAB), the University of Barcelona (UB), the University of Girona (UdG), the University of Lleida (UdL) and Universitat Rovira i Virgili (URV), with the support of the Catalan Association of Scientific Communication (ACCC) and the UOC. This initiative is supported by the European Commission as a part of the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions, funded under the Horizon 2020 programme, to boost researchers' careers.