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In the range of activities the UC3M offers in this edition, the workshops take the leading role, as they bring together learning potential and interactivity. The attendees, subsequent to booking, will be able to find out about the key aspects of LiFi wireless communication, the everyday life of historians of ancient religions, phototonics applications, how to design and display educational information, “to listen” to artificial satellites, how to protect messages using cryptography while playing cards, how to manage large volumes of information or try to bring objects to life using the Internet of things. And if the weather allows it, to build and launch a water rocket. What’s more, young boys and girls of around 5 years old will be able to get involved in the programming of robots through different games and toys in another workshop specifically designed for younger children,

At this large event of R+D+I dissemination which will be held on 5th and 18th November, the slogan of which this year is “Get hooked on Science”, the UC3M will also tackle the topic of women and research. There will be a Foro theatre performance on women and science and a storyteller will tell stories about female scientists and defenders of nature. Round tables about women and science fiction or social corporate responsibility for gender equality will also be held. In other talks and round tables, the discussion will be focused on other topics, such as the challenges of self-driving cars, the use of Artificial Intelligence in social media or the potential of the so-called social assistance robotics, this activity relying on the presence of a small assistive robot, NAO.

European Year of Cultural Heritage

What’s more, as in 2018 the European Year of Cultural Heritage is celebrated, there will be activities based on this topic.  A round table, which will be held in collaboration with the City Council of Collado Villalba, will analyse how to use new technology to protect cultural heritage. There will also be a forum cinema activity, which will take place on the Getafe campus, will use various Spanish films as examples in order to show the dangers that threaten cultural heritage through cinematography.

For those who enjoy looking around in situ at the installations where scientific research is developed, the UC3M will also offer a combination of different guided tours. Firstly, you will be able to access various aerospace and aerodynamic design laboratories, in order to find out about the different materials that are tested and used in the manufacturing of planes. Another visit to the Plasma and Electric Propulsion Team’s laboratory will allow you to find out about how plasma engines are designed and tested, which will be used in future space missions. Those interested in medicine will have the opportunity to get to know how future operating theatres will work and learn what a tomography is, all within the framework of various activities that will be carried out in different laboratories of the UC3M’s department of Bioengineering and Aerospace Engineering. In addition, another of the visits, which will take place in the UC3M’s Higher Polytechnic School (Escuela Politécnica Superior), will allow you to look around the installations of the Robotics Lab, an important research centre in its field.

Art and science will be brought together in other activities. In an improvised music and dance performance which pays tribute to the figure Stephen Hawking, entitled “Even briefer” (Aún más breve), a physicist will explain, following the performance, the scientific concepts that were presented. What’s more, the prizes will be handed out for the Visual STEM competition, which is focused on the displaying of scientific, technological, engineering and mathematical concepts through graphs, diagrams or processed images.

The Madrid Science and Innovation Week is an event for scientific dissemination and the participation of citizens organised by the madri+d Foundation for Knowledge, and is an event the UC3M has collaborated on for more than a decade. This event, which has the support of the Spanish Foundation for Science and Technology, offers the public the opportunity to get to know first-hand the work that scientists carry out, their research, motivations and efforts.

For more information: Science Week 2018 at the UC3M: www.uc3m.es/semanaciencia2018