Hundreds of researchers carry out their activities at the Telecommunication Technologies Research Centre (atlanTTic), the Marine Research Centre (CIM) and the Biomedical Research Centre (Cinbio). Over the years, the staff of the three research centres of the University of Vigo have been able to attract tens of millions of euros in R&D projects and contracts, register dozens of patents and add thousands of publications, an activity that, however, society is barely aware of and consequently barely recognizes. With the aim of allowing citizens to discover, in some cases, the existence, and in others, the activity carried out by the research centres of the academic institution, atlanTTic, CIM and Cinbio, will develop a programme of activities throughout the months of October and November that will allow participants to discover “the research that is carried out at the University and that the knowledge we obtain is useful for the well-being of society”, explained Belén Rubio, Vice-Chancellor for Research this morning at the presentation of the scientific and technological dissemination days. Free of charge and upon registration, anyone, both adults and children, will be able to participate in this program of activities that is financed by the General Secretariat of Universities of the Department of Culture, Education and University Planning of the Xunta de Galicia through the Aid Program for the accreditation, structuring and improvement of unique research centers and consolidated strategic groups of the University System of Galicia co-financed by the FEDER, within the framework of the Feder Galicia 2014-2020 operational program.
In the presentation of the program of activities, in which Rubio was accompanied by the directors of the research centers and by the vice-rector for Communication and Institutional Relations, Mónica Valderrama, the vice-rector for Research recalled that the University of Vigo is, according to the ranking prepared by Times Higher Education, among the best 500 institutions in the world in engineering, communication technologies and marine sciences, “areas that the Xunta has valued with the creation of the unique centers in its day.”
Dozens of activities to discover science and technology
The scientific outreach program will begin on Saturday, October 6 at the A Laxe pier where the Marine Research Center will make a boat available to people who have previously registered, in several morning and afternoon shifts, on board which they will be able to witness “examples of marine exploration with drones and robots, we will collect samples from the seabed and disembark at the Ecimat pier, where an atlanTTic working group will be waiting to demonstrate how to take measurements and use drones in marine research and then we will go to the Ecimat where there will be workshops led by staff from the center”, explained Daniel Rey, director of the CIM.
For its part, under the slogan Cinbio ConCiencia: Investigate with us, the Biomedical Research Center will set up a tent on October 19 on Rúa do Príncipe in Vigo and the following day on Paseo de Ourense, where workshops on genetics, nanoparticles, bioinformatics or sleep apnea will be held, as well as a healthy breakfast. The activities will continue at Cinbio itself on October 26 and at the Polytechnic of Ourense on October 27, with open days, “with the aim of people knowing what we do in the field of research and health. The idea is for them to touch, see and be able to see the laboratories”, explained África González, director of Cinbio.
In the case of atlanTTic, the activities will be held at the center’s facilities, at the School of Telecommunications Engineering, on November 9, through workshops “to bring things that society knows we telecommunications engineers do and that in some cases are not difficult to understand, such as satellite communications, image manipulation, the new generation of 5G mobile telephony”, explained Carlos Mosquera, director of atlanTTic.
The vice-rector for research thanked the centers for their participation in these outreach activities that will allow “to bring to the public what we do and what is used in our daily lives and many people are unaware that many of these discoveries are made near their homes, in their city”, assured Belén Rubio, who encouraged citizens to participate, by registering in advance on the program’s website.
