Successful first edition of the TEDxUABarcelona

01/04/2022

Nine members of the university community participated with talks on different themes in the TEDxUABarcelona event, held on Thursday 31 MArch at the Auditorium of the UAB Faculty of Arts & Humanities. The event was presented by Vice Rector for Research and Transfer Armand Sánchez, and hosted by former UAB student and entrepreneur Víctor Puig, general director and founder of the communications and digital marketing agency Zinkdo.

The first talk was offered by ICREA researcher and lecturer of the UAB Department of Philosophy Jordi Vallverdú, who exposed the more troubling aspects of Deep Learning and the growing importance of algorithms in decision-making processes. Former UAB student Patricia San Mateo, alongside Lila Arsuaga, co-founders of the company Oudoca, presented the educational game “Bienvenida a la vida cíclica” [Welcome to Cyclic Life], to teach about menstruation. Following that, Andrea Doreste Soler, UAB students and founder of the NGO Nukoko, explained her experience in Ghana and how she detected the need to avoid projecting a colonial mindset onto cooperation projects. Elena Jacas Egea, food technologist, and lecturer of the UAB Food Technology Area, Eduard Grau Noguer, spoke on the importance of detecting fake news in the food sector and the tool they have devised for this purpose with the help of artificial intelligence.

In her conference, Neus Gual Tarrada, UAB alumnus and geriatric doctor, spoke on the keys to choosing a healthy path towards ageing, and highlighted the importance of physical activity, eating well, and interpersonal relations. Carles Flaquer Sànchez, UAB alumnus and coordinator of the Museum of Natural Sciences in Granollers, revealed the secret to success of the museum research team: always having a table football nearby to foster better work relations between members. Tomàs Lóbez Pérez, alumnus and lecturer of the EINA School of Design, a UAB-affiliated centre, and founder of Nixi for Children, explained how the loss of a childhood friend to cancer led him to develop an innovative design based on virtual reality to help kids cope with pre-operatory stress, and which is already being used in dozens of hospitals. Karma Peiró Rubio, UAB alumnus and journalist, gave a message of hope on how technology based on artificial intelligence, despite discriminations on the grounds of gender, race, age or social condition, can help us improve as humans thanks to initiatives, many of them led by women, who detect these discriminations.

The last presentation at the TEDxUABarcelona event was given by Joaquim Vives Armengol, researcher at the Blood and Tissue Bank and lecturer at the Escola Fundació Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona – Formació (fUABf), in which he explained the importance of donating tissue for the development of advanced therapies and innovative therapeutic treatments.

Vice Rector for Communication and Culture Virginia Luzón closed the session with a warm thank you to all speakers who participated and made it possible to “disseminate science” to society.

TED is an international community dedicated to disseminating ideas on different issues, usually in the format of short, informative talks. Following with this spirit of “engaging ideas”, the organisation invites different universities, entities and communities to organise their own TED events.

The event is organised jointly by the UAB, the UAB Research Park, the UAB Open Labs, the UAB CORES and the UAB Alumni.

More information:

https://tedxuabbarcelona.wordpress.com/
https://www.ted.com/tedx/events/45602