Universidad Carlos III de Madrid (UC3M) will participate on Thursday, March 27 in Pavilion 1 of IFEMA at the XIV Madrid is Science Fair. The scientific outreach activities that will take place at the UC3M stand will allow visitors to learn how technology can revolutionize physical training, biomedical imaging and robotics of the future, as well as discovering the potential of infrared science. In addition, other activities will analyze the presence of women scientists in cinema or the use of AI for social robotics, rehabilitation or to combat misinformation.
Morning activities at the UC3M stand
In the morning shift, from 10 am to 2:30 pm, two workshops will be held. First, “Meet the training and rehabilitation of the future: technology for the design of interactive exercises”, which will be carried out by Elena Márquez Segura and José Manuel Vega Cebrián, from the UC3M Computer Science Department. In this activity they will be able to test their innovative technological prototypes (Movits and MoTTs), designed for training and rehabilitation. These minimalist devices allow interactive exercises, adapting to different mobility and strengthening needs.
Secondly, also in the morning shift, Lisbeth Karina Mena López and Claudia Sánchez Hernández, from the Robotics Lab of the UC3M Dept. of Systems Engineering and Automation, prepared the workshop: “Discover soft robotics! Robots are no longer made of metal”. During the workshop, visitors will be able to discover how flexible materials and design inspired by origami - the Japanese art of paper folding - are revolutionizing robotics.
In the afternoon shift, from 15:30h to 20h, two other activities will take place. On the one hand, “Artificial intelligence in images and its medical applications”, in which Sergio Carreras Salinas and Lucía Cubero Gutiérrez, from the UC3M Dept. of Bioengineering, will show the potential of AI in image processing, in applications ranging from the creation of creative self-portraits to the analysis of medical images, facilitating the segmentation of organs or the automatic detection of tumors.
On the other hand, in “The invisible world: exploring science with infrared”, Antonio Cuellar Martin and Qihong Lorena Li Hu, from the UC3M Dept. of Aerospace Engineering, will reveal phenomena that the human eye cannot perceive, exploring thermal radiation and energy transfer. Visitors to the stand will be able to observe in real time images of everyday objects captured in the infrared spectrum, learn about the physical principles of thermal radiation and insulation, as well as their application in safety, medicine and energy efficiency.
On Thursday 27th at 6 pm in the Science Agora of the fair, Alejandra Val Cubero, from the UC3M Department of Communication, will give a talk on “Women scientists in film”. In this talk, she will present in a didactic and participative way different women scientists (mathematicians, physicists, engineers, astronomers...) who have appeared in contemporary cinema, both American and European.In this sense, knowing the life and works of women scientists of past and present times, which have been reflected in films and television series, is key to motivate and encourage studies related to the presence of women in the STEM field.
Other UC3M activities on AI
Throughout Thursday 27th, from 10 am to 8 pm, at the F.05 of the Fair will be dedicated to AI and social robotics, by María Malfaz Vázquez, José Carlos Castillo Montoya, Álvaro Castro González and Fernando Alonso, from the Robotics Laboratory of UC3M. There they will show how AI helps to improve the interaction between robots and people, making it richer and improving understanding. At the stand, visitors will be able to see and interact with: the MINI robot, which interacts with the elderly to help them and facilitate physical and cognitive stimulation activities; or MIA, a pet robot in the shape of a rabbit that is ideal for promoting affective stimulation.
The workshop “True Detective: Are you smarter than AI?”, to be held on Thursday 27 at 11 am at the stand of the Madrid Regional Ministry of Science, Universities and Innovation (1.E.06) and given by Uxía Carral Vilar, a researcher from the UC3M MediaLab group of the Department of Communication, will be a race against the clock to detect disinformation created by AI.
To do this, attendees will be able to carry out three tests to recognize false or true news, fake identities on social networks and detect deep fakes (fake videos generated with AI). The challenge will be to do it in less than 5 minutes.
On Thursday afternoon, at 4:30 p.m. and 6:30 p.m., at the same stand of the Regional Ministry, several representatives of Inrobics, a spin-off of the University supported by the Center for Innovation in Entrepreneurship and Artificial Intelligence (C3N-IA) of the UC3M Science Park, will give a presentation and demonstration on robotics applied to the healthcare sector. Specifically, they will present Inrobics Rehab, a system that integrates AI and allows therapists to carry out activities adapted to the needs of each patient, adjusting to their evolution and providing objective data on their progress.
The Office of Information and Dissemination of Science and Innovation (OIDCI, for its acronym in Spanish) of UC3M, coordinates UC3M's participation in the Madrid is Science 2025 Fair, a scientific dissemination event organized by the Fundación madri+d para el Conocimiento. In addition, there is the collaboration of the Spanish Foundation for Science and Technology (FECYT, for its acronym in Spanish) of the Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities.
More information:
UC3M website about the Madrid is Science 2025 Fair.
https://www.uc3m.es/inicio/feria-madrid-ciencia
Videos: https://youtube.com/shorts/3NMaiRyJjuk
https://youtube.com/shorts/rl5UylVKSP4?si=kEw-_vNmOqcyrKkc