Expociencia, the festival of sciences and innovation of the Universitat de València, celebrates this year its 10th edition. The meeting is this Saturday 26 May, from 10:00 to 14:00h, at the Parc Científic of the academic institution. The programme of Expociència 2018 includes about 100 activities, scientific and technological, prepared mainly by researchers of the University and CSIC. Play, learning and fun are guaranteed for the thousands of visitors, children and adults, that every year arrive to this space to the innovation located in the vicinity of the Burjassot-Paterna Campus.
The principal of the Universitat de València, M. Vicenta Mestre; the coordinator of the CSIC in the Valencian Community, José Pío Beltrán, and the director of Parc Científic, Juan Antonio Raga, have presented this morning Expociencia 2018.
Exposcience is the open day of the Scientific Park, the innovative ecosystem of the Universitat de València and a place where scientists and businessmen work to make public this discipline to the productive sector and the society. The Scientific Park organises each year its science, technology and innovation party with the objective of make public its research activity to the visitors. And it does it in a festive manner throughout the morning of a Saturday of May.
This year, the organization has prepared more than 100 playful and academic activities for everyone. In addition to the activities that the research institutes, companies and the School of Engineering (ETSE) offer every year, the festivity had the participation of different centres, departments and entities of the Burjassot Campus and companies of the Parc of the Universitat de València (Jardín Botánico, Clínicas de la Universitat-Fundación Lluís Alcañiz, Natural History Museum, etc.) and Experimenta Fair. In this 10th edition, it will be also incorporated different associations and NGO, City of Arts and Sciences and Institute of Chemical Technology (ITQ-UPV/CSIC), among others.
The principal has talked about the role played by science in the progress of knowledge-based society and has ratified the commitment of the University with the dissemination of knowledge. “It is fundamental to strengthen links between science and people, to share the scientific spirit from the younger age and to stimulate scientific vocations.”
Mestre has emphasized the importance of interagency cooperation and has claimed a better funding for the science, transfer and innovation. “Science is vocational and, despite the crisis, researchers work hard to maintain the R&D in a good level. But a good financing system of the science in different fields of learning is needed. Research and knowledge transfer are fundamental in universities; we need it as well as teaching because together are feeding back on themselves, improve and produce innovation” he claims. “ We should bet on innovation if we want to contribute to generate a productive model that recover and retain talent; that make of this country an attraction for international science”.
José Pío Beltrán has designed an Expociencia that, “even having been born in 2009, practically at the beginning of the crisis, has been achieved to grow thanks to this vocational factor, despite the suffering in the laboratories and the lack of financing” he said. “When I see the involvement of the researchers, I wonder how they can combine this complicated situation with so much motivation for transferring knowledge to society”.
Juan Antonio Raga wanted to emphasised the participation “generous and selfless of more than 400 collaborators and volunteers, not only of the research institutes, but also of the School of Engineering, among other centres, departments and services of the University, of the Parc Científic and other entities. They have made possible that we celebrate the 10th anniversary of Expociencia with a record number exceeding the hundreds of activities”, he claims. “The fact that we can celebrate the 10 years of Expociencia is a sample of consolidation and maturity of this proposal designed to approximate science to citizenship that supported it”.
Workshops of physics, chemistry, astronomy, biology and robotics will offer to the visitor the chance to get immerse in the most magical branch of science by recreating crystalline gardens, observing the Universe from the depths of the sea, or becoming a scientific police in a crime at the laboratory of genetics. It will be possible to draw in 3D; take up gastroscience just as the most important chefs do; prepare a blandiblú, launch a rocket, play with Lego robots, observe the cellules and detect environmental radioactivity.
The visitors could also know how to be a great scientific, as the ones who work in the European Space Agency or the Large Particle Acelerator, as well as those whose job is to preserve the biodiversity, the energy efficiency and the environment; because most of them work in the Parc Científic and will be in Expociencia accessible to everyone.
The open day will host the ceremony award of Natura Project Prizes, an initiative addressed to secondary students. The aim is to elaborate a natural scientific projects targeted to students of primary school and it is organized by the Faculty of Biology of the Universitat de València.
Expociencia 2018 will dedicate a photographic space to commemorate its 10th Anniversary; a montage of images that illustrates ten years of divulgation, of approach between researchers and society, but especially a reflection of how science can be fun if it is transmitted from passion, collusion and responsibility. The exhibition will be located in the main entrance of Parc Científic, one of the three starting points of Expociencia.
Exposcience, organized by the Scientific Park, receives lots of visitors each year and has the support of the Universitat de València and CSIC as well as the Valencian Government.
More information:
https://www.facebook.com/expociencia.pcuv