On Thursday 25th and Friday 26th of January, the CentreBit Menorca hosted the seventh edition of the STEM Talks, an event that could also be followed online through the Bit Foundation’s YouTube channel. This event, organised by Àlex Alemany, from the Google Developers Group Menorca, with the collaboration of the Bit Foundation, was attended by expert university researchers, scientific disseminators and representatives of companies such as Google and Accenture.

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STEM Talks

As Àlex Alemany said during the opening of the first day of the event, “This meeting aims to be able to give talks and learn in community about science and technology in a simple way, with a language that reaches everyone”.

During the welcome to the STEM Talks, on Thursday 25th, the manager of the Bit Foundation, Sebastián González, presented the speakers who have participated in this conference and highlighted the “STEM Talks as one of the scientific-technical reference events of the Balearic Islands”. Also participating in this institutional welcome was the Councillor for Culture, Education, Youth and Sports of the Consell de Menorca, Joan Pons, who highlighted the growth of this event “which brings science and technology closer to young Menorcans and boosts Menorca’s potential as a strategic point of innovation and technology on a national and international level”. For his part, the regional secretary for Innovation and Digital Society, Antoni Carmona, highlighted the work of Àlex Alemany as the organiser of the STEM Talks “since the first edition”. “He has created an event that will have a long-term impact on the territory in terms of sustainability, growth and improved well-being”.

The STEM Talks Menorca event is one of the benchmark meetings in science and technology dissemination that brings STEM subjects (science, technology, engineering, mathematics) closer to Balearic society. It is aimed primarily at professionals in the sector on the island and allows them to make contacts and meet experts first-hand, but also anyone interested in science and technology, mainly young students in secondary education, high school, vocational training and university, which can enter into various current and cutting-edge fields of study that will serve as motivation to make studies related to these areas of high professional demand.

On the first day, 25 January, attendees were able to enjoy a talk by Cynthia Gálvez López, head of creative technology at Accenture Song, on spatial computing and augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR). The second talk was given by Martí Ras Segura, product manager at Vottun, who showed attendees what blockchain is and what it is used for, beyond cryptocurrencies. Juantomás García, Director of Forecasting at SNGULAR, closed the first day by explaining how artificial neural networks work through the magic of cards.

On the second day, 26 January, the STEM Talks also featured the participation of María Rosario Fernández Gallegos, associate professor and researcher at the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology at the Autonomous University of Barcelona (UAB), who explained the application of biosciences in obtaining new drugs and antibiotics; continued with the intervention of Emilio García Fidalgo, assistant professor doctor at the University of the Balearic Islands (UIB), who overturned the myths of artificial intelligence (AI) with his talk “Beyond fiction: Robotics and AI to transform the world”, and ended with a talk by Adrián García, El Físico Barbudo, communications technician at the Institute of Interdisciplinary Physics and Complex Systems (IFISC, UIB-CSIC), who spoke about interdisciplinary physics. Also, during the same morning, a round table of university students took place, during which students opting for higher studies were able to resolve doubts regarding future professions in STEM subjects.

In the afternoon, the talks continued with the participation of Karina Gibert, professor and director of the Intelligent Data Science and Artificial Intelligence research centre (UPC), who spoke about artificial intelligence beyond ChatGPT and machine learning. Next, Luis Velasco, chief data architect at Google, showed how to make a machine learning model. The last presentation featured Marta P. Estarellas, CEO at Qilimanjaro Tech, who showed how quantum computers are designed. Finally, the territorial delegate of the Bit Foundation in Menorca, José María Seguí, brought this seventh edition to a close by thanking the organisation for its work and the participation of the speakers and attendees, and reminded the audience that the CentreBit Menorca “is a hub of creativity, innovation and new entrepreneurial opportunities”.

Google Developers Group Menorca (GDG Menorca) is a non-profit community of technology stakeholders and developers to disseminate new technologies to create community and learning. Together with the Bit Foundation and the Consell Insular de Menorca, it organises this event to bring STEM knowledge to Menorcans and the Balearic society as a whole.