An invitation to rediscover the social role of scientific research, the common good of society
July 23, 2020 - Today the Minister of University and Research Gaetano Manfredi visited theUniversità Campus Bio-Medico di Roma, welcomed by the president Felice Barela and by the rector Raffaele Calabrò. An opportunity to illustrate the teaching solutions adopted by the University to guarantee maximum safety for students in the coming months, allowing them to experience in-person lessons integrated with the use of online platforms from the resumption in September.
During the day, some of the research activities carried out within the University were illustrated to the Minister, in particular the work carried out in the NEXT laboratories (Neurophysiology and Neuroengineering of Human-Technology Interaction), in those of Neurology, Orthopedics, Physiatry and Robotics. The visit continued at the Research Units of Biomedical Measurements and Instrumentation, Automation, Computer Science, Physics, Tissue Engineering and in the laboratories of the Departmental Faculty of Science and Technology for Man and the Environment, all involved in Italian and international projects.
"L 'Università Campus Bio-Medico di Roma has shown that it has a great ability to network, with other universities but also with research centres - Minister Manfredi said - The experience we have had of Covid has taught us that this is a fundamental value, as is the ability to know how to combine specialist skills with traditional skills. The health crisis and its terrible implications have also made another reflection more urgent (in reality necessary already before the emergency), namely the opportunity to push the research system towards a reconfiguration of its objectives and tools, to broaden the effectiveness of its impact on society, the economy, communities and the country system as a whole. Scientific research will be rediscovered as a common good, widespread among society. In this sense, the projects launched to date by the Campus Bio-Medico in agreement with Inail and Cnr are the concrete demonstration of how much university and research can and must generate social repercussions".
"The visit of Minister Manfredi - commented the rector Raffaele Calabrò - comes at a crucial moment in the life of Italian universities, i The coming months will be particularly challenging for a university like ours which strongly believes in the direct relationship between students and teachers and in teaching based on human relationships, the exchange of skills and direct experience in hospitals and laboratories. We are remodeling our spaces to guarantee the students of our 12 degree courses 70 percent face-to-face teaching and thanks to a specially designed shift schedule we will allow our students to continue their studies by following the lessons in the classroom, also using the distance learning and keeping the learning experience in the university campus facilities almost intact. This applies not only to future doctors but also to all students of the degree courses in Engineering and in Science and Technology for Man and the Environment”.
In this sense, for the restart in phase 3, the University has decided to focus on new technologies for teaching, with the acquisition of hardware and software tools for laboratory, classroom or internship activities. Also provided are kits for robotics activities, IoT devices for automation and safety exercises, simulation software for electronic circuits, network equipment for studying computer networks, cloud computing hours for artificial intelligence exercises as well as a software for simulating laboratory experiences in the chemical-biological, environmental and food technology areas.
After the meeting with the deans of the three faculties of Medicine and Surgery, Engineering and Science and Technology for Man and the Environment and the greetings of the presidents of the National Research Council, Massimo Inguscio and of INAIL, Franco Bettoni, Minister Manfredi attended the signing of two important documents: the agreement for new projects between Ucbm and the INAIL Prosthesis Center and the convention CNR-UCBM for the new PhD course of Artificial Intelligence for Health and Life Sciences coordinated byUniversità Campus Bio-Medico di Roma.
