On 31st May, Instituto Superior Técnico welcomed more than 90 guests from Senior Universities at Taguspark campus. After three editions, the Social Responsibility Day had once again a positive impact on the Técnico community.
From 2 p.m. to 4 p.m., the senior universities shared some of their activities and projects, namely minstrels, dance, literature, music and singing. Among the guests were the Universidade Nova Atena (Senior University of Linda-a-Velha), Senior University of Oeiras, Senior University of Carnaxide and Queijas (USCQAL) and Senior University of Almada (USALMA). Vanda Pinto, representative of Instituto São João de Deus, presented the project “Razões de Sobra”, which aims to provide caregivers of people with dementia with a short break from caregiving.
“It’s a cool and different activity”, shared Leonor, a 1st year Industrial Engineering and Management student, while she was watching a performance by Cavaquinhos from the University of Almada. “I have never seen other faculties promoting this kind of initiative and inviting Senior Universities. It shows that we can always learn!”.
The last performance of the day was the responsibility of Universidade NOVA ATENA. The audience had the opportunity to participate in a dance choreography. With several different generations involved, the session ended with much laughter, enthusiasm and some fatigue after dancing.
In the afternoon, the participants shared experiences. “I’m 89 years old and I’m still here, walking around and participating in all these activities!”, said Estela, from the Senior University of Almada. “It was very beautiful, I really enjoyed it. You can invite us more often!”.
Finally, the participants had the opportunity to learn more about artificial intelligence and robotics with Ali Kordia, a researcher at the Intelligent Agents and Synthetic Characters Group (GAIPS), a project developed at the Instituto de Engenharia de Sistemas e Computadores, Investigação e Desenvolvimento em Lisboa (INESC-ID). In one of the boards where participants could leave their feedback and share their opinion about the event, one could read: “We are always learning! Who would have thought I’d be alive to see this happen? Science is of enormous importance! Thank you!”.
