After four months of theoretical and practical training, the 20 young people who participated in the “Smart City” and “Game Creation” training courses, presented last Sunday, February 6, their learning outcomes.
The presentation ceremony took place at Centro Cultural Alternativo – Nirvana Studios, in Barcarena, for a limited audience, and was live streamed on the Official Facebook Page of the Oeiras City Hall.
More than 80 young people who participated in the 3rd edition of “Experimenta-te” presented their learning outcomes in the fields of Arts, Technology and Know-how. The audience had the opportunity to see, experience, hear and taste a little bit of everything that was done during the training courses, such as music, circus, make-up, photography, cooking and games.
The 12 trainees and trainers of “Game Creation” showed their outcomes with great enthusiasm and explained how they designed and developed the different games during the 10 sessions of the course.
“It was a new experience and I think it was great. All students were amazing and self-taught. They have a lot of passion for gaming, just like me, and I think we have managed to create a very good atmosphere so that each one could explore the different activities”, says Miguel Seabra, trainer of “Game Creation”.
“Smart City” comprised 11 training sessions, where the trainees were challenged to create a smart city from concepts of electronics, programming and 3D modelling. The trainees built an automated city, monitored and managed by sensors and actuators.
“The Smart City consists of a power plant that controls both lampposts and traffic lights. Almost everything we have here, with the exception of the rail, was made with 3D printed molds and most of the modelling process was done by our students”, says Diogo Ralo, trainer of “Smart City”.
“I really enjoyed the course. I learned a lot of new things, such as programming and soldering. Quite honestly this is something that I want to do in the future”, says Matilde Anjos, one of the students who attended the course.
The IST Taguspark team responsible for “Experimenta-te” highlight the positive outcome of the project despite the unprecedented constraints linked to the pandemic situation. “All participants, including those who were isolated some time, stayed committed and focused on the different tasks”, says Sónia Gil.
The course certificates were delivered by Pedro Patacho, Councillor of the Oeiras City Hall for Education, Science and Youth, who stressed that it is becoming increasingly evident that the future of education itself lies in different types of collaboration, such as teachers/other professionals, schools/other institutions, formal educational contexts / non-formal educational contexts, which is the case of this project.
The 3rd edition of “Experimenta-te” was considered a successful event. Registration for the 2022 edition is scheduled to start this February. IST Taguspark will participate in the 4th edition, which will once again include “Smart City” and “Game Creation”, and will also include an activity that will teach how to build a robot. The three activities are part of the “Engenharia para Todos” (“Engineering for All”) project funded by the Oeiras City Hall.
“Experimenta-te” was launched in 2018 and it has provided training to hundreds of young people, aged between 13 and 17, in the fields of Arts, Technology and Know-how.
