KEYNOTE SPEAKER | MAY 16 | 13:15 -14:00
Dr. Núria Salán
TEACHER AND DEPUTY DIRECTOR ESEIAAT-UPC | PRESIDENT SOCIEDAD CATALANA DE TECNOLOGIA (SCT-IEC)
Session: (In)visible ingenuity
This historical journey shows and demonstrates that women and their milestones have enjoyed very little visibility. Learning about and recognising these people is key to creating models that encourage professional pursuits. This situation is directly related to the lack of professional pursuits that has thus far led to a large gap between boys and girls in STEAM. A talk that will make you think…
With a PhD in Materials, Núria Salán is an expert in metallurgy and specialised in stainless steel, hard metals and technical coatings. She teaches classes for the Industrial Engineering, Aeronautical Engineering and Industrial Organisation Engineering degree programmes at the UPC, where she has published several articles. She is currently involved in a European project to design and characterise hard metal.
Salán is a key figure in the field of scientific dissemination, in mentoring for female ICT students and in equality plans (she coordinated the UPC gender programme from its creation until mid-2015), as she travels to schools in Catalonia explaining her professional environment and giving visibility to female engineers that “history has hidden in textbooks”. One important inventor in history to which she calls attention is Hedy Lamarr, the inventor of wireless connections that have enabled GPS, Bluetooth and Wi-Fi connections.
She is also president of the Catalan Society of Technology. She has received the Woman and Technology award from the Orange Foundation for her work in brining technology and social innovation closer to pre-university students.