From March 19 to 21, thousands of people came to La Nave for their annual appointment with science: the Madrid es Ciencia Fair. Organized by the Fundación para el Conocimiento madri+d, the event celebrated its 15th edition this year. Despite the bold decision to change venues, the fair once again consolidated its role as a meeting point between research institutes and the scientific work carried out in educational centers across Madrid.
Over the course of three days, researchers from IMDEA Software Institute took part in a shared stand with the other six centers in the IMDEA Institutes Network. There, they introduced visitors, from primary school students to entire families, to key concepts in computer science such as algorithms, logic, and cryptography through interactive demonstrations.
The fair was inaugurated by the President of the Community of Madrid, Isabel Díaz Ayuso. The IMDEA stand also received a visit from the new Regional Minister for Education, Science and Universities, Mercedes Zarzalejo, who had the opportunity to explore some of the demonstrations presented.
Among the activities organized by IMDEA Software researchers were interactive challenges designed to explain in a simple way how algorithms, artificial intelligence, and cryptography work. Visitors experimented with decision trees, tried classical encryption methods, solved the Towers of Hanoi puzzle, and participated in collaborative activities showing how joint computations can be performed without revealing private information.
The activities were presented and explained by a large group of institute researchers: Antonio Fernández, Marcos Grandury, Elvira Moreno, Juan Romanos, Marco Ciccalé, Stephan Havermans, Alessio Ferrarini, Pablo Cartellanos, Panagiotis Pennas, Ignacio Ballesteros, Manuel Carro, Daniel Jurjo, Niki Vazou, Konstantinos Papaioannou and Pierre Ganty. In addition, Aleks Nanevsky and David Martínez helped design and refine some of the activities presented.
At IMDEA Software, we are very proud of the work carried out by our researchers during this past month, and the final result speaks for itself. We believe that the benefits of scientific research should reach all kinds of audiences. Events like this provide a valuable opportunity to bring our science closer to the public.
