In Valle del Cauca they inaugurate the first virtual reality laboratory - Cali - Colombia

To advance in inclusive education, Valle del Cauca becomes a promoter of the inauguration of the first Latin American virtual reality laboratory for children with visual and hearing limitations; in addition to being the space that will provide the installation of an international scientific colloquium.

The opening of the laboratory and the realization of the conservatory initiates the monday 28 February at the Institute for Blind and Deaf Children of Cali, in the second stage of the collaborative project between Colombia and Quebec (Canada): “Narrative, virtual reality and sensory deficiencies”.

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The research is made up the Institute for Blind and Deaf Children, the Université de Sherbrooke de Québec, the Autonomous University of Bucaramanga and the Universidad Javeriana Cali. The team will be responsible for generating educational spaces for children with visual and hearing disabilities.

It should be noted that the initiative was born for the first time in Colombia, but unlike the other countries that had already been working in favor of education with virtual realityin this case, in the capital of the Valley this proposal reaches children with sensory limitations, for the evaluation and cognitive intervention of his training.

It is stipulated that the investment of this study has a cost of 80,000 dollars, that is to say around 320 million pesos, which will be financed by the Quebec Society and Culture Research Fund.

The experts define the project as a space to take advantage of the wealth of new technologies in augmented reality and develop forms of narratives that facilitate learning to read and write.

“The production of protocols for the virtual reality scenarios will be made for the staging of the stories, the evaluation and development of the processes and the educational intervention,” said doctor Pedro Pablo Perea, general director of the Cali institution.

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In this way, through four stages they hope that the project will be successful.

“The creation of digital multisensory prototypes, creation of stories for children, staging of 5 stories with the help of virtual reality and the validation of stories through the DELPHI method (experts who validate indicators to measure the impact of research )”.

In addition, they have stipulated the use of adequate equipment to fulfill the function of the experience, with glasses and hearing and visual aids.

“Lenses that allow viewing holograms and supports to magnify the tactile experience of attendees,” added Perea.

“Lenses that allow viewing holograms and supports to magnify the tactile experience of attendees”

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Additionally, the director explained that the technological methods will be used for the evaluation of the processes that have to do with the development of the discernible abilities.

“The recognition of objects, abilities to orient oneself in space and coordinate eye or hand movements, for example: to build figures with Legos or blocks”, he mentioned.

Likewise, a neuropsychological intervention program and educational studies on neurovisual disorders will begin to be implemented, where Colombia will be the first promoter of such a task.

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An international scientific colloquium

The event that brings together specialists and interdisciplinary researchers will take place during the 2, 3 and 4 of March at the Javeriana University of Cali.

The purpose is to disseminate knowledge about narrative, the role of art and the use of virtual reality in education, in order to study the rehabilitation of children with sensory limitations and all kinds of brain disorders.

There will be the participation of Canadian, Spanish and Colombian researchers, specialized in visual arts, virtual reality, computer science, neuropsychology, speech therapy, occupational therapy and education.

Those who are interested in attending can do so in person or virtually with prior registration, through number 3218200, extension 8266.

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CALI

Southern Chile, a natural laboratory to combat climate change | outstanding | Spanish edition

Punta Arenas, Chile, Jan 24 (EFE).- Punta Arenas, a city on the Strait of Magellan in the far south of Chile, used to be a contributor to rising global temperatures due to its coal mining fields.

But today, thanks to the development of green hydrogen plants and sensors to detect global warming, it has become a natural laboratory to combat climate change as part of a project by the International Antarctic Center.

“Magellan is a place where the past, present and future of scientific research on issues such as climate change, biodiversity and sustainable economy meet,” Chile’s minister of science, technology and innovation, Andrés Couve, tells Efe.

As well as being a gateway to Antarctica, Magellan’s rich biodiversity makes it the ideal place for scientists.

Cetaceans, penguins, pumas and a myriad of microscopic life make up its landscape, attracting experts from all over the world.

“It is a pristine ecosystem, the only place in the world without stressors for fauna and flora such as pollution, over-exploitation of soil or the massive use of pesticides,” says Elie Poulin, a French researcher at the Millennium Institute for Biodiversity of Antarctic Ecosystems.

The area’s biodiversity is being used to anticipate global warming in a pioneering research on the only colony of King penguins on the American continent, in Tierra del Fuego, south of Punta Arenas.

“Magellan is an extraordinary geographical experiment where the Pacific Ocean, the Atlantic Ocean and the Antarctic Ocean meet, but at the same time it is a very fragile place that is susceptible to climate change,” Valeria Souza, a biologist from the National Autonomous University of Mexico and leader of the study, tells Efe.

Souza analyzes the microbes that live on the feathers of the King penguins.

“The microbes react to changes in the temperature and salinity before the animals themselves. In this way, they warn us of signs of climate change before the rest of us can feel them,” she says.

The strong winds of Chilean Patagonia are another ingredient that is guiding the region to become a forerunner in the fight against climate change.

With wind speeds of over 90 kilometers per hour, the currents are an ideal source of clean green hydrogen and wind power.

Latin America’s largest green hydrogen fuel plant is currently being built near Punta Arenas, aiming to produce 130,000 liters of green fuel per year.

“We have all the ingredients to make this country a leading producer of green hydrogen worldwide and an engine to curb climate change,” Chile’s minister of energy and mining, Juan Carlos Jobet, said. EFE