Galicia exhibits its special “Silicon Valley” at the FP

“The center was born because Galicia had been working on applied innovation in VET for years and needed to take a new step,” he explains. Eugenia Pérez, general director of Professional Training, to ABC during a visit to the center. Since 2012, remember, the Galician centers have participated in annual calls for projects – “challenges” – in collaboration with companies. The creation of Eduardo Barreiros meant concentrate and amplify this effort in a space designed not only for research, but also for the transfer of results and the training of teachers in emerging technologies.

The building itself is a statement of intent. Rehabilitated with criteria of efficiency and versatility – rewarded by the College of Architects -, it has renewable energies, green roofs and an open design that allows spaces to be reconfigured according to the needs of each project. “We wanted a center capable of adapting to whatever happens,” he summarizes. Susi Carnero, its director. “Innovate not only what is done inside, but also the concept of the building itself.” The activity is divided into four main areas: innovation and applied research, industrial entrepreneurship, highly specialized training and internationalization.

In the first many projects are deployed ranging from industrial cybersecurity to biotechnology, including additional ways of generating energy in an electric vehicle – from the pressure of the wheels to the air entering through the turbines – or multisensory gastronomy, based on recreating the environments of designations of origin by adjusting temperatures, smells and virtual landscapes. In the space dedicated to the first point, IT security, a cyber attack station and a control center coexist which monitors cases of real threats occurring on a global scale. The novelty lies in the ability not only to experiment with computer attacks, but also to verify their real impact on an industrial production chain and measure it in a digital twin. “Today, a cyberattack not only steals data, it can also shut down an entire factory,” says Carnero. And the objective is to train in prevention, detection and intervention, by reproducing real scenarios in the same building.

In biotechnology, the center works on projects closely linked to the strategic sectors of the Galician panorama. One is the development of a virtual cytometer applied to the wine industry, which will make it possible to train artificial intelligence capable of analyzing oenological parameters, such as bacteria levels, and providing predictive results to cellars. Another studies the properties of mud from the pottery town of Niñodaguia and Galician hot springs for cosmetic treatments, in collaboration with businesses and the tourism sector. Like the rest of their catalog, these “are projects intended to be transferred to the productive fabric”, underlines Eugenia Pérez.

Eduardo Barreiros is not a center visited periodically by students. Its function is, on the one hand, to offer students ways to develop your business at your own pace; and, on the other hand, train teachers in highly specialized fields and provide them with tools that move later towards their centers. One of the clearest examples is the development of simulators equipped with artificial intelligence for learning technical vocabulary in English, adapted to each professional family.

The application allows you to recreate real situations – a workshop, a restaurant, a consultation – in which Students interact with avatars that react depending on their position, their attitude or the vocabulary they use. The system analyzes grammar, pronunciation and fluency and provides personalized feedback. “There is no platform for learning professional English by professional training sectors,” explains Carnero, despite the importance of integrating this differentiation: “We do not speak in the same way with a client as with a patient.” The logic is the same as in other projects: confront the student with real problems which is difficult to reproduce in a conventional classroom. “It increases motivation and fluidity, they let go,” confirm its developers.

From prototype to business

Another pillar of the center is the area of ​​industrial entrepreneurship. Thanks to the InnovaTech FP program, companies launch technological challenges that students develop with the support of the center’s advisors. The result: 24 research axes in progress, the first patent filed since the FP to the Spanish Patent and Trademark Office and to the business creation like Escoitatech or RQR, already consolidated. “Support doesn’t stop at the prototype,” says Carnero. “We analyze whether it’s patentable, we manage the protection and we help establish the business.” The center is also working on a pioneering decree to regulate industrial and intellectual property in the Galician FP, a regulatory gap that until now was only covered by universities.

With more than 280 highly specialized training activities taught, 4,800 places and visits by delegations from other countries and autonomous communities, Eduardo Barreiros is becoming a national reference. “We do not know of any other professional training center that develops this combination of applied, methodological and international innovation,” declares its director. The challenge, they agree, is to continue to anticipate. “We need to stay ahead of the industry,” summarizes Carnero. “When companies ask for profiles, the MF must have trained them two years previously.”

Reaping Milestones

The center is only three years old, but already has many successes: a company already consolidated, another in development and nothing less than the first patent registered in Spain born in the FP system. Santiago Rodilla, María Eugenia López, Desiré Narciso and David Gallego, students of CIFP Valentín Paz Andrade, in Vigo, are the young promises who have progressed Netclean, a self-cleaning system for septic tank grids from rural areas.

The idea was born as an academic challenge posed by Viaqua, but it acquired a real dimension for them when the team was able to see how it works on the ground of a septic tank and the conditions in which many work in rural areas of Galicia. Direct contact with real cases allowed them to identify the impact of intense rain episodes and the lack of effective solutions in small, dispersed towns, where there are no advanced sanitation networks.

The team found that the main problem was the lack of automated monitoring and maintenance systems, forcing constant staff movements and making effective management difficult. “There were no sensors or remote monitoring; Very often, measures were taken when the problem already existed,” explains Santiago. in the first filtration grid, where the greatest quantity of waste accumulates solid and spills occur when it collapses. After approximately four months of work and continuous monitoring by the company and the Eduardo Barreiros Center, the project resulted in the registration of the patent as a utility model. “We never thought it would go this far,” admits the student. NOW, The team plans to start a business, encouraged by the interest that several entities are already showing in the development and commercialization of the system.