The Research Center in Information and Communication Technologies (CITIC) of the University of A Coruña (UDC) participated this past Saturday, May 10, in a new edition of Street Science Day, held in Santa Margarita Park in A Coruña.

Throughout the day, Tent 60 became a meeting space for science, inclusion, and the public. In the morning, attendees took part in a bioinformatics workshop led by Lucía Martínez Rodríguez, Carlos Fernández Lozano, and Diego Fernández Edreira, where key concepts of this emerging discipline were explored. A virtual reality proposal designed to support cognitive skills in people with intellectual disabilities was also presented, developed by Iago Fernández Garrido.

Another featured activity was a demonstration of an adapted system to play the video game Mario Kart, in which the controller can be operated using upper body or head movements, presented by Paula de Santos Dorrego. Alongside this initiative, Jorge Rivadulla Brey showcased the personalized game “Compra con-migo”, designed to facilitate learning in the field of disability.

Throughout the entire day, visitors could interact with various demonstrations such as painting with a head support device, several technological challenges developed within the Talentos Inclusivos initiative — including a candle blower, a sensory table, and an adapted chess set — as well as educational displays such as posters about sensors and green artificial intelligence. Additionally, CITIC’s robot dog drew the attention of both children and adults, sparking great curiosity.

In the afternoon, the activities continued with proposals from Olga Zamaraeva, Alberto Muñoz Ortiz, and Francisco Prado Valiño, who led the session “Can a machine understand humor, irony, or poetry?”, inviting reflection on the limits of language and artificial intelligence. Paula Castro Castro and Adriana Dapena Janeiro offered a workshop on circuits and sensors, while Daniel García González and Francisco Rey Vizoso presented a hands-on introduction to green AI, focused on sustainable technological development. Attendees also had the chance to experiment with a virtual reality application for hand rehabilitation with Andrea Caíña dos Santos, and to close the day with the immersive experience “Gaia Space Mission”, led by Xabier Pérez Couto, which allowed participants to explore astronomical objects studied by this European Space Agency mission through a scale model and VR goggles.

CITIC’s participation in this event reflects its strong commitment to open, accessible science with a social mission. We thank the Street Science Day organizers and everyone who joined us to share this day. We will continue working to bring research closer to society, through an inclusive, collaborative, and transformative approach.

Street Science Day is organized by the Coruñan Scientific Museums – City Council of A Coruña, the Friends of the House of Sciences Association, and the EMALCSA-UDC Chair, with the support of the Spanish Foundation for Science and Technology – Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities, and the Provincial Council of A Coruña.