90th ICREA BREAKFAST COLLOQUIUM - Please dispose after use: Designing sustainable single-use sensing devices in a circular economy
Speakers: ICREA Research Professor Neus Sabaté & Dr. Juan Pablo Esquivel, CSIC Tenured Scientist (both from Institut de Microelectrònica de Barcelona - CSIC)
When: 21st of January 2020, 9:00h
Where: Hotel Catalonia Plaza Catalunya, Bergara, 11, 08002 Barcelona
Abstract:
Since the beginning of our century, we have got used to throwing away our electronic devices and replace them with much modern and updated versions every couple of years. This has a tremendous environmental impact that is often disregarded. One of the components that is incorrectly discarded is also one the most hazardous: the battery. The most alarming factor is that batteries use and consumption is expected to rise significantly in the following years due to the growth of small-sized portable appliances in the internet-of-things scenario.
In view of this perspective, tightened environmental laws and increased provisions for recycling infrastructures (primary battery collection and processing) are urgently needed. However, this scenario is not conducive in the short-term in developing economies due to the high cost and complexity of implementation. Indeed, this may not be environmentally sustainable even for developed economies either; building-up costly and energy-consuming recycling plants to take care of the batteries generated along the linear “take-make-dispose” path followed traditionally since the early days of industrialization entails a huge waste of natural resources, energy and labour. In this sense, the re-thinking of energy sources together with the electronic components that will be powered in a way that fits into a circular economy appears to be a promising path to meet the technological needs of current society without compromising future generations.
The talk will address the solutions proposed by Sabate and Esquivel to supply sustainable energy to small-sized electronic products and to develop digital sensing devices with minimal electronic content as an example of the new generation of sustainable devices to come.
The ICREA colloquia are a great way to learn about remote fields of research from our best experts. We usually have two speakers, who offer their opinions on the same subject from very different angles. They are open to all ICREAs and their guests.
AdvCompBio - A conference to promote women's research in computational biology
The international congress Advances in Computational Biology - Fostering collaboration among women scientists, one of the activities within the programme Bioinfo4Women of the BSC, will be held in Barcelona on the 28th and 29th of November 2019.
All the speakers will be women but the event, an affiliated conference of the International Society of Computational Biology (ISCB), will be open to everyone. Mar Albà is one of the organisers, Núria López-Bigas will chair one of the track sessions, and Natasa Przulj will be one of the keynote speakers, the three of them are ICREA Research Professors. Click on committees & keynote speakers for further information.
89th ICREA BREAKFAST COLLOQUIUM - Can green cities be healthy and just?
Speaker: ICREA Research Professor Isabelle Anguelovski from UAB and Dr. Helen Cole, from the Barcelona Laboratory for Urban Environmental Justice and Sustainability (BCNUEJ).
When: 12th of November 2019, 9:00h
Where: Hotel Catalonia Plaza Catalunya, Bergara, 11, 08002 Barcelona
Abstract:
Our research examines processes and dynamics that lead to more just, resilient, healthy, and sustainable cities, bringing together theory and methods from urban planning, public policy, urban and environmental sociology, urban geography and public health. We analyze the extent to which urban plans and policy decisions contribute to more just, resilient, healthy, and sustainable cities, and how community groups in distressed neighborhoods contest the existence, creation, or exacerbation of environmental inequities as a result of urban (re)development processes and policies.
Our presentation will introduce the field of urban environmental justice and green gentrification, present results from our recent studies on environmental and health inequities in cities of the global North, and draw some policy and planning implications for municipalities.
The ICREA colloquia are a great way to learn about remote fields of research from our best experts. We usually have two speakers, who offer their opinions on the same subject from very different angles. They are open to all ICREAs and their guests.
88th ICREA BREAKFAST COLLOQUIUM - Rock Art and Human Evolution
Speakers: ICREA Research Professors Inés Domingo and João Zilhao (both from the UB)
When: 8th of October 2019, 9:00h
Where: Hotel Catalonia Plaza Catalunya, Bergara, 11, 08002 Barcelona
Abstract:
When and where did humans develop the capacity to communicate through symbols? Was symbolism recent, and unique to anatomically modern humans? Or did our more remote ancestors already possess a similar capacity? What can be termed as the earliest evidence of symbolism? The use of colour? Personal adornments? Visual arts? Figurative representation?
For nearly a century, the use of visual symbols to store and communicate information has been considered as one of the definitory features of the human species. Indeed, evidence gathered over the last two decades shows that the feature can now be documented much earlier than hitherto thought, including among the Neandertal peoples of Eurasia.
Using two different but complementary perspectives, archaeology and ethnoarchaeology (working with Indigenous people from Arnhem Land, Australia), ICREA Research Professors João Zilhão and Inés Domingo will explore these and other hot issues in current debates on what it means to be “human”.
The ICREA colloquia are a great way to learn about remote fields of research from our best experts. We usually have two speakers, who offer their opinions on the same subject from very different angles. They are open to all ICREAs and their guests.
