CUNEF Universidad celebrates Science and Innovation Week with robots, drones and a programming and mathematics escape room

This Wednesday, 12 November, the School of Engineering hosted “When software comes alive: Introduction to modern robotics”, a complementary activity for undergraduate students organised in the context of the Madrid Science and Innovation Week. The session featured a presentation by Alejandro Paredero, Senior DevSecOps Engineer at Gilat Satellite Networks and professor of the Department of Quantitative Methods at CUNEF Universidad.

During the activity, Professor Paredero explained how robotics has become part of our day to day and how machines are capable of taking in their environment, making decisions and acting. He also pointed out that a robotic revolution is currently taking place in fields like medicine, industry or ocean and space exploration, among others.

Robots, he noted, are less complex than they seem; they are divided into five key parts: sensors, actuators, power sources, control systems, and software, adding that robotics combines three areas of expertise: mechanics, electronics and computing.

During the session, students saw first-hand different uses for robots: one robot identified the objects it captured with its camera, while another, controlled by the professor using a joystick, moved perpendicularly and horizontally, without the need to turn.

Finally, Paredero informed interested students about what they needed to do to start working in robotics, and listed job opportunities. For her part, Victoria López, Director of the School of Engineering, talked to the students about the new Minor in Robotics, which CUNEF Universidad will start offering as of AY 2026–27, aimed especially at the students of the Bachelor in Computer Engineering.

Also on Wednesday, November 12, the School of Engineering organised the workshop “Drones and Robots, how do they work?” and an escape room on “Programming and Mathematics”, both as part of the Science and Innovation Week. The workshop featured Alejandro Paredero and Carlos Rafael Cotelo Oñate, professor of the Department of Quantitative Methods at CUNEF Universidad. The escape room was led by María Soledad Espinosa Ruiz, professor of the Department of Quantitative Methods at CUNEF Universidad, who gave out prizes to the three student teams with the best scores.