Dear Community,

This is the sixth week of confinement that we have had to live, with a particular St. George’s Day very different from the usual ones. The last days had arrived us emotionally contradictory news that talk in one hand of a gradual desconfinement and on the other hand a recovery of the full normality which is expected still too far away. On the positive side, we look with joy that the number of patients hospital discharges affected by COVID-19 grows, but on the other side we still have companions in a very delicate situation and of whom we cannot forget. As always the beginning of this message wants to transmit our strength and support to all the people affected.

The week has been quite active and events have been taken place at the School that involved all the collectives in our community in small or large usual acts (classes, meetings, exams...) or exceptional, as our first online Standing Commission of the past Wednesday. I want to highlight a few.

Throughout the week, the Addenda to the Teaching Guides of which I talked about last week are being collected and that includes the changes to the subjects of the spring term. There is time until this Sunday, April 26, to send them to sotsdirectora.eseiaat.algaba@upc.edu, so that they can be validated and returned to the Subjects Coordinations’ that must be posted at ATENEA next week (deadline April 30) I want to thank the teachers for how quickly they are sending the information.

On Tuesday it was held a virtual meeting with all the School’s Administration and Services Staff with about 120 attendees, which served to reconnect us in the distance and give us virtual encouragement. I took this opportunity to personally thank the professionalism, the predisposition and the good work that is being done and that allows day after day, that many of the face-to-face processes that the School has, they haven’t stopped during this exceptional period. Today, once again, I publicly thank.

The bulk of the synchronous partial exams, which have not been replaced by other activities, began on Thursday and will last until April 30. I wish encouragement, strength, and also tranquility to the students being assessed, in order to demonstrate what they have learned, despite the current situation. I also ask for empathy and patience from everyone in order to resolve any hypothetical mismatch that may arise during the tests.

Also in the ambit of evaluation, I remind that next Monday, April 27 is the deadline for submitting the Final Degree or Master Studies Research (TFG/TFM) of the extraordinary call, in other words, those who were not able to defend it las January-February. Remember that is necessary that the directors give their approval in order to proceed with the delivery. The defense process will begin next week and we would like to inform that we will soon provide with the information about the virtual defense procedure for the students, directors, and court members. However, remember that any specific doubts you may have about the final works can be conveyed through the respective coordinators (tutorial.tfg@upc.edu i tutoria.tfm.eseiaat@upc.edu).

I thank the Students´ Delegation for the students’ survey initiative from which they have us arrive the second data collection, capturing the change to remote teaching. Comparing with the first one (that was made at the beginning of the confinement) the situation, in an obviously way, has globally improve and demonstrates that with the collective effort at our School we have had start this type of extraordinary teaching. Now it is time to analyze the results so we can contrast the evidences and solve specific problems.

At this point, I want you to remind that any member of our community, (whether PDI, PAZ or Student) who has any technical limitation in the development of their duties, can let us know as soon possible at direccio.eseiaat@upc.edu and we will look for a solution within our possibilities.

I take the opportunity to comment that the School has opened a new communication channel: a Telegram channel with the ESEIAAT_UPC profile. To access to it, you must download the App and subscribe to the profile. The peculiarity of this channel is that it is completely voluntary and arises with the intention to communicate instantly important news to the community (very similar to the WhatsApp app). We believe that it could be very useful for future emergency moments where the information can vary in a matter of hours and an official informative reference is needed. We encourage you to sign up!

Now comes the final reflection. The State of Alarm has been extended again this week and it looks like it’s all over. The current situation tests the solidity and agility of the different institutions in the country. The entire ESEIAAT community, both individually and collectively, make an immense daily effort to stabilize the shocks, adapting to the changing circumstances that are emerging. I sincerely believe that everyone is giving their best in very difficult times, even though we may not be aware of it while we are immersed in our daily struggle.

I am very proud of the community’s reaction to which I have the honor to be able to represent. Thank you all, from all my heart.

Please stay safe!

Hugs,

Xavier Roca

ESEIAAT’s Director